Huckabee Mocks Gay Marriage "Ick Factor"

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee cites an "ick factor" in explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage in a new profile in The New Yorker. The potential 2012 presidential candidate also joked that he might support marriage equality if his only options were to have affairs with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and retired White House reporter Helen Thomas.

According to The Washington Post, in The New Yorker profile by Ariel Levy, Huckabee says, "We can get into the ick factor, but the fact is two men in a relationship, two women in a relationship, biologically, that doesn't work the same."

Huckabee, who previously compared same-sex marriage to incest and polygamy, also makes fun of Pelosi and Thomas, who retired this month amid controversy, to explain what would drive him to support marriage equality.

"At times, he seems unable to resist the force of his own funniness," writes Levy. "I joked with him once that I would write about his [fictitious] affair with Nancy Pelosi. He e-mailed back, 'The only thing worse than a torrid affair with sweet, sweet Nancy would be a torrid affair with Helen Thomas. If those were my only options, I'd probably be for same-sex marriage!'"

Read the complete profile from The New Yorker.