Thursday, December 06, 2007
National Media (BrokenHearts) Huckabee
Of course, it sounded too good to be true.
An affable outsider with a quick wit and warm personality taking on the high-priced stiffs for the Republican nomination. A pastor, even, instead of the corporate hucksters and shills the GOP spits out like sunflower seeds.
But how many times have hearts lept, as attractive strangers from across a room slowly steered towards each other, only to find one of them had snot hanging from their nose and stains on their sleeve?
Salon.com | Mike Huckabee's record
Alas. The 2008 Election Media's new darlings have not borne up well under closer scrutiny. And remember: At a time that the GOP is desperate to retain power, THIS is the best they could do for a field of candidates. (Has there been a Tom Tancredo sighting recently?) Cheeesh...
Rudy Giuliani, after being coronated in the early stages of this obscenely long campaign, is imploding faster than an old Vegas hotel.
We've written earlier about Mike Huckabee being outed by the very people of Arkansas who know him best—but this time, it's on a national stage. So, the attention from the national MSM ratchets up the stakes a bit.
Now, maybe it stems from growing up poor in Hope, AR, but it seems ol' Pastor Mike has a wee bit of a sticky-finger problem with the array of perks that come from celebrity and position—along with that Bill Clinton vendetta you've read about, which led him to uncage a monster to kill twice.
Arkansas Times' Max Brantley in Salon:
(GN emphases) In the governor's office, his grasp never exceeded his reach. Furniture he'd received to doll up his office was carted out with him when he left, after he'd crushed computer hard drives so nobody could ever get a peek behind the curtain of the Huckabee administration.
Until my paper, the Arkansas Times, blew the whistle, he converted a governor's mansion operating account into a personal expense account, claiming public money for a doghouse, dry-cleaning bills, panty hose and meals at Taco Bell. He tried to claim $70,000 in furnishings provided by a wealthy cotton grower for the private part of the residence as his own, until he learned ethics rules prevented it. When a disgruntled former employee disclosed memos revealing all this, the Huckabee camp shut her up by repeatedly suggesting she might be vulnerable to prosecution for theft because she'd shared documents generated by the state's highest official.
He ran the State Police airplane into the ground, many of the miles in pursuit of political ends. Inauguration funds were used to buy clothing for his wife. He once took control of the state Republican Party's campaign account -- then swore the account had been somebody else's responsibility when it ran afoul of federal election laws. He repeated the pattern when he claimed in a newspaper story that his staff controlled the account to stage his second inauguration. When I filed a formal ethics complaint over what appeared to be an improper appropriation of donated money, he told a different story, disavowing responsibility for the money. He thus avoided another punishment from an Ethics Commission, which had sanctioned him on five other occasions. He dodged nine other complaints (though none, despite his counter-complaints, was held to be frivolous). In one case, he was saved by the swing vote of a woman who left the chairmanship of the Ethics Commission days later to take a state job. She listed the governor as a reference on the job application. Finally, unbelievably, Huckabee once sued to overturn the ban on gifts to him.
My newspaper chronicled all this and so much more. Since my paper wrote critically about him, I didn't often experience the "nice" Mike Huckabee that so many national commentators have enjoyed. In fact, ultimately Huckabee ended press services, which are publicly financed, to my newspaper. The Arkansas Times received no news releases from the governor's office, no notices of news conferences, no responses to routine questions. He was condemned for this by journalism organizations.
Truth is, we were happy to be thrown into the governor's briar patch. The world is full of disaffected Huckabee campaign workers, former employees and garden-variety Republicans who love to pass on tips about a governor they'd found self-centered and untrustworthy. If you think he left a well of warm feelings in Arkansas, note that Hillary Clinton had raised more money in Arkansas at last report and that a recent University of Arkansas Poll showed her a 35 to 8 percent leader over Huckabee in the presidential preferences of Arkansas residents. Only one-third of 33 Republican legislators have said they will support him for president.
Thanks to such unhappy people, we've broken numerous stories about Huckabee, from the first early word of his destruction of state computer hard drives (more fully reported by the Democrat-Gazette); to the time and place of his announcement for president; to his sale and purchase of homes; to his infamous "wedding registry." About the last: Three decades after the Huckabees' wedding, his wife registered at department stores so their new home, post-governor's mansion, could be stocked with gifts of linens, toasters and other suitable furnishings. In early 2007, our reporting also prompted the former first lady to decline dozens of place settings of governor's mansion china and Irish crystal that had been purchased with tax-deductible contributions to the Governor's Mansion Association, nominally set up to improve the mansion, not to buy going-away presents for former occupants.
Ouch. That's just a portion of the sins Brantley outlines.
Rudy, Mike. The GOP field may not be able to field a candidate if they keep dropping like flies.
Mitt Romney is an airhead supreme, but with all his vast fortune, at least he gives the appearance of being an ethical one.
Maybe it's simply time to disband the Republican Party, and allow the adults to govern the daily affairs of the American public.
Just asking.
posted by Gotham 5:32 PM 
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