HUCKABEE SAYS HE DIDN'T CALL WOMEN SLUTS. WHAT HE CALLED THEM WAS PASSIVE, GULLIBLE DUPES WHO ARE BRAINWASHED INTO SLUTTINESS.

It's been argued -- even in my comments -- that there was a big difference between what Mike Huckabee just said about women and what Rush Limbaugh said about Sandra Fluke two years ago. As one of my commenters put it:

Limbaugh said without qualification that Fluke is a slut and a prostitute. Huckabee is saying, Democrats patronize women and believe that they have uncontrollable libidos and need handouts.

Yeah, but he didn't just say that Democrats attempt to sell this line to women. He said that large numbers of women fall for it, and become dirty sluts as a result.

Here's what he said in context -- and I'm going to add some emphasis:

Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That's not a war on them; it's a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it, let's that that discussion all across America, because women are far more than Democrats have made them to be.

Notice who doesn't have agency here? Women. Women need to be saved; the way they'll be saved is by means of a Republican "war for them." Why do they need to be saved? Because Democrats are "making them believe that they are helpless" without government-provided birth control. Please note: Huckabee didn't say that Democrats are trying to persuade women that they're helpless without "Uncle Sugar" -- in other words, he's not saying that Democrats are insulting women's intelligence. He's saying that Democrats are making women believe this horrible thing; Democrats are poisoning women's tiny little minds with this, and women are helpless to resist the effects of the poison, which is having its intended effect.

Huckabee said something similar on his TV show last weekend -- here it is, again with emphasis:

The ridiculous claim that a pro-life position is a "war on women" is an insult to the millions of women who make extraordinary sacrifices for their children.

For Democrats to reduce women to beggars for cheap government funded birth control is demeaning to the women that I know who are far more complicated than their libido and the management of their reproductive system.

Notice that it's not all women who "are far more complicated than their libido" -- it's "the women that I know." It's the women in his tribe of social conservatives. Outside his tribe, Democrats quite successfully "reduce women to beggars" for contraception -- they don't try to do this, they actually do it. Outside his tribe, women have actually allowed this to happen to them (the cheap sluts).

Apart from the tone, the only difference between this and Rush Limbaugh's rants about Sandra Fluke is that Huckabee is saying that all pro-Democratic women are gullible, brainwashable tramps. He's extended the Sandra Fluke slur to millions of women.

Nicely, of course.