Huckabee finds that the national spotlight can be hot

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, unaccustomed to the national spotlight, is squirming under the glare.

With his bare-bones campaign, the former Arkansas governor has been considered an also-ran until recently, when he surged to a share of the lead in Iowa GOP surveys. Now he is in second place nationally among Republicans, behind Rudy Giuliani, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

The added scrutiny and pressure have resulted in a series of what look like beginner's mistakes:

• The Associated Press is reporting that Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk." As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by AP. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.

Huckabee said Saturday that his comments came at a time when "the AIDS crisis was just that — a crisis. We didn't know exactly all the details of how extensive it was going to be. There was just a real panic in this country. If I were making those same comments today, I might make them a little differently."

• Huckabee made a joke of his skimpy foreign policy experience, telling radio host Don Imus, "I may not be the expert as some people on foreign policy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night," a play on the hotel chain's commercials.

A spokesman for rival Fred Thompson sniffed that people want a commander in chief, not a court jester.

• Questioned by reporters this week, Huckabee was unaware of a report released by the White House saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program. President Bush had held a news conference about the report, and Democrats had focused on it in a debate.

Huckabee said he'd been campaigning so hard in Iowa, he hadn't had time to read the newspaper or be briefed. And he said that probably would happen again.

Thompson told reporters in Ohio on Friday: "For a presidential candidate not to know that or not to keep up with that I think is very surprising."

• Huckabee understated his role in the release of a rapist, Wayne DuMond, who murdered a woman after being paroled. Huckabee blames former Arkansas Govs. Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker for making the rapist eligible for parole.