The Huckster File – An Open
Letter to Those Considering Reverend Mike for President

by John Keller
by John Keller

I received an email from a friend
urging me to donate to Mike Huckabee’s campaign for President, so I pulled
together his top 10 scandals and fired them back. I’ve added source citations
in order to demonstrate that his scandals are not being manufactured by some Swift
Boaters with a few websites. They are well documented, many are on camera, and
are cross-referenced by multiple national media outlets. Forward as needed to
the Huckabee boosters in your life. 

In no particular order:

Scandal #1 – Huckabee misrepresents
his stand on illegal aliens – He ran Arkansas as a safe haven state for illegal
aliens, and favored illegal aliens over US citizens for cut-rate in-state
tuition. Now he’s claiming he’s against amnesty when he refused to sign a bill
to start deporting illegals.

(Arkansas Journal) (Washington Times)

Scandal #2 – Huckabee lied about
urging parole of a rapist who raped and murdered again – He pardoned or
commuted sentences on 1,033 criminals while governor. He urged the parole board
to approve parole of many more criminals that were politically difficult to
pardon. One example, Wayne DuMond, went on to kill and rape 2 women after
Huckabee personally pressured the parole board to release him 25 years early
for a rape conviction. The Arkansas parole board forwarded Huckabee a letter
from one of DuMond’s prior rape victims urging the governor not to pardon
DuMond, and predicting that DuMond would rape and kill again. Huckabee pushed
for the pardon anyway. Huckabee later denied receiving the letter, and tried to
cover it up, according to a former aid who provided the letters. 

(Huffington Post) (ABC News)

Scandal #3 – Huckabee’s non-stop
abuse of Christianity as a political gimmick – This
“phone call” will absolutely turn your stomach, as does
his oh-so-subtle floating cross Christmas ad. Give me a break. It
disgusts me as a Christian, and no doubt frightens non-Christians to see this
sort of thing.

Scandal #4 – Huckabee is a pro-war
“Christian” – Here’s a chance to actually put some of Christ’s
sermons (Blessed are the warmongers?) into action. Instead,
he supports continuing the war in Iraq to “save national honor”
rather than admitting it was a mistake (no WMD’s, no al Qaeda) and withdrawing.
How many more have to die before we “leave with honor”? Is that the
11th Commandment? Maybe it’ll be as honorable as Korea, Vietnam, Panama,
Bosnia, Somalia, Sudan or Serbia… He has absolutely no idea how foreign
policy and militarism connects with the dollar crisis, terrorism, and the coming
recession. This makes him identical to all but Ron Paul out of any of the
candidates, but is noteworthy given how bloodthirsty he is for a minister.

Scandal #5 – Huckabee destroyed
state files and equipment as he left the Governor’s Office – He ordered the payment
of $25,000 from a state emergency fund to physically destroy the hard drives of
his office at the end of his term. That data belongs to the Office of the
Governor, not the man, and a public official should have NO expectation of
privacy when carrying out the duties of office on government equipment. To turn
one of the government’s favorite phrases around “if you don’t have
anything to hide…” So much for rule of law over personal privilege. We
could expect little return to Constitutional guarantees of privacy and
transparent government under Huckabee. Allocating the funds from a state
emergency fund earmarked for floods, tornadoes, and natural disasters is
fiscally irresponsible, spendthrift, and perhaps illegal. We should not be
surprised if this scandal takes on wings of its own, given all the possible
angles.

(Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

Scandal #6 – Ethicsgate – Governor
Huckabee was sanctioned 5 times for ethics violations, and had 9 other
complaints, none dismissed as frivolous.  He’s taken practically every
gift or favor ever given to him as Arkansas governor, and actively asked for
gifts: “some former Huckabee staff and appointees acknowledged … that
Huckabee’s chief of staff and a cabinet official solicited contributions from
staff and appointees for Christmas gifts for the governor.” Shouldn’t it
go the other way around? The boss buys a small gift for the staff. What about
that old Christian nugget: it’s better to give than receive. There is also a
very direct correlation between his receipt of gifts and his political
appointments. 

He even went so far as to set up a
wedding registry for him and his wife to receive gifts to decorate their house
after they left office. How completely tacky. Clearly this guy thinks of public
service as serving him, not the other way around. 

(MSNBC)
(Guardian UK)

Scandal #7 – Huckabee wanted to
quarantine AIDS patients in 1992 – He was in favor of rounding up AIDS patients
for quarantine in 1992 – NOT 1985, but 1992, 7 years after it was well
established that AIDS was not transmitted by casual contact. This is either a
not so subtle “homos be damned” pander to the evangelical base, or a
display of ignorance so shocking it borders on unbelievable.

This was a full year after Magic
Johnson “mainstreamed” HIV/AIDS by admitting that he had it.  He
would probably have given Magic a pass to play at the Olympics that year.

(CNN) (USA Today)

Scandal #8 – Huckabee refuses to
admit when he’s mistaken or misinformed about current events – Rather than
get informed or admit his lack of knowledge, he lies about his gaffes. A polite
observer will say he was misunderstood, but watch the video and judge for
yourself. See these comments about Pakistan under marital law and the
Pakistan immigration “threat.” How exactly does a former
governor who didn’t even have Secret Service protection get a CIA briefing? Who
briefed him? Where did those numbers come from? What? Then
there’s this 46-second gem.

Scandal #9 – Huckabee seriously
misrepresents his record on cutting taxes – He is not really a tax cutter, and
in fact, is lined up to be a bigger spender than, well, Bush II. “Right now, we spend about 3.9 percent of our GDP on
defense, compared with about six percent in 1986, under President Ronald
Reagan. We need to return to that six percent level.” (Foreign
Affairs) Does he realize that’s $300 Billion in additional defense spending,
over the $500 Billion in on-budget Defense spending?

That last thing we need is to waste
an additional $300 Billion on planes and battleships to fight guys with
carbines and makeshift bombs. We need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and
follow Ron Paul’s plan of granting Letters of Marque for the capture of bin
Laden. This sort of policy ignorance is consistent with Huckabee’s generally
misinformed worldview.

It gets better though. Here is his
record on taxes from National Review and Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette:

“According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the average
Arkansas tax burden increased 47% over Huckabee’s tenure. Huckabee supported
(in chronological order) a sales tax hike; gas and diesel fuel tax hikes;
another sales tax hike; a cigarette tax hike; a nursing home bed tax; another
sales tax hike; an income surcharge tax; a tobacco tax hike; taxes on Internet
access; and higher beer taxes. Huckabee also oversaw a 50-percent increase in
spending; happily signed a minimum wage increase and encouraged national
Republicans to do the same; favors a national smoking ban, farm subsidies, and a federally mandated arts and music curriculum; opposes private school
choice; and employs class-warfare and protectionist language on the campaign
trail.”

(Foreign Affairs) (National Review)
(Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

Scandal #10 – Arkansans like Hillary
Clinton better than Huckabee by nearly 4 to 1 – His home state rejects him as a
left-leaning, tax and spend, authoritarian Republican. There’s no way a leftist
Republican will beat a Democrat in the general election. Leftists will vote for
the Democrat offered, and other than some evangelicals and die-hards, Republicans
and Independents will stay home. Huckabee versus any Democrat would
be an electoral beating to rival Reagan versus Mondale, except it will be the
Dems taking the White House. He is a Democrats’ dream candidate to the point
that they are calling him the “Glass Jaw” because they will break him
head to head. (Drudge Report)

Here’s Hillary, one of the most
despised people in politics, absolutely killing
Huckabee in a late 2007 poll (35% to 8%) in Arkansas on the heals of
out-raising him for bucks in their “home” state. The final word on
Huckabee, and more in-depth reading of all his flip-flops, pettiness,
gaudiness, and scandalous behavior I leave to one who knows him best. Max Brantley of the Arkansas Gazette writes for Salon about
the man he’s covered for nearly 19 years.

(University of Arkansas) (Salon)