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Title: Huckabee Tries to Shoot the Messenger, But Wounds His Campaign Instead
Source:
Huffington Post
URL Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arian ... -tries-to-shoot-t_b_75711.html
Published: Dec 6, 2007
Author: Arianna Huffington
Post Date: 2007-12-06 21:47:27 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 184
Comments: 8
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 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 in 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 - and not 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 Time's Swampland: Huckabee's Willie Horton
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Quite amazingly I know the man. He was one year ahead of me in HS, pres of the class, natch, and a True Believer of the Southern Baptist church. Have played guitar at his house once or twice. He lived about five houses down the street from my gradparent's house. Was a decent guy back then, but had all the markings of a big government stateist. Real big on the Jesus One Way (My Way of course) thiggy. The system in DC would be real comfortable with him as CIC. Real comfortable. O yes - he dated a good friend of mine for awhile. She, one day after the last date with him, told me indignately, that he was up to some pretty un Christian things the night before. Not that I blame him in the least, as I had some pretty Un Christian thoughts concerning her myself. But I never wrapped myself up in the bible, either. GAD Hope High School - what a searing experience for me to find myself. I will always remember the good christian girl Mona, the heart throb of the First Baptist church in Hope Arkansas. The church was really the seat of government in Hope and looked like a cross between the Pentagon and the HQ of the Bank of America. Well on one Monday morning the school was in fits. Seems Mona, who had a world class set of headlights, unexpectedly stepped out of the choir box and took the mic to tell all her confession, prolly before five or eight hundred folks - that Tom Flores squeezed up her booobies the night before. Course Tom was in the congregation. I never brought up the subject with him - thought he suffered enough that day. And I bet it was the topic of "conversation" among the hard core male members of the church for several weeks. A intertaining morning at Hope HS, unlike many. And that was the one day I wished I had attended the First Baptist Church in Hope.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Another Michael Dukakis sans the tank picture. LMFAO.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Including FR. I googled up a 1999 thread featuring Alamo-Girl adding the persecution of Wayne Dumond to the list of Clinton atrocities. BTW Huckabee is #2 in the national GOP polls this morning.
Now there's a real Forrest Gump moment.
Huckabee's band played music at the Free Republic Inaugural Ball in D.C. in January 2001.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Doesn't help the compassionate conservative pose.
CNN just announced the latest Newsweek poll of likely Iowa caucus goers: Huckabee first at 39%, Romney second at 17%. I guess you can fool 39% of the people all of the time.
Regarding the latter: What North American Union? Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#2. To: Zipporah (#0)
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
"There is no 'legitimate' Corporation by virtue of it's very legal definition and purpose."
-- IndieTx
#3. To: Zipporah (#0)
(Edited)
the bleating of a collection of right-wing zealots
I've already said too much.
#4. To: tom007 (#1)
Quite amazingly I know the man.
I've already said too much.
#5. To: MUDDOG (#3)
#6. To: aristeides (#5)
(Edited)
I've already said too much.
#7. To: aristeides (#5)
I've already said too much.
#8. To: Zipporah (#0)
Arkansas' Huckabee, Tyson Foods, LULAC all aligned
Arkansas' governor Mike Huckabee recently spoke before the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Little Rock. His remarks could be best characterized as far-left, pro-open borders, pro-cheap labor, churchy pap: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you... [...mindless blather about America welcoming immigrants deleted...]
...I am confident that our government will recognize that we should accommodate people who wish to provide the best opportunities for their families (and) employers so that we can make sure our economy has the necessary work force..."Before Huckabee spoke, John Tyson thanked the Hispanic community for standing by the Springdale-based food giant during the federal government's investigation of the company a few years ago. The U.S. Justice Department investigation alleged that Tyson helped to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. and employed them at various chicken-processing plants across the Southeast.
After a seven-week trial, Tyson and several managers of poultry processing plants were acquitted in March 2003 of those charges.
"At the time, it was a very difficult and very tough time for our company," Tyson said. "Thank you LULAC for standing by us."
Don't wait - send Ron Paul 2008 some FRNs right NOW!
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