Mike Huckabee says the GOP is on women’s side. Readers say: Really?

Remember when Mike Huckabee was a folksy, refreshing alternative to the politically entrenched types he shared the stage with during those GOP debates before the 2008 election? An unashamed conservative he certainly was, but he was also nice enough.

Don’t feel bad if the memories have faded, given what he said this week about women not being able to “control their libidos” and having to rely on “Uncle Sugar” (a creepy reference to Uncle Sam, I guess) for birth control. Amazingly, Huckabee’s comments were in the larger context of trying to cast the Republican Party as the one on the side of women.

So, how’d Huckabee do? Did he win over any women who happen to be Times readers? Judging by the reaction so far: No.

Here’s what they have to say.

Julia Laraway of Santa Barbara sees some irony in Huckabee’s comments:“This morning as my daughter was reading the paper, she came upon the article regarding Huckabee’s comments on the ‘war on women.’ My daughter shared the story with her sister and me, and for the record, we were all appalled that he seems to think that he has the right to speak for us.

“While we discussed the idiocy of his words, it occurred to me that his comments regarding a woman’s libido were especially ironic, given the fact that his elderly, corpulent colleagues in the Republican Party seem to have an incredibly difficult time controlling their own libidos when bellied up to the table at the feast provided them by ‘Uncle Sugar.’

“Yet another reason to vote anything other than Republican.”

Long Beach resident Julie-Bethe Adele has a message for Republican women:

“The ‘war on women’ is nothing new, just tediously repeated.

“Huckabee apparently wants to keep the male Victorian mind-set that relegated women to either whore or Madonna status -- which included such male admonitions as calling for women to be ‘chaste, silent and obedient’ -- as he insults all women by insisting their right to insurance-paid prescription birth control be denied. I’ve heard no Republican man say the same for Viagra.

“Well, as an adamant anti-Republican woman, I think he might know where I’d like to tell him to go, but for all those Republican women, all I can say is keep your legs clamped tightly together, shut up and obey your Republican men because this, apparently, is what you want. Right?”

Arline M. Mathews of Chatsworth accepts the declaration of war:

“The war against women by Republicans continues unabated and was exacerbated by Huckabee, who threw a bomb when he stated that ‘women are smart, educated, intelligent, capable of doing anything anyone else can do.’

“Presumably the rest of us are unintelligent because according to him we believe that we are ‘helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government.’

“This comes after former Republican Rep. Todd Akin famously said, ‘If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.’ Republican Richard Mourdock was unequivocal when he said, ‘Even when life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.’

“He blames God. This is war.”

Los Angeles resident Patricia Mace remind Huckabee that men make babies too:

“I cannot believe what Huckabee said. In fact, I’m shocked.”

“I don’t usually bother to read this stuff, but maybe I should more often to remind myself of the battle women are having to fight daily and endlessly. Huckabee doesn’t seem to know it takes two to tango -- that a man impregnates a woman.

“Industry is vigorously pushing products like Cialis and Viagra all over the market, and at the same time men like Huckabee are pushing to withhold free and easy access to birth control from women. If men got pregnant and had to carry a baby, birth control would have been solved at the beginning of civilization.

“Opinions like Huckabee’s are unbelievable and unacceptable this day and age. Plus, it’s high time boys in school are taught how not to impregnate their girlfriends.”

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