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Mike Huckabee is a very popular guy, but not so much in conservative Republican circles. Most people I speak with who are more than one issue voters, i.e. abortion, see Mike Huckabee as too liberal for their tastes.
No, Mike Huckabee is a popular guy in Democratic circles. They want to run against Mike and are both building him up and preparing to take him down.
It is best summed up in the words of Ed, from Ed's Blog on Democrats.org. He writes:
I think no matter who the Democrats run, they can beat Huckabee in a general election. It would be a shoe-in.
According to the Drudge Report, Democrats are holding their fire on Huckabee until after he secures the party's nomination. Then, open fire:
"He'll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill," mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.
Not only are they not attacking him, Terry McAuliffe was on Fox News last night praising him. What is the deal?
Mike Huckabee is a fatally flawed candidate for the Republicans. As governor, Mike Huckabee did some things that are really going to turn off American voters. The biggest will probably be his role in the parole of a convicted rapist.
Wayne Dumond
In 1972, Wayne Dumond helped kill a man. He, along with a couple other men, used the man's 17 year old daughter to lure him to an area where they beat him to death by repeatedly hitting him in the head with a hammer. Dumond agreed to testify against the other men, so he was not charged.
A year later, he was charged with molesting a teenager in a Tacoma, WA parking lot. He was given counseling and probation.
Then, in 1976, he raped a woman and was charged with the crime. He again escaped prison by getting counseling.
In 1984, Wayne Dumond raped a 17 year old cheerleader. He was finally sentenced to a prison term. Life plus twenty years. That should be the end of the story. But then came Mike Huckabee.
Wayne Dumond
Huckabee lobbied for his release.Two of the main advocates for Dumond's pardon were Steve Dunleavy and Jay Cole. Cole was a Baptist pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville. An Arkansas state official stated, "The problem with the governor is that he listens to Jay Cole and reads Steve Dunleavy and believes them ... without doing other substantative work."
In fact, before Mike Huckabee became governor of Arkansas in 1996, he had already met with Dumond's wife and expressed his desire to see Dumond free. Then, on September 26, 1996, he let the people in on his plan to commute Dumond's sentence to time served. While it may be hard to believe, Dumond's victims had a problem with that plan. So did law enforcement officials, female legislators and anyone in Arkansas with half a brain.
The 17 year old victim of Dumond, Ashley Stevens told Huckabee: "This is how close I was to Wayne Dumond. I will never forget his face. And now I don't want you ever to forget my face." Huckabee was unswayed.
On October 31, 1996, Huckabee met with the parole board to talk about Wayne Dumond. In Januray, 1997, Huckabee wrote Dumond. In the letter, he wrote:
"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."
That same month, and five months after denying him parole, Dumond was granted parole. Huckabee said:
I concur with the board's action and hope the lives of all those involved can move forward. The action of the board accomplishes what I sought to do in considering an earlier request for commutation ...In light of the action of the board, my original intent to commute the sentence to time served is no longer relevant."
Dumond was finally released in October of 1999. He moved to Smithville, MO in August of 2000. Less than a year later, he sexually assaulted and killed Carol Sue Shields.
Many of the members of the parole board credit Mike Huckabee for the parole, saying he influenced them to vote in favor of it. Huckabee claims today to have had no official role in the release of Wayne Dumond, which is factual. But while he had no official role, he did have influence. The Huffington Post details Huckabee's role in Dumond's release. Huckabee has refused to accept his role in the release of Dumond and his later murder of Carol Sue Shields. He has even gone as far as blaming the governor who preceded him, Jim Guy Tucker, for the release of Dumond.
This incident alone may be enough to keep Huckabee from the White House. But it isn't the only skeleton in the closet.
Democrats also have allegations of getting his son off of charges of animal cruelty. They can use Huckabee's soft stance on illegal immigration, including his role in a Mexican consulate in Little Rock and allegations of running Arkansas as a sanctuary state.
Then there is his record of increasing taxes while governor, and his current push for the Fair Tax. While I also advocate the Fair Tax, I can see the Democrats confusing voters with what the implementation of Fair Tax will mean to them. For example:
Independent analyses have concluded that the tax would have to be far higher than 23% to maintain the government at current levels -- especially if Congress did not eliminate popular tax breaks, such as the mortgage-interest deduction.
William G. Gale, a tax expert at the centrist Brookings Institution think tank, estimates that the levy could run as high as 50% -- a tax so steep that it would be an invitation to mass tax evasion.
"It's a crackpot plan," said Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist and former Treasury Department official who is a leading critic of the sales tax. "Anyone who supports it should not be taken seriously."
The serious attacks on Huckabee's record thus far have been from other Republican candidates, and they have not covered things as critically as the Democrats will in the General Election. Democrats are not saying much of anything to the press about Huckabee, even when he was leading in Iowa. It reminds me of that old movie cliche, where the main characters are in a dangerous situation, yet everything seems calm.
"Quiet, isn't it?" one says.
The other replies, "Yeah...too quiet."
We should be very concerned when the Democrats are not attacking a leading Republican candidate.
