The Story Mike Huckabee Dreads

[question everything]

December 05, 2007, 4:00 a.m.

The Story Mike Huckabee Dreads
With his new success comes new attention to an old Arkansas crime.

By Byron York
National Review Online

(snip)


It began in September 1984, when Dumond, a 35-year-old handyman, kidnapped and raped a 17-year-old high-school cheerleader in the small eastern-Arkansas town of Forrest City. Dumond was allowed to remain free on bond while awaiting trial, and in March 1985 two masked men entered his house, tied him up with fishing line, and castrated him. People were stunned; the case, already notorious, became much more so. And that was before the local sheriff, a rather colorful man named Coolidge Conlee, displayed Dumond’s severed testicles in a jar of formaldehyde on his desk in the St. Francis County building. Amid tons of publicity, Dumond was found guilty and sentenced to life plus 20 years. The case took on a political coloring when it became known that the victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton. After conviction, Dumond, who claimed he was innocent, asked Clinton for clemency. Clinton declined.

Dumond also argued that even if he were guilty his sentence was excessive, and his position won him some sympathy, not least on the grounds that he had suffered terribly at the hands of those unknown assailants. In April 1992, when Dumond had served just seven years, Lt. Gov. Tucker, acting as governor while Clinton was out of state campaigning for president, commuted Dumond’s sentence to a level where he would be eligible for parole. That didn’t mean Dumond would go free, only that the state parole board would consider the question. The board declined to free Dumond.

That’s where things stood when Huckabee took office on July 15, 1996. Last August, Huckabee told me he had his doubts about Dumond’s guilt, and also felt sorry for him over the castration attack. On September 20, just weeks after taking office, Huckabee announced that he intended to set Dumond free, saying that there were “serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt.” On October 31, Huckabee met with the parole board. Not long after, the board voted to free Dumond, but on the condition he move to another state. Huckabee was pleased, in part because — given that the board had voted to free Dumond — there was no need for Huckabee to commute the sentence or pardon him. So Huckabee denied Dumond’s now-irrelevant pardon application while at the same time congratulating him on his soon-to-come freedom. “Dear Wayne,” Huckabee wrote in a letter to Dumond. “My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place.” But no state would take Dumond. He remained behind bars for two and a half more years, until the board voted to free him in Arkansas. He was released in October 1999 and returned home. The next year, Dumond left the state, moving to a small town near Kansas City, Mo. Within weeks of arriving, he sexually assaulted and murdered a 39-year-old woman at an apartment complex near his home. The day that happened, everyone knew that freeing Wayne Dumond had been a very, very bad idea.

A political storm erupted. Huckabee sought cover by saying that all he had done was to deny Dumond’s pardon application. But some Democrats claimed that Huckabee had pressured the parole board to free Dumond. What actually happened between Huckabee and the board remains unclear to this day, but there is no doubt that Huckabee wanted Wayne Dumond set free. And today, he knows he was terribly wrong, but he still defends his actions. “My only official action was to deny his clemency,” Huckabee told me in Iowa. As we talked, Huckabee spread the blame around, not only to Tucker, who originally commuted Dumond’s sentence, but to Bill Clinton as well. “Tucker could not have done that without Clinton’s full knowledge and approval,” Huckabee said.

(snip)

Critics, and some friends, too, have said Huckabee’s position was deeply influenced by his Christian faith. “When I first met him, I was going through his positions on issues and I said, ‘You’re a conservative, so I’m sure you oppose granting parole for violent felons,’“ Dick Morris, the campaign consultant who ran Huckabee’s first run for lieutenant governor, told me. “And he said, ‘Oh no, I would never take that position, because the concept of Christian duty requires that there is a possibility of forgiveness. The concept of Christian forgiveness requires that we keep open the process of parole — use it sparingly, but keep it open.’“ When I asked Huckabee about that, he reminded me that he was tough on a lot of criminals, too. “Heck, I executed more people than any governor in the history of the state,” Huckabee told me. “It’s not something I’m bragging about, I’m just saying that if it had been simply a matter of my Christian conscience saying I don’t believe in capital punishment, then I was pretty lousy in my conscience.”

(snip)

National Review Online - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTcyMTM5YzRiMzVjMjA3MGEwMjUwM2Y3NGJiMzM1YWY=

[thereismore]

1. The "Dear Wayne" letter. nt

[dragonlady]

2. More behind the story

Kos says he and Atrios and other bloggers tried to get this story out when Huckabee was running for governor in 2002.

Dumond was let go because right wing lunatics believed that Bill Clinton sent his goons to castrate an "innocent" man because one of his "alleged" victims was a distant relative. That this story was, you know, pretty much insane didn't stop it from getting regular play in the conservative press.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/5/12622/9877

And a story here about how at least two women wrote to Huckabee before the release and told him about other rapes Dumond had committed. This is from the letter of one rape victim:

Based upon his previous actions, as well as psychological analysis conducted following his arrest in Washington that stated "He has a need to prove his masculinity to women," I fear that he will rape again if released. My greatest fear is that since he was finally caught and sentenced for his crime, the next time he will be more careful to not leave a witness to testify against him.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/5/14190/6806

I also read in the last day or so (but can't find a link) that a law professor who was on the parole board has said that Huckabee did in fact come to the parole board to advocate for Dumond's release, despite what Huckabee says now.

This situation is really getting out into the media now.

[Rageneau]

4. Also note that Reverend Huckabee has been LYING about his role in this.

[question everything]

5. Yes, when in doubt, blame Clinton

as he has been doing on networks interviews

[Rageneau]

3. Dems would never use this against Huck. So Thank God for Republicans!

I've said all along that Huckabee is the best candidate the Pukes have, but that he has a skeleton in his closet too big to cover up. The Wayne Dumond story is a hundred times worse than the Willie Horton one, and is enough to kill any candidacy.

But ONLY if the story gets out, i.e., only if the candidate's enemies are willing to use it. Since this story is by a wingnut (Byron York), they apparently are. (BTW, Huckabee is NOT a true wingnut. He used to be, but he repented.) This story would have stayed quiet if Huck had stayed a background candidate. But now he is a threat, and the wingnuts have to respond to it.

Were this the general election, the GOP and the MSM would gladly sweep this story under the rug ala Bush/AWOL. And the Democrats, of course, being too-nice-for-politics, would never bring it up.

Which is why we should be thankful for Republican primaries.

Republican candidates will use ANYTHING to win. And even though Huckabee has a better chance than any of them, they'll now do our work for us and destroy him first.

Goody.