Some Rough Edges On Huckabee's Record

GOP Presidential Candidate Tries To Gloss Over Parts Of Record As Arkansas Governor

(AP)  Mike Huckabee's presidential rivals are pointing to chinks in his record as Arkansas' governor - from ethics complaints to tax increases to illegal immigration and his support for releasing a rapist who was later convicted of killing a Missouri woman.

The Republican presidential candidate has plenty to champion from his 10½ years as governor - including school improvements and health insurance for the children of the working poor. But his record has rough edges, and Huckabee has a habit of playing fast and loose with it.

Other campaigns for the GOP nomination, watching Huckabee's rise in polls in Iowa, are starting to mine his past for political fodder. Take ethics, for example.

"People are starting to contact us and they're saying we want everything on Mike Huckabee," says Graham Sloan, director of the state's Ethics Commission.

What they'll find is 436 pages of documents chronicling Huckabee's various tangles with a commission he's derided as a political tool of Democrats. It's a panel that has held proceedings 20 times on the former governor and lieutenant governor.

But the Ethics Commission files don't cover everything, and this year - anticipating criticism - Huckabee's campaign set up a "truth squad" to push his side of various stories. It often offers, at best, an incomplete account of his record.

On major issues:

The truth squad says the only finding by the Arkansas Ethics Commission that Huckabee accepted a gift improperly was tossed out by a state court. In fact, the panel investigated 16 complaints against Huckabee and found five violations. Only one, for accepting a $500 canoe from Coca-Cola, was tossed out.

Two of the complaints against Huckabee pertain to unreported gifts - the canoe and a $200 stadium blanket received by his wife, Janet. Two stem from cash the governor or his wife received but did not initially report. The panel also ruled in 2003 that Huckabee's campaign violated state law when it used its funds to pay for an event during the summer of 2002 called Gospel Fest

During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas secretary of state's office. (He accepted 187 gifts in his first three years as governor but was not required to report their value.)

Huckabee has consistently understated his role in the parole of rapist Wayne DuMond, who had been convicted in the 1984 rape of a distant cousin of former President Clinton.

Two months after taking office, Huckabee stunned the state by saying he questioned DuMond's guilt and that it was his intention to free the rapist, who had been castrated by masked men while awaiting trial. Huckabee said then he had "serious questions as to the legitimacy of his guilt" and acknowledged later that he had met with DuMond's wife about the case while he was lieutenant governor. Two months after ascending to the governor's office, Huckabee met with the woman again.

The ex-governor now blames his predecessor for making DuMond parole eligible - Jim Guy Tucker commuted a life-plus-20 years sentence to 39½ years - but distances himself from his role in DuMond's release. Huckabee met privately with the state parole board, and two members have said he pressured them for a vote.

"He made it obvious that he thought DuMond had gotten a raw deal and wanted us to take another look at it," former board member Charles Chastain said in 2001. "Some board members who were usually very tough about letting people out ... (later) voted in favor of him, and seemed eager to."

On his campaign Web site, Huckabee says the parole board was made up entirely of Democrats appointed by Clinton and Tucker. It doesn't mention that Huckabee reappointed board member Railey Steele days before he voted with three other members to set DuMond free. DuMond was later convicted of killing a woman in Missouri and died in 2005.

Huckabee likes to say he was tough on taxes in Arkansas, noting a $100 million tax cut in 1997 that until this year was Arkansas' largest. When asked about a fuel tax increase he backed in 1999, Huckabee says incorrectly that he joined 80 percent of Arkansas voters in approving it.

Huckabee in 1999 supported a $1 billion highway bond program, including costs for interest and lawyers' fees, but the question on the ballot was only whether the state could take on the debt, not how Arkansas would pay for it. Huckabee had signed the fuel tax increase two months earlier.

Shortly after taking office, Huckabee took a four-day trip by bass boat along the Arkansas River to tout a 1/8th-cent sales tax increase for outdoor programs. (Two nature centers now carry the names of Huckabee and his wife.) Taxes went up $40 million in the months before the $100 million tax cut Huckabee touts.

Other taxes went up as Arkansas changed its property tax system and made improvements to its school system.

Huckabee's recent strong stand on immigration, including an intolerance toward companies that employ illegal immigrants, runs counter to the image he crafted in his final years in office. He was battling conservatives within his own party who were pushing for stricter state-level immigration measures.

Huckabee opposed a Republican lawmaker's efforts in 2005 to require proof of legal status when applying for state services that aren't federally mandated and proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Huckabee derided the bill as un-American and un-Christian and said the bill's sponsor drank a different "Jesus juice."

That same year, Huckabee failed in his effort to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges. At the time, Huckabee said he didn't understand the opposition to it.

"It hurts me on a personal as well as a policy level to think that we are still debating issues that I kind of hoped we had put aside in the 1960s, maybe at the latest the '70s, and yet I understand people have deep passions about things usually they don't fully understand," Huckabee said.

[dgrffy]

That was interesting. Is this an editorial? I''m new to this page. I thought it was an editorial. Maybe it is, and I am just missing something. But the tone of this piece is definitely "he''s guilty, and that''s how we know everyone who says he is guilty is telling the truth." We''ll have to look at the evidence of course. But the tone of this article was certainly one of a jury that has reached a decision. Not good if it''s a news story, but OK if it''s a story (not that I am ready to convict just yet). I''m just curious.

[simonsez40]

The last thing we need in the office is a Ex-Preacher. What''s next Joel Osteen, the Pope, Robert Tilton or Billy Graham?

We need a leader that demonstrates morals but not a leader that MANDATES MORALS!

[kansas1946]

I was listening to a guy from Arkansas on the radio today, and he wasn''t very flattering to Huckabee. He said that he is charming and friendly unless you criticize or disagree with him, and then he said the guy has a tendency to go over the top and act cracy. My dad is from Arkansas and lived there during Huckabee and he thinks he is a nut. It also looks like, from the above article, that he lies if he is back into a corner. I think the glow is beginning to dim on this guy. He does sound a little nutty and that we don''t need. Of course, the Democrats would probably love him to be the candidate. That would probably cinch it for them.

[denn034]

His record is fair game.

[jn122736]

To CultureChang and gunownerdan:

False and disingenuous statements (intentional or not) are misleading.

Ron Paul cannot eliminate the IRS because taxes MUST be collected whatever form they are levied in.

The national debt must be repaid eventually, and until it is the interests on it will be a continuing annual tax INCREASE.

Ron Paul voted FOR tax cuts in time of war with no accompanying spending cuts to offset them.

He had to have known this would unbalance the budget, so therefore he voted to double the national debt thereby raising taxes by $1/4 trillion annually.

The interest on the national debt is now nearly $1/2 TRILLION, annually.
If Ron Paul did not know this then He is definitely NOT presidential material.

The federal government has no income other than taxes.

Does Ron Paul want to eliminate the federal government and have a private army financed by Big Business/billionaires (instead of our present military)?

[culturechang]

JN, Ron Paul advocates elimination of the IRS and current tax code. He said it right on Jay Leno. Read up. Ron Paul is not another more-of-the-same politics kinda guy. He may be the oldest candidate, but he is the least of a political dinosaur promoting more the same.

[gunownerdan]

"Ron Paul = republican = stay the course = borrow (actually increasing taxes) and spend"

Please educate yourself! Dr. Ron Paul is not another neocon.
ronpaul2008.com

[jumkey]

The DuMond story is actually much worse than CBS New lets on here - I guess it''s that "liberal" media again, eh?

The rightwing lynch mob that went after Clinton made the ridiculous asserted that DuMond was incarcerated and castrated on Clinton''s personal order (ala Vince Foster).

This was of course complete nonsense but Huckabee either believed this stupidity or was simply pandering to the crazies in his party. Either way he intervened directly in the case and secured this murderer and rapists release who went on to rape and murder again - at least once and maybe twice.

Now Huckabee (of course) blames everyone else for his lack of judgment and abrogation of his responsibilities for political gain which directly lead to the loss of an innocent life.

I wonder what the family of the murder victim thinks about Huckabee''s lies?

[jn122736]

Ron Paul = republican = stay the course = borrow (actually increasing taxes) and spend.

[gretagreen]

A liar.

[gkc99]

This backwoods clown is a holy roller.

[tylenol6]

RON PAUL is the best candidate. You wil soon find out.

[culturechang]

There are a whole lot of things in this country that are illegal that have no Constitutional basis if they were objectively challenged....but they are not objectively reviewed because we have too much religion imbedded into judges and justices.

For example, in my town, some religious politicians (who are also self proclaimed trial lawyers) went on a crusade to shutdown all the licensed spas in town saying they had "adverse secondary issues". What did that mean? Prostitution. So the pulled all the licenses even without any convictions. Some places were shutdown that had not even been charged. When questioned about the Constitutionality of it, the councilmen said "Getting a massage is a privalage not a right" Well excuse me. How many trial lawyers did it take to convert a right into a privilage so it could be more easily taken away? This is exactly the kind of politics we can expect from a guy like Huckabee. More of the same rights-robbing ***

[culturechang]

And that $2.2Billion was federal tax money.

[culturechang]

And dont forget the $2.2 billion Bush donated to religious charites....all while the Constitution says "govt shall make no establishment of religion". We aren''t stupid. We know what constitutional rights and privilages we have lost to mixing religion and politics. We dont need another religious hypocrite in the White House. And frankly, we have had too many attorneys already too.

[akoeppen]

Hey forthepeopl1,

I do not support a lot of what BushCheney Inc. does! I support Romney because his resume is packed with private sector accomplishments and not Political *** like all of the other politicians. Romney is a smart and successful man who understands the importance of free markets and family values.

[omega39-2009]

just as Democrats have become left-wing extremists who want to undercut 2nd amendment rights and consciously choose to become socialist states more like Venezuela and China (think of all the freedom those people have--not!).

The Democrats are more "populist", when polled, most Americans agree with far more of their agenda (universal health care, gun control) than with the Republicans.

[antoniof123]

Posted by memerider at 01:58 PM : Nov 28, 2007

Actually the Republican party was originally made up of libertarians not conservatives that is when they stood for Americans. They were fiscal and responsible to all the people in the country and when the people changed direction they did too. But some wing nut heard fiscal conservative and latched on to it and brought the rest of the religious wing nuts with them.

I will never go back to the family value party of god in my life time.

[forthepeopl1]

Ron Paul, is a american first,then a Dr,then rep. so as american he understands that this governemnt is and has been for the rich.

he americans are wakeing up to that fact, because we do need a american revolution, to put our country back on course.

look at his record in congress, it follows the constituion as all should..hes not a sell out like most, kissing up to big lobbiest.

[forthepeopl1]

hey akoeppen- sorry to tell you this, the ones voteing to stay the course in washington are the ones that are mentally unstable, like bush and cheney are,

so what you are saying that bush and cheney have fallen our constitution???not



1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. www.fairus.org
%u2026.hardly anything in a trillion dollar+ budget

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. www.cis.org
%u2026.even smaller

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. www.cis.org
%u2026.again, not much in the total picture

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally. http://transcripts.cnn.com
%u2026..education is good if they are going to be here any way

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com
%u2026these are American citizens! What%u2019s the point?