Huckabee On CNN: I Did Not Help Parole Dumond
Mike Huckabee appeared on CNN today to talk about the Wayne Dumond story. Huckabee insisted that he had no part in paroling Dumond — indeed, from his standpoint it sounds like the only part he had in the case was to deny commutation. Huckabee also said the the allegations from former parole board members that he had worked to influence them were false and politically motivated:
Interestingly, Huckabee was not asked about the latest development in the Dumond controversy: The report in the Huffington Post featuring the letters that Dumond's victims had written to Huckabee in the 1990's, urging that Dumond not be released.
Comments (26)
magster wrote on December 5, 2007 9:27 PM:Americablog says that top Huckabee aide has since contradicted Huckabee on this specific point.
OOOF!
http://www.americablog.com/2007/12/former-top-aide-to-huckabee-he-did-try.html
colonpowwow wrote on December 5, 2007 9:58 PM:Funny comment from Americablog post:
Now if only we can get Huckabee in a tank wearing a helmet 2 sizes too big.
Michael Stevens wrote on December 5, 2007 10:50 PM:I remember Willie Horton, I saw the Dukakis campaign destroyed by Willie Horton, this is no Willie Horton.
This is Much, Much, Much worse than Willie Horton.
Governor Dukakis never personally appealed for Horton's release.
Huckabee did.
Governor Dukakis never personally rejected the pleas of Horton's victims not to release him.
Huckabee did.
Governor Dukakis only supported the program that saw Horton's release, he was in no way specifically involved in the release. Huckabee was.
Willie Horton's release was not done to satisfy a political vendetta.
Dumond's was.
Horton did commit some bad crimes after his release (rape and robbery), but he didn't kill anyone.
Dumond raped and killed TWO women after his release.
If Romney can't use this to decimate Huckabee, Romney doesn't deserve to be the nominee. If Huckabee somehow manages to become the nominee, he'll lose in a blowout in the general.
ShorelineCT wrote on December 5, 2007 11:05 PM:From an early Waas story. Now Huckabee is calling out others a liers, what a loser!
...A more outspoken former member of the board has been Suttlar, who was appointed to the board by then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, and who had previously been an aide to Tucker.
“For Governor Huckabee to say that he had no influence with the board is something that he knows to be untrue. He came before the board and made his views known that [Dumond] should have been paroled ... “
Suttlar noted that just prior to Huckabee’s appearance before the board the board had voted 4-1 against Dumond’s parole. After Huckabee’s board appearance, her colleagues largely reversed themselves, voting 4-1 for Dumond’s release.
“Why did all the votes change?” Suttlar asked. The board members knew the governor’s position. And Huckabee knows what influence a governor has over a board. Who’s going to turn down a governor?”
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=154e1aad-fd18-4efd-8d80-b5dab8559419
He said it was Clintons fault in a clip I heard!
Richard wrote on December 6, 2007 1:58 AM:Either Huckabee is one hell of a persuasive guy or the parole board was incapable of thinking for themselves. Either way Huckabee is one player in a series of mistakes. To lay blame fully on him is pure politics, and dirty politics at that.
Steve wrote on December 6, 2007 2:39 AM:Either Huckabee is one hell of a persuasive guy or the parole board was incapable of thinking for themselves.
Ha, ha, ha. Let's look at the chronology.
In September, following a lengthy right-wing campaign grounded in the false claim that Dumond was innocent, Huckabee announces his intent to commute the sentence to time served. Under state law, he has to allow 30 days from his announcement to permit comment, but no more than 120 days.
A firestorm of controversy ensues. Huckabee tries to defuse it by meeting with Dumond's victim and telling her, to her face, that DNA evidence had exonerated Dumond. She refuses to believe it because it's a complete lie. Nothing is working and Huckabee is taking a beating for wanting to commute this sentence.
In January, 4 days before the 120-day deadline is slated to expire and Huckabee will have to announce a final decision, the parole board meets. Governor Huckabee shows up, and the board goes into an unprecedented closed session, something they're never supposed to do unless they're discussing a personnel matter. The press is barred. The board had just voted a couple months previously to deny parole to Dumond, so there's no reason for the subject to come up at all. But mysteriously, after the closed session with Huckabee, the board votes to grant parole.
Now, if you're really stupid, you may it was just a wild coincidence that this decision from the parole board happened just in time to take the heat off Huckabee and absolve him of responsibility for commuting the sentence.
Do the parole board members deserve some responsibility for giving in to political pressure from the governor and cooperating with his cynical ploy to pass the buck? I'm sure they do. But none of them are running for President of the United States.
Michael Stevens wrote on December 6, 2007 2:41 AM:@ Richard
I guess you haven't read the exposés at the Huffington post?
The initial story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html
Yesterday's follow-up and proof of Huckabee's continuing lies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/05/former-aide-contradicts-h_n_75519.html
The facts are that the parole board turned down Dumond's parole Until Governor Huckabee personally met with the parole board SPECIFICALLY to discuss Dumond. After the parole board's meeting with Governor Huckabee, the parole board voted to free Dumond.
4 of the 5 parole board members have told the press that Huckabee SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED Dumond's release.
It gets worse. The reason many Arkansas Republicans wanted Dumond freed stems from the fact that Dumond raped one of Bill Clinton's distant cousins. (yes, it's true) In a typical wing-nut style, some Arkansas Republicans came up with wacko conspiracy theory that Dumond had been unfairly prosecuted by a vengeful Bill Clinton. In truth, then Governor Clinton had recused himself from any involvement in Dumond's prosecution.
In 1996, soon after Huckabee's election as Governor, Huckabee was under heavy pressure from Arkansas Republican's to release Dumond. It was just another of the Republican's petty strikes against then President Clinton.
Huckabee was on CNN tonight denying that he ever requested the parole board to release Dumond. Huckabee said that the parole board members who claim he asked for Dumond's release were all Democrats, trying to destroy him.
But the Huffington Post now has on-the-record statements from a senior Hukcabee aide who was present at the parole meeting. He says and says:
"The clear impression that I came away with from the meeting was that he favored Dumond's release," Reeves said, referring to convicted rapist Wayne Dumond. "And I can understand why board members would believe that to be the case."
Within weeks of his release, Dumond had raped and Killed two more women.
This is a BIG deal. I believe it's the death of his political future. If Romney doesn't use it to destroy him, the Dem's will.
JanM wrote on December 6, 2007 7:51 AM:[Huckabee]'ll lose in a blowout in the general.
Not with election fraud he won't. Tested in two elections and hasn't failed yet.
An Outhouse wrote on December 6, 2007 8:08 AM:He is beginning to scare me more than George Bush did. Huckleberry is a cold calculating liar without a conscience. "Its all the Democrat governor's fault."
Kefa wrote on December 6, 2007 8:53 AM:This was all done as another vendedetta to get the Clintons from the right wing due to one on the women was a cousin of Bills. The right wing is nuts as is Huckleberry. This guy just lied and opened a big bag of worms and is toast.
thegolux wrote on December 6, 2007 9:31 AM:Ok- here's the thing. I don't like the idea of a Huckabee nomination- I think (except for this case) he will be the hardest Republican for any Dem candidate to beat. That having been said- as a Massachusetts resident- I remember vividly Willie Horton. I didn't like the play then and I don't like it now. Granted, there are differences. But I think we need to be careful here. NO governor (or other person) is responsible completely for another's action. I believe we need to reform our prison and judicial system. I think we have far too many people in jail- does that mean that if the reforms I want get instituted I am partially to blame for recidivism? I think the key here is whether Huckabee truly believed Dumond was innocent. If he did, the rest is tragedy not malice. I guess in the end i would rather see the guy taken down for - i don't know- not believing in evolution, than this....
I suppose he didn't inhale either?
Doc Rock wrote on December 6, 2007 10:03 AM:"Either Huckabee is one hell of a persuasive guy or the parole board was incapable of thinking for themselves. Either way Huckabee is one player in a series of mistakes. To lay blame fully on him is pure politics, and dirty politics at that."
What goes around, comes around! If the heat's too much get out of the pulpit!
Jane wrote on December 6, 2007 10:25 AM:Huckabee spoke directly with surviving victims of Dumond. He rejected their witness and instead appears to have believed Dumond's claim that he was innocent and had been castrated (Dumond is believed to have injured himself.) If Huckabee cannot believe 2 women and one jury rather than one rapist, he does not have the judgment to be President.
Who would ever have guessed that the Vast Right Wing conspiracy would extend to attempt to exonerate the rapist of a distant relative of Bill Clinton? Those people are crazy.
bubba wrote on December 6, 2007 10:27 AM:"I did not help parol that man...Mr. Dumond."
Even if this is pure politics, the fact that Huckabee is flat-out lying about the extent of his role in this is more than sufficient to take this out of the realm of pure politics and into the realm of Huckaee's personal qualities and his qualifications for president--making this very newsworthy and an issue the voters must be made aware of. We already have a serial liar as president, who has surrounded himself with other serial liars, and the results have not been good for this country. Huckabee has shown himself to be one hell of a hypocrite, on many levels with this and the American Public has the right to know about it.
JEP wrote on December 6, 2007 10:38 AM:Not to sound sneaky here, but wouldn't it behoove us all to let old Huck the pervert-protector take out Mitt the varmintslayer, before we go after him? (...for all the "right" reasons.)
Mitt's millions look too easy to the MSM for them to let a tortoise like Huckabee catch up to their boy Mitt, at least not until they've harvest quite a lot more of that Dollar General Mormon moolah.
Anyone else noticed how mean ALL the Republicans look when confronted with a challenging question? Huckabee looks like he wants to strangle the questioner, and Mitt looks like he wants to slay that varmint. McCain virtually steams when he has to answer a hard question, and Fred gets visibly flummoxed. Rudy acts like he intends to gets on his phone and call a "family" member to go break their arm after the debate...
No wonder they try to control the crowd and the questions, any Republican that has to answer sincere queries gets the fumbling-fidgets, if not downright hostile.
Every time I see it, I expet the republican to glance over at the security chief as if to say "how did this person get in here?"
Mean spirited people, the whole lot of them. Their hostility cracks through their phony smile every time.
Orwell's Intuition wrote on December 6, 2007 11:01 AM:thegolux wrote on December 6, 2007 9:31 AM:
"I think the key here is whether Huckabee truly believed Dumond was innocent. If he did, the rest is tragedy not malice."
You're joking, right? What do you think we have juries for? This is exactly what bush did, he substituted his political agenda (punish the Wilsons) for a jury's reasoned verdict. Huckabee substituted his political agenda (appease the rightwing nutcases who hate Clinton) for an Arkansas jury's verdict.
This is solid evidence of Huckabee's complete lack of objective rational judgment when weighing matters of life and death. That deserves greater contempt than any of his evangelical beliefs. Shame on anyone who votes for this lying manipulative freak whose actions directly led to the horrific torment and murder of two women.
Chesser wrote on December 6, 2007 11:18 AM:I mentioned the following on Matthew Yglesias' site yesterday, but it seems relevant. If you go back and look at news accounts from 1996 when this case was a cause celebre for the right-wing, Huckabee wasn't so shy about claiming credit. Steve Dunleavy wrote a despicable column for the NY Post in '96 that contains several quotes from Dumond's wife explaining how she has been assured by the "new governor" that her son will be freed.
In light of Huckabee's current denial that he played any direct role in the release of Dumond, it's interesting to read Dumond's wife claim: "'The new governor, Mike Huckabee, has assured me Wayne will be a free man,' Mrs. Dumond said Thursday. 'He is not one of the Clinton crowd. He is a very fair man. He has always been disturbed about the way the Clinton people never wanted my husband free,' she added."
And from that same article, Dumond's wife is quoted as saying: "I just want to give up. But now, who knows? The new governor has personally assured me that Wayne's case will be the first thing on his desk after he clears up everything with this Whitewater thing."
Dunleavy also reported in his 1996 column that then-Governor Huckabee's spokesman "told me Friday that Huckabee 'has voiced a very special intention to thoroughly review the case of Wayne Dumond.'"
Those contemporary statements seem to contradict now-candidate Huckabee's claim that he played no direct role in Dumond's release. From yesterday's Waas' article: "But Huckabee and his aides insist that his receipt of the letters is irrelevant because the decision to release Dumond was made by the parole board. Huckabee on Tuesday again denied allegations by former parole board members that he lobbied them to release Dumond. 'I did not ask them to do anything,' he said. 'I did indicate [Dumond's case] was sitting at my desk and I was giving thought to it.'"
I also like the implication in Mrs. Dumond's statements that Gov. Clinton was the lone force holding her innocent husband in jail. It seems like that captures the right-wing mindset of that time. But the question is: was Huckabee lying to Dumond's wife in 1996, or to all of us today?
thegolux wrote on December 6, 2007 12:33 PM:Orwell's intuition wrote
"You're joking, right? What do you think we have juries for? This is exactly what bush did, he substituted his political agenda (punish the Wilsons) for a jury's reasoned verdict. Huckabee substituted his political agenda (appease the rightwing nutcases who hate Clinton) for an Arkansas jury's verdict."
Let me clarify-- First of all, Huckabee did nothing illegal. He advised (wrongly clearly) a parole board- they made the call. He worked within the process instead of subverting it as our President does. Furthermore- juries can also be swayed by pressure and get things wrong. Was the governor of Illinois wrong in placing a moratorium on the death penalty thereby denying the wishes of juries who gave a sentence of death? No. The system makes room for Governors and other oversight bodies to correct injustices. I am merely suggesting that if Huckabee really believed this was an injustice (as opposed to political games) then the result is tragedy not malice. I do not know what was in his heart at the time. I do not know his motivations- but when dems start repeating refrains from 1988 Bush campaigns- it makes me very uncomfortable.
Rob Mac wrote on December 6, 2007 12:34 PM:I'm perfectly willing to believe that Huckabee had drunk the conspiratorial kool-aid and really did believe that Dumond was somehow railroaded by the Clinton machine. He may also have believed that Hillary murdered Vince Foster and that Clinton was running a major drug ring out of rural Arkansas. People on the right were literally insane with Clinton hate in the 90s.
Still, I think the fact that he bought into the hysteria reflects poorly on his judgment and dredging this up is completely fair.
Those who say its wrong to judge him so harshly for his role in getting one man released from prison, even though it was wrong to do so, have a good point. These kinds of things happen and this sort of attitude is more likely to cut against the left than in its favor. "Candidate X favors parole, but some black guy killed a white woman while on parole!"
I'd be willing to give Huck a break if he fessed up and said, yes, I believed some people about Dumond I shouldn't have and I will regret that every day for the rest of my life. But since he's bald-faced lying about it (good Christian man that he is) he should be absolutely raked over the coals over this.
Anonymous wrote on December 6, 2007 12:38 PM:Here's more from the aide who was AT the PAROLE BOARD meeting back in the day and who now says that Huckabee is LYING. Someone is about to go down as fast as he went up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/05/former-aide-contradicts-h_n_75519.html
Huckabee could have said that he made the biggest mistake of his life and people might have forgiven him for his total lack of judgment at the time, but instead he has to go and lie about his role. He who sows the wind...
Anonymous wrote on December 6, 2007 12:42 PM:thegolux:
Huckabee met with the victim and told her that she was wrong and that DNA indicated that Dumond hadn't raped her.
She knew he was lying at the time to her face, and he was. DNA never exonerated him.
onceler wrote on December 6, 2007 1:08 PM:hehe, what a lying hick this guy is. maybe he can have chuck norris do another ad for him, "hey!!! mike huckabee is no longer pro-rape!!! there's a fist under my beard!"
Larry wrote on December 6, 2007 4:15 PM:to quote posting: Interestingly, Huckabee was not asked about the latest development in the Dumond controversy: The report in the Huffington Post featuring the letters that Dumond's victims had written to Huckabee in the 1990's, urging that Dumond not be released.
that should come as no surprise. these republican candidates never get subjected to a tough interview.
In the real world it's worse than Willie Horton, but as a political matter it is not so bad, because Dumond is white. Most whites, who still make up most of the electorate (and almost all Republican primary voters), won't hold it against Huckabee that he believed the word of a white man against that of a white woman, or even several white women. After all, it's perfectly natural, no?
