Huckabee's Son

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A Son�??s Past Deeds Come Back To Bite Huckabee
By Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey | NEWSWEEK
Dec 24, 2007 Issue | Updated: 2:51 p.m. ET Dec 15, 2007

As Mike Huckabee gains in the polls, the former Arkansas governor is finding that his record in office is getting more scrutiny. One issue likely to get attention is his handling of a sensitive family matter: allegations that one of his sons was involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. The incident led to the dismissal of David Huckabee, then 17, from his job as a counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark.

It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney�?? bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group�??to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request, and no charges were ever filed. But John Bailey, then the director of Arkansas’s state police, tells NEWSWEEK that Governor Huckabee’s chief of staff and personal lawyer both leaned on him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor’s request.

Bailey, a career officer who had been appointed chief by Huckabee’s Democratic predecessor, said he viewed the lawyer’s intervention as improper and terminated the conversation. Seven months later, he was called into Huckabee’s office and fired. “I’ve lost confidence in your ability to do your job,” Bailey says Huckabee told him. One reason Huckabee cited was “I couldn’t get you to help me with my son when I had that problem,” according to Bailey. “Without question, [Huckabee] was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son,” says I. C. Smith, the former FBI chief in Little Rock, who worked closely with Bailey and called him a “courageous” and “very solid” professional.

Huckabee called Bailey’s account “totally untrue” and described him as a “bitter” exemployee. “I asked him to resign because he had so alienated the entire state police,” he said. “It had nothing to do with my son.” Brenda Turner, Huckabee’s then chief of staff, and Kevin Crass, the Huckabee family lawyer, also disputed Bailey’s account, although both acknowledged talking to him about the dog killing.

"I asked him, ‘Is it normal for the state police to �?� investigate something that happened at a Boy Scout camp?’ " Turner says. “We wanted the same treatment that anybody else would get.” (Animal cruelty in Arkansas is a misdemeanor, not a felony.)

The details of the incident remain murky. The Animal Legal Defense Fund got an anonymous fax that summer alleging that David Huckabee and another youth had been involved in the hanging of a stray dog at the camp on July 11. A local animal-rights activist, Joyce Hillard, later contacted the camp director. Notes of Hillard’s report to the defense fund read, “Boys confessed & were fired. Dir. is making excuses, saying dog was sic & boys were putting him out of his misery.”

(The director told NEWSWEEK only that a stray dog was “put down” and that the counselors were fired for violating the Scout credo to be “kind.”) The father of the other counselor was quoted by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in August 1998 as saying that his son found the dog “hung over a limb and choking.” David Huckabee did not respond to requests for comment.

(In April of this year, he was arrested�??and paid a fine�??when he forgot to remove a loaded gun from his carry-on luggage at Little Rock airport.) His father told NEWSWEEK that his son did not engage in “intentional torture.” “There was a dog that apparently had mange and was absolutely, I guess, emaciated.” A campaign official says David “regrets” the incident and notes that he later made Eagle Scout.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/78241/

But, you see the why this isn’t going to be an issue, right?

white + governor’s son + 17 year old kid == boys will be boys

black + professional athlete + gambling == burn in hell you ignorant animal killer

As much as I despise Huckabee, had it been my kid, I would have done the same. I wouldn’t condemn my teenage idiot to a criminal record and jail time if I had the means to stop it.

Yes, his kid was a bit of a douche. The doesn’t effect who he is as a candidate, to me at least. Hell I could care less that the candidates have “dirty” teenage pasts themselves.

Teenagers are morons. I know because I am one. We can’t use grammar, we’re arrogant and think we’re right all the time, and we do dumb, dumb shit.

David Huckabee, if he’d still kill a dog today, is a jerk on the same level as M. Vick. However, there IS a difference between a 17 year old kid, and a multi-millionaire professional adult. To compare the two is unfair, IMHO.

Whoops… didn’t notice he fired an police officer because of the incident. Ok, dirtbag move, he should have at least tried to bribe him or beg or something… heh

[quote]Mick28 wrote:
What are these candidates going to do if elected President that’s all I care about.

[/quote]

Agreed. However, his political behavior in this case, denying the incident and firing the investigator, could be a possible indicator that he is easily swayed into helping himself at the expense of his underlings.

I still think he’s a crazy douche, but this kind of shit isn’t what’s stopping me from even considering voting for him.

I’m not against him because he is Christian. I am against him because he quite obviously lets his religion influence his policy and decision making and he has shown that he has little to no fiscal responsibility.

I’m not worried he’ll become President. I’m worried Mitt or Rudy will take him as a VP to pull the Christian Right vote, and he’ll take advantage of the crazy power Cheney has brought to the VP position.

It’s not that the Christian Right won’t support a Mormon, they just won’t turn out in as great numbers for him. With Huckabee on the ticket, the whole Evangelical ticket is gonna turn out for Mitt.

Oh, and when Mitt made his little Mormon explanation, GB Sn. was in the background. This tells me either GB likes him, or (more likely) the GOP wants Romney as their man.

[quote]Mick28 wrote:
Beowolf wrote:
he has shown that he has little to no fiscal responsibility.

That’s the part I dislike about him as well.

I’m not worried he’ll become President. I’m worried Mitt or Rudy will take him as a VP to pull the Christian Right vote, and he’ll take advantage of the crazy power Cheney has brought to the VP position.

He’s a superb candidate for the VP spot isn’t he? I don’t think Romney would take him because by then he won’t need him. He’ll have all the Christian right in his back pocket (remember he’s running against Hillary most likely).

But Rudy…oh yea…he’s a natural to balance the ticket. And it would probably help Rudy immensely as the CR will be staying home unless he does something akin to placing Huckabee on the backside of that ticket.

I guess we’ll see.

Oh and good insight into Huckabee’s fiscal follies.[/quote]

Huckabee would certainly be useful for boosting turnout amongst the religious right, but otherwise he doesn’t complement the other candidates too well in the general. Of the five major republican contenders (loosely defined), only McCain has any sort of military or foreign policy background. That may not matter to those who believe that “double Guantanamo” and threatening extensively comprise a viable and complete foreign policy, but it will matter to the swing voters by the time next November rolls around if the eventual democratic candidate takes a VP candidate to exploit it. The political climate is becoming increasingly conducive to those seen to have a diplomatic background. This of course is putting aside other incompatibilities, like a Giuliani/Huckabee ticket completely alienating the remaining small government elements of the party.

It also makes for bar jokes-
A morman and a baptist minister walk into a bar…
A [insert just about anything in Giulliani’s background] and a minister walk into a bar…
If we can get them to commit to Lieberman as secstate then we’ll have a complete setup.