I knew little about Michael "Mike" Huckabee. Except for his religiosity, I had this impression that he was a likeable fellow. I wasn't surprised to learn that he supports the teaching of creationism in public schools, and I wasn't surprised that the AP incorrectly calls this nonsense a "theory".
However, I was surprised to learn that Huckabee is unhinged and corrupt, Giuliani-like, and that as governor of Arkansas, he secretly lobbied the state parole board for the release of a convicted rapist who then
"molested and killed one woman and was suspected of doing the same to another, but died in prison before he could be charged in the second case."
And of course:
To this day, Huckabee tries to minimize his responsibility for DuMond's release. Huckabee's 2007 book "From Hope to Higher Ground" also fudges the facts, implying that DuMond died before being convicted of either Missouri murder. In one recent interview, he even suggested that he had fought DuMond's parole, a statement his own writings prove to be a lie.
Details below. Michael "Mike" Huckabee, you likeable, friendly scumbag.
Update: thanks to several people who pointed out this damning article at Huffington Post, based on secret documents made available by a former aide to Huckabee. Title changed because the accurate count is two women, not one.
I learned all this by trying to catch up on On The Media, which features an interview with a journalist from Arkansas named Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times. Brantley has evidently been following and exposing Huckabee's trail of filth for a long time, as you can read in this article he wrote for Salon, the source for the quotes above.
This diary won't be about Huckabee's electability nationwide or in Arkansas. It's about my outrage at yet another corrupt, hypocritical, pontificating, lying Republican, with the blood of at least one woman and perhaps another on his hands.
I can't do justice to Brantley's long expose of Huckabee's corruption, and I urge you to read his article. Some of you will be thinking, "you fool, you should expect this from any Republican candidate", and I'll be thinking, "oh yeah, that evangelical bit should have given it away". What else but guilt pushes people to wear their religion on their sleeve? Likewise for homophobia.
For a second opinion about Huckabee, Brantley suggests:
Ask the retarded Fort Smith teenager, raped by her stepfather, who sought Medicaid funding for an abortion as federal law required. Huckabee stood in the hospital door, at least figuratively, to prevent state funding.
He's just made it into my Royal Bastard Hall of Fame (I'm being polite), but it gets worse.
[Convicted rapist Wayne] DuMond's prior record included a conviction for assault and his alleged involvement in a slaying and one other rape, by the start of Huckabee's governorship DuMond had become a national figure thanks to Republican efforts to depict him as a victim of the Bill Clinton machine. The rape victim was a distant relative of Clinton's.
By the way, she was a teenager at the time of the rape. (Source)
Huckabee, perhaps persuaded by DuMond's supposed conversion to Christianity, announced his intention to commute DuMond's sentence without talking to the victim. Outraged, she stepped forward to protest publicly.
What a brave woman. If only Colin Powell had had that much courage...
The backlash was swift and powerful. Huckabee backed away from commuting DuMond's sentence, but in a private meeting lobbied the state Parole Board to release him. Huckabee said, in writing, that he supported DuMond's release. DuMond moved to Missouri in 2000, where he molested and killed one woman and was suspected of doing the same to another, but died in prison before he could be charged in the second case.
A step back and a bit more detail. Michael "Mike" Huckabee had felt terribly for this poor fellow. He thought his predecessor, Bill Clinton, had just been too harsh on him because the victim was a relative. (Wikipedia). So...
On September 20, 1996, Huckabee publicly announced his intention of commuting Dumond's (life) sentence. (...) There was strong opposition to Huckabee's plan, leaving Huckabee in a difficult situation politically.
I know, I know: it is simply unbelievable that this sanctimonious Republican backtracked from the commutation AND met privately with the parole board, on October 31, 1996, leading to Dumond's parole on January 16, 1997.
(Dumond) moved to Smithville (Missouri) in August 2000 after he married a woman who was part of a local church group that had visited him in prison in Arkansas.
(...)
A Clay County jury convicted DuMond in 2003 for suffocating Carol Shields, a 39-year-old Parkville woman, on Sept. 20, 2000, and leaving her nude body bound on a bed in an apartment
(...)
DuMond was arrested June 22, 2001, after police received a report from authorities in Arkansas that material under Shields’ fingernails matched his DNA in an FBI database.
DuMond had been serving a life sentence and had just been denied parole when Huckabee decided to free him from prison. He moves to Missouri and rapes and kills a woman the very next month. Oh, from the sources above, you'll learn that DuMond had apparently castrated himself while on trial for the earlier rape, and pretended that he had been attacked. Not exactly the most stable and trustworthy fellow. I am sure that Michael "Mike" Huckabee looked into his eyes and saw Jesus the Redeemer.
And now Huckabee is remembering the facts differently. Disgusting.