Hullabaloo

Friday, November 09, 2007

 
An Earlier Interview Scherer Did With Huckabee

by tristero

Earlier today, I complained that Salon gave Huckabee a free ride by interviewing him but failing to bring up Dumond, the rapist who, after Huckabee enthusiastically worked to free him, was released from prison and who raped and murdered at least one woman.

Michael Scherer, who conducted the interview, wrote in to inform me that indeed he had asked Huckabee about Dumond at an earlier time. I emailed Michael with some questions, but thought, in the interests of fairness, I should post this link to that earlier interview now. I owe Michael an apology as I was unaware of this earlier interview.

I believe that by far the most important facts to understand about Mike Huckabee are the sheer depth of his immersion in the lunacy of far right ideology and his willful ignorance. They led Huckabee into a key role in an awful tragedy. I think Dumond is a subject Huckabee should never be permitted to avoid or deflect by claiming he's just "too compassionate." After all, if he was so compassionate, he never would have campaigned for Dumond's release in the first place.

Finally, after Murray Waas's detailed debunking of Huckabee's claims, I think that Dumond's release needs a very thorough investigation before Huckabee's version of events should be accorded any credence whatsoever:

By far, Huckabee's most glaring mistake goes by the name of Wayne DuMond, a paroled rapist who murdered a woman after being released. DuMond's story is Southern Gothic, the Dukes of Hazzard meets John Grisham. He was a Vietnam veteran with a violent past and six children. In 1984, he was accused of raping a high school student in Forrest City, Ark., a town named for a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. The student happened to be a distant cousin of then-Gov. Bill Clinton, and the daughter of an influential local mortician. While DuMond was awaiting trial, two men broke into his home, hogtied and castrated him. The local sheriff, Coolidge Conlee, later displayed the testicles, floating in formaldehyde, for visitors to his office.

A mangled DuMond was eventually sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. But the distant Clinton affiliation soon turned his case into a cause. Right-wing radio hosts and columnists decried the severe sentence. They raised questions about the lack of DNA evidence, and railed against the small-town justice system, which never prosecuted DuMond's attackers. During the 1992 presidential campaign, while Clinton was traveling out of state, Tucker commuted DuMond's sentence to allow for the possibility of parole. When Huckabee became governor, he publicly announced that he intended to commute DuMond's sentence to time served. "My desire is that you be released from prison," he wrote DuMond in a letter. Before Huckabee signed any papers, the state parole board approved the prisoner's release. Two years later, DuMond murdered a woman in Missouri and later died in jail.

The case presents Huckabee with a clear problem, along the lines of Willie Horton, the furloughed rapist who helped sink the 1988 campaign of Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. The attack ad almost writes itself: Huckabee, egged on by right-wingers, worked to free a rapist who murdered again. When I bring up the issue, the former Baptist minister becomes defensive and tries to place the blame elsewhere. "Jim Guy Tucker commuted this guy's sentence to make him parole eligible," Huckabee says, as we sit in the back of the minivan. "Clinton knew it, Tucker did it, and now they try to blame me for it." In 2002, several members of the parole board told the Arkansas Times that the governor had actively advocated for DuMond's release behind the scenes. Huckabee calls this a lie, but he acknowledges he made a public appeal for the parole. "And I certainly regret that, in light of what happened," he says.

This is not a mere mistake one can simply regret. It is the kind of mistake that demonstrates Huckabee's overwhelming opportunism and willingness to blame others for his own failures.

There is no reason why this man should be taken seriously as a presidential contender. And there certainly is no reason why the press shouldn't repeatedly ask him hard, informed questions about Dumond as long as he continues to run.

As for Huckabee's alleged charm and likeability, it matters not so much as a goddam cent. Not if he's so enthralled with right wing nuttiness he can't see reality. Not if he is too lazy to find out the facts about a rapist he so eagerly wanted to release.

tristero 11/09/2007 08:21:00 PM |