Children: puppies :: Mike Huckabee: smart

Well, I guess this means I won't be voting for Mike Huckabee. Which is a shame, given how much I was hoping to vote for a theocratic huckster.

Via TPM:

Presidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R), in an interview with a college magazine, said the country shouldn't "experiment" by allowing gay couples to adopt children.

"I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee told The Perspective, a magazine at The College New Jersey. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."

"Children are not puppies," he said. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"

Not puppies? But the Critter just goes crazy when we give him those bacon treats!

I'm in a very swear-y mood, but I will again refrain from using the words that leap readily to mind. Instead, I will defer to my colleagues in the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Besides, I've already spoken to this particular topic.)

Children deserve to know that their relationships with both of their parents are stable and legally recognized. This applies to all children, whether their parents are of the same or opposite sex. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes that a considerable body of professional literature provides evidence that children with parents who are homosexual can have the same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment, and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual.1–9 When 2 adults participate in parenting a child, they and the child deserve the serenity that comes with legal recognition.

Of course, Huckabee doesn't care that pediatricians have already weighed in on this. He doesn't care that we (pediatricians, not gay parents) already know that this is no "experiment," but simply loving parents raising kids. And we are well aware that children are not puppies, what with the career spent caring for them.

Huckabee doesn't care about the world as it is. He cares about his biases, his base, and his Q score, and he's willing to trash my family to keep himself in the news.