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Huckabee Tries to Shoot the Messenger, But Wounds His Campaign Instead
The way that Mike Huckabee has handled the furor caused by the Huffington Post's coverage of his role in the release of Wayne Dumond, a serial rapist who went on to rape and kill at least one other woman, has been very revealing. And troubling.
It has exposed the dissembling reality behind the charming, articulate, more-preacher-than-politician facade - and has called into question both his judgment and his integrity.
Huckabee's response has been to fudge the truth, point the finger at everyone in sight, and -- that old standby -- blame the messenger.
Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning, Huckabee said of our story: "there are factual errors in what they have printed, some of it is outrageously incorrect." As an example of our factual errors, he cited... well, nothing. Not one.
He also claimed "the Huffington Post just doesn't want to give the whole story of what was going on." Really? Our original story on the Dumond case was over 4,000 words long and offered what even the American Spectator deemed a "detailed, convincingly irrefutable" presentation of the evidence in which HuffPost "backs up every single word." What's more, we included links to a number of never before published documents from the governor's own files.
Huckabee also claimed that in a follow up story "the Huffington Post totally misrepresented and just utterly distorted" the statements of Butch Reeves, his former top aide, who told us that, contrary to his former boss's claims, Huckabee had indeed influenced the parole board to reverse its previous rejection of Dumond's release. Huckabee described Reeves as "outraged," and promised that a statement from Reeves to that effect would be posted on mikehuckabee.com today. It just went up, ten hours later.
In the statement, Huckabee's campaign acknowledges the accuracy of the quotes attributed to Reeves in our story, but splits hairs over whether Huckabee's claims that Dumond's conviction was "outlandish" and "way out of bounds for his crime" (brutally raping a 17 year old cheerleader) were in the context of a discussion about "paroling" the rapist or in the context of a discussion about granting him "clemency" or "a pardon."
Even Huckabee appears vague on the semantics he now considers so important, having told Tim Russert in January: "They asked me did I think that he should be paroled, or something to that effect, and I simply said, "I think that his case has got to be given, you know, a serious look." The campaign now concedes he said more than that.
Most important, Huckabee made it clear to the parole board that he thought Dumond should be free. Does it really make any difference in terms of the tragic outcome whether Dumond would be freed through parole, clemency, or pardon? Isn't the point that Huckabee wanted him freed and that the board, which had recently voted 4-1 against paroling him, reversed course three months later and voted 4-1 for his release.
Tellingly, the Huckabee campaign chose to attack only the Huffington Post for our interpretation of Reeves' comments, even though our reporter Murray Waas was joined on the phone call with Reeves by Brian Ross, ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent, who filed a report offering the same interpretation. Yet there is no mention of ABC or Ross in the Huckabee campaign's press release. Why? Is it harder to dismiss ABC as "left-wing," and the charges as part of a partisan agenda?
But none of Huckabee's finger pointing (he mentioned Bill Clinton 12 times while discussing the Dumond case in his press conference on Tuesday) addresses the key questions raised by this tragic story: why Huckabee continued to favor the rapist's release, even after being sent police reports and wrenching letters from several of his victims detailing his horrific crimes (which included raping a woman while her 3 year old daughter lay beside her in bed); and why Huckabee, to this day, continues to insist "No one could have predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out" when we can read for ourselves the words of his victims predicting that the man would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.
"Dear Wayne," Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond, after having read the victims' letters. "My desire is that you be released from prison." And no amount of spinning can change that, or the conclusion that Huckabee allowed his judgment to be swayed by the bleating of a collection of right-wing zealots who put their hatred of Bill Clinton over the well being of the public (Dumond's victim was a distant relative of Clinton, and the daughter of a major Clinton donor).
In interviews, Huckabee claims that his stand on Dumond was clouded by a surfeit of compassion. In reality, it was clouded by a surfeit of cynical pandering to a group whose support he felt he needed.
And no amount of denials and mudslinging by Huckabee can make the devastating evidence -- and what that evidence reveals about him -- go away.
To see how other media outlets are covering the story, click on the following links:
New York Times' Caucus: Huckabee on Rapist and Murderer
TalkLeft: Mike Huckabee's Tangled Web
CBS News: Murder Victim's Mother Assails Huckabee
The Carpetbagger Report: Can Huckabee take a punch?
Tom Maguire: Good Bye, Mike
Atrios: Dumond
CNN: Huckabee's role in rapist's parole comes under fresh scrutiny
Daily Kos: Huckabee and Dumond
Boston Globe: Huckabee defends his role in Ark. rapist's parole case
Pandagon: Huck's little rapist/murderer problem
Bloomberg: Huckabee Says He Did Nothing Untoward in Case of Rapist Parole
Media Matters: NY Times, Wash. Post chronicled Huckabee's rise in polls -- but not recent developments in DuMond case
Matthew Yglesias: Dumond Docs
National Journal's Hotline: Hard Times For Huckabee
Powerline: Is Mike Huckabee Telling the Truth About his Role in the Dumond Affair?
Time's Swampland: Huckabee's Willie Horton
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
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Huckabee seems to be a total ignoramus as to foreign policy, history of the Middle East, etc., in the mold of George W. Bush, so the flatter he can fall on his face, the better it is for the US and the world.
After all the fuss the Republicans made over the release of a felon by Michael Dukakis back in 1988, you would think a smart politician would stay away from trying to influence a parole board. Of course no one knows what a parolee will do except that rapists do it again. Violent rapists become more violent. In this case the guy killed a women. If I were interested in voting for him, I would think again. Of course, I probably will not vote for any Republicans for national office because those who are in need to be purged.
Someone (Arianna) should compare Huckabee's decisions as to who to put to death against his decision on Dumond. Did he kill any Not Born Agains for lesser crimes than he pardoned this numbnut for?
Huckabee is only missing a supportive circle of church elders who willingly approve all of his decisions so long as the collection plate is full. He hasn't actually committed any grievous personal sins-only public. Hey he's an amicable guy who understands how to take care of business - mostly his own. One of his first acts as governor was to defang the intrusive ethics committee, which was headed by one of his appointtees. Dumond was perhaps a glaring failure sure but what really is a better example of his attitude towards democracy was his systematic destruction of public records . When his term was almost over and the inauguration of our next governor Mike Beebe was upon approaching he had all of the Hard drives in his office ground into powder. His approach to the media is fairly simple. I am a preacher whose reputation and superior moral compass allow me to decide better than you just what God's will is on this here planet. Liberal reporters are Satan's spawn and cant be trusted to report the weather... Sure I take a few expensive gifts from my millionaire business supporters to fill my house with furniture and my closet with clothes but that doesn't mean I'll support legislation that helps them...Trust me I prayed before I got here.
Judging by the invisible Yellow line used to track Huck's poll progress, not to be confused with the bright red on for Hillary and the Christmassy green line for Guiliani I would say this "swiftboating" of Huck on the gay issue and "Willie Hortoning" on Dumond has helped him rather
than hurt him.
I know I am more likly to support him knowing he is hated by the corporate media enough for these unfair attacks.
The "Willie Horton" style attack appears to have come from Hillary and is a little slicker
that the accusation from Fox [Guiliani]. Chris Wallace claiming Huck plans a holocaust for gays if elected is silly. The Holocaust story is a little over the top and an insult to real holocaust victims.
I say BRAVO!!! to HuffPo and Ariana for wounding, if not slaying, the Goliath of fundy bigots. An end to religious fanatics who run for office! We see your hatred of gays, HIV+ victims, women as church leaders, and I wouldn't doubt for a minute, JEWS, especially those who don't live in Israel and don't plan to rebuild the Temple so JES-ZUS can return and annihilate the bulk of higher sentient beings on planet Earth. Go back to the SHADOW!!!
To me it seems that people like Huckabee have a hard time facing reality and the truth, so he searches for it in a book that his mammy told him has all the answers. Is this man so much different from the taliban? They search for all their answers in THEIR book of answers.
Huckleberry is like the disciple who denied Jesus three times on the night Jesus was condemned because he was afraid that he, too, would end up on the cross next to Jesus.
Huckleberry needs to ask: What would Jesus do?
Then he must admit what he did was wrong, that the consequences, that an innocent woman was raped because Huckleberry let a rapist out of prison due to corrupt pollitical influence, was entirely his fault. In short, he must confess like a true Christian, ask for forginveness and move on.
Otherwise he is just a big phony Christian like Swaggart, Bakker, and Elmer Gantry. They shoot to the top but their feet are made of clay and they collapse. That is where Huckleberry is headed if he doesn't pray to Jesus and follow the command that Jesus gives him
Not seen yet, but...
"ROMNEY/HUCKABEE 08"..
Quick, where is my travel agent!!
Arianna has strayed into a dirty Arkansas story that has all the drama of "All The Kings Men".
Anyone that wants to see the unbiased story (which is far more interesting than the simplistic spin of virtualy everyone) I recommend looking at the original source materials available at a remarkably unbiast left leaning site: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/12/5/24655/1260
Mike Huckabee and the Crime Delusion
The putative letter below attempts to capture Mike Huckabee’s frame of mind when he wrote a sympathetic note to convicted rapist Wayne DuMond endorsing DuMond’s parole. After he was released in Arkansas, of course, DuMond proceeded to rape and murder a mother of three in Missouri. (Moreover, according to a 12/8/07 article in the Los Angeles Times, “Parole officials: Huckabee pushed rapist's release,” before his conviction in Arkansas, DuMond had been suspected in a Texas rape case and as an accomplice to a murder in Oklahoma, although the cases didn't stick.). Meanwhile, the following letter reflects what Huckabee may have been thinking as regards DuMond:
'Dear Wayne: Since you have clearly atoned for your rape of 17 year old Ashley Stevens (rigorously attesting to your religious conversion before my fellow evangelist and personal friend, Pastor Jay Cole) I approve of the Arkansas Parole Board's decision to set you free after serving 14 years of your original life sentence.
Thus, as a firm believer in your repentance, I seriously considered taking the initiative and commuting your sentence. However, the Parole Board acted in your favor before that became necessary, as I discretely suggested they do.'
Of course, only Huckabee knows if this supposed letter mirrors his actual thinking at the time -- but there is a good deal of evidence which suggests that it does.
Meanwhile, in 2004 the conservative Arkansas Leader, in an article entitled “Arkansas clemencies outpace other states,” had the following to say about Huckabee and his extraordinary record of granting clemency for convicted felons:
"From 1996 through July 2004, Arkansas had more clemencies than all [six] neighboring states combined...Here are the figures since 1996, when Huckabee took office (and keep in mind the population of these states is nearly 20 times ours): Louisiana (213); Mississippi (24); Missouri (79); Oklahoma (178); Tennessee (32); Texas (98). Total: 624 vs. Huckabee's 703. Governors in neighboring states almost never grant killers clemency, while Huckabee has commuted the sentences of a dozen murderers." vejhawk@gmail.com
What do you expect from the "God is a Republican" crowd? Surely not the proper Christian response. Hell no, these wackos for the preverse "As Satan is my Savior" republicans will do whatever it takes to crucify their oponents and come out ahead. That is the Southern redneck way. That is the GOP mantra.
Would someone please tell me if anyone has heard the rumor about Huckabee's son torturing a dog to death? The incident was alledgedly witnessed by two Boy Scouts.
I know he tried to board a plane with a loaded gun last spring, that is a fact, but did he also hang a stray dog?
I read where Police investigated the dog incident, but did not interview the two witnesses to the event.
It was alledgedly swept under the rug.
I'm curious if there is any truth to it.
I don't support Huckabee or Romney for President. They are worse than Bush. So I guess I'm trying to get all the dirt that's fact on both.
As a supporter of the Humane Society and PETA, I would like to know if we are putting an animal torturer in the White House. Don't think I could endure that. I know Romney tortured his dog by strapping him in his open cage to the roof of the car and driving for hours at 60 miles per hour until the dog pooped all over the vehicle. Talk about an asshole of a man. No wonder he supports waterboarding for people too.
O'Reilly, who is infamous for sending his goon squads to track down and harrass judges who release people Bill thinks should be put to death, said that this was just a blip for Huckabee and won't do him any harm. Can anyone say hypocrite!!
why people will lie about the most serious of offenses for votes is beyond reason---Hucklberry is a fake christian and hypocrit of the higest order--a hole will be reserved for him in hell with the other fake christian preachers of the last few decades!!!
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