Mike Huckabee thinks Jay-Z is 'arguably' pimping Beyonce

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) apparently believes singer Beyonce's career is controlled by her husband, rapper Jay-Z, according to an excerpt from his latest book posted by U.S. News & World Report on Thursday.

"Beyonce is incredibly talented – gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing," Huckabee writes. "She is a terrific dancer – without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay-Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?"

Huckabee, who accused Republicans last October of giving up in the face of judicial rulings striking down state bans on marriage equality, seems to waver in his opposition to same-sex couples in the book, calling the conservative idea that it would destroy society "greatly overstated."

"Marriage as an institution is not so much threatened by same-sex couples as it is by heterosexuals' increasing indifference to it," he states in one chapter. However, he still expresses support for laws against same-sex marriages, saying "we simply don't have enough reliable accumulated data" to gauge the impact of repealing them.

At the same time, however, Huckabee -- who said two years ago that he was "neither a homophobe nor a hater" -- misrepresented bisexuality in his argument against same-sex marriages.

"Shouldn't a bisexual be able to have both a male and female spouse?" he wrote. "Wouldn't restricting that person access to both genders be denying the bisexual his or her marriage 'equality?'"

Huckabee announced last week that he was stepping down from his position at Fox News in order to gauge interest in a potential presidential campaign. A CNN survey of Iowa Republicans taken last September indicated early support for him, as he amassed support from 21 percent of supporters, the most among potential GOP candidates.

[h/t Right Wing Watch]