With New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, formerly the GOP's 2016 front runner, sidelined for now by the George Washington Bridge scandal, other Republican presidential hopefuls may feel it's safe to let their right-wing flags fly.

First up is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The past and perhaps future presidential candidate delivered a speech at a Republican National Committee winter meeting luncheon in Washington, D.C., Thursday that stunned even some members of his own party.

His goal was to turn the tables on the Democratic Party, which during the 2012 election cycle accused the Grand Old Party of conducting a war against women following a series of controversial comments about abortion, rape and women's rights that derailed more than one political ambition. Instead, Huckabee reminded everyone of those bad old days.

In his remarks the radio host argued that the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act is insulting to women because it suggests that they can't control their libidos or reproductive systems without government assistance, or "Uncle Sugar" as he put it.

“Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and for providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or reproductive system without the help of the government — then so be it," Huckabee said. "Let's have that discussion all across America, because women are far more than Democrats have made them to be."

He added that Republicans are waging a "war for women" so they can "be something other than victims of their gender."

Democrats couldn't resist the urge to punch back.

"If Huckabee's 'libido' comments are the GOP rebrand in action a year later, then all they’ve gotten is a year older," tweeted Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In addition, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is calling on political candidates who've received donations from Huckabee to return the money or risk being seen as endorsing his remarks.

The talk show host is "mystified," Fox News reports, by the liberal response to his speech and use of the word "libido."

“Women, like men, are sexual beings, but they are much more than that. To reduce either gender or any person to one aspect of their being is an unfair characterization," he said in an email to the network. "My point was to point out that Dems have put a laser-like focus on government funded birth control and given it more attention than cancer drugs.”

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(Photo: Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times/Landov)