I Heart Huck-irony

Let me preface this post by saying I'm not entirely sure what to make of new rightwing darling Mike Huckabee. He's always struck me as a decent, hardworking guy with good intentions. At the very least, he seemed honest - a breath of fresh air in politics, much less the GOP. But while I believe he's not a total criminal, I also disagree vehemently with many of his viewpoints. The dude's a Southern Baptist minister after all - could I really see eye-to-eye with him on more than a handful of issues?


Regardless, I can't help but let loose a cynical chuckle at this latest development, courtesy of the Huff.

In summary, Huckabee campaign hard grant parole to a convicted rapist, Wayne Dumond, in 1999, allowing him to leave prison 25 years before his sentence was up. What was the motivation for releasing Dumond? Wait for it...wait for it...

Dumond raped a relative of Bill Clinton's and for this, the Christian Right thought he ought to be rewarded. I mean, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?

Huckabee rationalized his lobbying for Dumond's release by claiming "There's nothing any of us could ever do. None of us could've predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out."

Now the Huff has obtained letters from Dumond's victims, predicting that he would attack again and "he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time." These letters were made available to Huckabee, yet parole was still pursued by the then-Arkansas governor. Predictably, Dumond then went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Does this case sound familiar? I'm referring, of course, to the skewering of Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis due to his part in the Willie Horton case.

The difference between the Dumond case and Willie Horton is the motivation for their release. When Horton committed armed robbery and rape, he was on a weekend furlough program, a work-release program supported by Michael Dukakis. It was hardly an issue of Dukakis lobbying on Horton's behalf because his future criminal behavior was unpredictable. Dukakis was supporting a program intended to better the lives of prison inmates by allowing them to enter the workforce, not releasing a convicted rapist to quench the vitriolic requests of anti-Clinton religious zealots.

Now, it seems, this case of rightwing frothing-at-the-mouth may come back to bite the Christian Right in the ass, as it could very well spell the end of Mr. Huckabee's presidential ambitions.

It would be a shame - just think how many political favors he could garner through presidential pardons of those who have raped his constituents' political enemies...