Rape Case, AIDS Comment Dog Huckabee's Rise

As candidate Mike Huckabee pushes to the front of the GOP contender crowd, he is coming under fire for his record as Arkansas governor. Critics point to both Huckabee's push for the parole of a convicted rapist who murdered after being released and his call for people with AIDS to be quarantined, the New York Times reports.

In the first real test for the campaign of the new front-runner, the mother of a woman murdered by the rapist whose release from prison Huckabee advocated has flamed the candidate. Scrutiny is also coming to bear on Huckabee's 1992 comment that AIDS patients should be quarantined and that homosexuality poses a "dangerous public health risk."