Mike Huckabee recently weighed in on the destruction of the infamous CIA interrogation tapes:
"When we start destroying documents, what are we destroying them for? Are we doing it for security purposes or to cover somebody's rear end?" the former Arkansas governor said on Fox News Sunday. "If we're covering somebody's rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end for doing something that's against the best interest of the United States and the responsibility and the respectability of this country."
Sounds like a reasonable statement. However, it was just one year ago that Huckabee ordered that all 83 computers and 4 servers used by his staff in Arkansas were to be destroyed. From the Arkansas Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
A memo dated Jan. 9 from a state Department of Information Systems official to Huckabee told of the "disposition of data maintained"by the department "for the office of the governor"during Huckabee's tenure.
"All drives have been subsequently crushed under the supervision of a designee of your office,"wrote Gary Underwood, the agency's chief technology officer and a former Huckabee staff member.
So, did Huckabee have all of these hard drives and computers destroyed for security reasons? Or to cover his rear-end?
There's more. He used $13,000 in taxpayer money to destroy the computers, which he took out of an "emergency fund." The total bill for the computer services was $25,000, so he stuck the state with an additional $12,000 in unpaid bills after he left. Not to mention the $335,000 it cost the state to replace the computers.
Department of Information Systems Director Claire Bailey said hard drives for 83 computers and four servers were destroyed, or "crushed,"after information was downloaded onto backup tapes. Underwood supervised it and delivered the backup tapes to Huckabee Chief of Staff Brenda Turner, who had ordered the hard drives crushed, Bailey said.
She said the computers were located in the state Capitol; the state's Washington, D. C., office; the state police airport hangar; the Governor's Mansion; and the Arkansas State Police drug office
Where are these back-up tapes now? And why would they need to wipe clean the server for the Arkansas State Police drug office? Or the state police airport hanger?
Oh - and that "emergency fund" that he used to pay for the destruction of the computers? It seems that was one of several last-minute expenditures, totaling $500,000, that Huckabee spent on various pet projects on his way out the door. The emergency fund was completely cleaned out and left with a $0 balance for incoming Governor Mike Beebe who still had the entire 2nd half of their fiscal year to go. What were those funds used for? Mike Beebe wanted to know as well:
"I don't know what's going on,"Beebe said. "I hope that it's not an inside political issue at the expense of taking care of emergencies and taking care of our people. The emergency fund is there for a reason. We just had seven counties declared disaster areas. We may have more. We're coming into tornado season. That fund they usually try to keep, if at all possible, at $ 500, 000 at all times so that money is there for counties and cities and people if there is a disaster. I don't know what they're doing, but I'm going to have a visit with a few legislators and I'll find out."
So, what exactly was that $500,000 used for?
According to the Bureau of Legislative Research, Huckabee spent the $ 500, 000 on 22 things, the most being $ 100, 000 for a group called Play It Again Arkansas "to purchase [musical ] instruments and provide operational funding."Huckabee has been supportive of that group, which distributes used musical instruments to children. Among other things, he gave $ 10, 000 to the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute to buy a car; $ 97, 000 to the Game and Fish Commission's "Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs"program; $ 10, 000 to the city of Little Rock to help in "the development of the Mexican Consulate"office; $ 15, 000 for the Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross to help "prepare young people to deal with disaster situations."Huckabee's wife, Janet, works for the Red Cross.
Buying musical instruments? A new car for the Documentary Film Institute? Development of the Mexican Consulate office in Little Rock? $97,00 to the "Hooked on fishing" program? I wonder what his conservative friends will have to say about that.
And When Mike Beebe tried to replenish the funds, Arkansas legislators initially refused. Some openly speculated it was because Mike Beebe wanted to spend the money on replacing other equipment that the Huckabee folks took with them. It seems that Huckabee wanted to take everything from the lighting in the press room to the podium used for press conferences, claiming they were paid for by the state GOP. What? Since when is the GOP buying these items for Republican Governors? Well, according the state GOP, they didn't:
Clint Reed, executive director of the state GOP, said he had no knowledge of the party buying items for the governor's office.
After this article was printed, Huckabee claimed that the items were purchased with campaign funds, not state GOP dollars. He also claimed that destroying the computers was standard operating procedure. No security threat. No covering his rear-end. Just standard operating procedure.
Nothing to see here.....just move along.