News

Huckabee's Talking About Our Libidos Now

by Camille Bautista

"Libido" usually isn't a word thrown around in politics unless there's a scandal brewing, but former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee thought it was a good idea to talk about women's sex drive at a Republican Party meeting Thursday. In a criticism of the opposing party, Huckabee said Democrats think women are "helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in" and providing birth control because they believe "they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government." Huckabee then dug his hypocrisy hole deeper by saying the Republicans aren't launching a "war on women," but rather, a "war for women."

(Pause for forehead slap.)

"Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women," he said at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting luncheon.

Of course, it's important to note that Huckabee didn't say he believed women can't control their libidos, but that Democrats are in the wrong with their belief that we're "nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have the government provide for them birth control medication." The former presidential candidate continued his rally by saying Republicans have to "empower" women to be something other than victims of their gender:

Women I know are smart, educated, intelligent, capable of doing anything anyone else can do.

Gee, you don't say.

Perhaps it's a grasping-at-straws attempt to expand their demographic, but the Grand Old Party doesn't prove to have too keen of a track record when it comes to gender equality and contraception. In fact, the party is still trying to figure out how to talk to women, as Politico reported.

Speaker John Boehner is serious, too. His own top aides met recently with Republican staff to discuss how lawmakers should talk to female constituents.

“Let me put it this way, some of these guys have a lot to learn,” said a Republican staffer who attended the session in Boehner’s office.There have been “multiple sessions” with the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] where aides to incumbents were schooled in “messaging against women opponents,” one GOP aide said.

Just last week, Huckabee shared similar sentiments, saying Democrats reduce women to "beggars for cheap, government funded birth control." Of course, he isn't sorry about his latest comments.

“I'm always flattered when people on the far left manufacture a new version of being ‘offended,’” Huckabee told Fox News. “They can be quite creative in finding something that hurts their feelings.”

The thought that Republicans are fighting for women directly contradicts the party's agendas, which include a long-standing anti-choice platform, such as the current bill H.R.7. As Bustle's reported:

If passed, H.R. 7 would also prohibit any federal health care facility or doctor employed by the federal government from providing abortion. Plus, it would treat the District of Columbia as a federal area, a provision which has sparked the ire of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.
The exceptions to the bill? Abortion would be still a taxpayer issue if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if the woman’s health is in life-threatening danger. And while the bill might pass in the House, the Senate has enough Democrats to give the bill a screeching halt. Luckily.
Unfortunately, over 20 state legislatures are already passing similar bills of their own, otherwise known as "rape insurance bills." So even if the House Republicans can’t get H.R. 7 to pass, they have state legislatures to carry out their wishes.

Thanks guys, but I think we'd be better off fighting our own war.