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Newsweek: A Son’s Past Deeds Come Back To Bite Huckabee

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I

Incognito

Troll
I see Newsweek has been looking to The Onion for headline inspirations...:lol

Anyway, here is the story

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.
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G

Gaborn

Member
Well, I'm not sure it's fair (the son vs. the candidate) but this story will NOT play well with most average Americans. I'm not sure how much it will hurt him, but it will probably affect his support.
 
W

WickedAngel

Banned
I'm one of the first people who would say that the act itself (If it actually happened) is offensive...but what in the fuck does that have to do with Mike? It's a crazy story to wrap your head around.
 
W

WickedAngel

Banned
Trax416 said:
Another article I read said he hung the dog, slip it's throat then stoned it to death with another boy.
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A hanging would be bad enough, really. It's a shitty way to die even when it is done to maximize the speed of death (Utilizing weight correctly to snap the neck)...if they simply threw a rope over a branch and tugged, it would have suffered significantly.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
Incognito said:
PhoenixDark's little act as a joke character needs to be hanged.
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Why are you afraid of Mike Huckabee? If he gets the nomination (I still think "Rom" had the advantage there) he's not going to be the Mondale pushover that many dem strategists are expecting.
 
B

Blackface

Banned
Gaborn said:
At least that implies the dog was dead.
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Dogs are not like humans. You can hang some dogs and they don't die. Neck is to strong. It's not like they were on a bridge and tossed the dog off letting the force snap it's neck.
 
S

Stoney Mason

Banned
PhoenixDark said:
Why are you afraid of Mike Huckabee? If he gets the nomination (I still think "Rom" had the advantage there) he's not going to be the Mondale pushover that Drudge put up a story about that's complete BS.
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Fixed
 
I

Incognito

Troll
PhoenixDark said:
Why are you afraid of Mike Huckabee? If he gets the nomination (I still think "Rom" had the advantage there) he's not going to be the Mondale pushover that many dem strategists are expecting.
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Who's afraid of Huckabee besides the fatcats in the GOP?
 
F

fart

Savant
Trax416 said:
Dogs are not like humans. You can hang some dogs and they don't die. Neck is to strong. It's not like they were on a bridge and tossed the dog off letting the force snap it's neck.
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the trachea is still exposed. hang it for long enough it'll die of strangulation like anything else. hope that's what happened.
 
A

APF

Member
Huckabee's son may have done something ten years ago that I might not have approved of? Thank God the Romney campaign brought this to my attention!
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
PhoenixDark said:
This happened in 98 and no one gave a shit. Why are liberals so afraid of our next president?
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More like OTHER Republicans are afraid of Huckabee.
 
T

Triumph

Banned
PhoenixDark said:
Why are you afraid of Mike Huckabee? If he gets the nomination (I still think "Rom" had the advantage there) he's not going to be the Mondale pushover that many dem strategists are expecting.
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You are an ignorant teenager that enjoyed Forrest Gump. I can't think of a worse person to take political advice from.
 
N

NWO

Member
PhoenixDark said:
This happened in 98 and no one gave a shit.
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They probably didn't give a shit because his daddy covered the thing up and made it a non issue. I'm pretty sure if the story got out the same people who were attacking Vick because of what he did would be after his son as well.

Here's a picture of the dog killer:

071214_PS11HuckabeeJr_vm-vertical.jpg
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
Um, there is a sorta-new wrinkle to the story outside of LOLZ TEH DOG:

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.
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The cover-up, not the actual crime itself, is what is fishy here.
 
A

Amon37

Member
I'm sure I'm a political noob and haven't really been following all that is presidential, but I have a question.

I know the media will dig up anything on any candidate but really how would this incident, even if true, make this guy any less of a president?
 
C

Clevinger

Member
PhoenixDark said:
This happened in 98 and no one gave a shit. Why are liberals so afraid of our next president?
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No one gave a shit because his dad wasn't running for President of the United fucking States in 98 on a "Oh hey, I'm a really nice Christian family guy" platform. And, if the article is to believed in its entirety, it's also because Huckabee had the charges quashed.
 
S

SUPREME1

Banned
PhoenixDark said:
This happened in 98 and no one gave a shit. Why are liberals so afraid of our next president?
Click to expand...


Well, in '98.. his daddy wasn't running for the presidency.

Also, with the criminals in our current admin.. I'd be scared of ANYTHING that had GOP backing.
 
T

Tom_Cody

Member
There is no way Huckabee can win the general election and he is legitimately under qualified to even be in the race. I hope stories like this sink him sooner than later, even if this specific topic is a little ridiculous.
 
Squirrel Killer

Squirrel Killer

Member
Fragamemnon said:
The cover-up, not the actual crime itself, is what is fishy here.
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No, no, the crime is pretty damned fishy too.

Amon37 said:
I'm sure I'm a political noob and haven't really been following all that is presidential, but I have a question.

I know the media will dig up anything on any candidate but really how would this incident, even if true, make this guy any less of a president?
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Sure, just because his kid's a psychopath doesn't mean Huckabee would be any less of a president, however, it sure doesn't make him any more of one either.

Tom_Cody said:
There is no way Huckabee can win the general election and he is legitimately under qualified to even be in the race. I hope stories like this sink him sooner than later, even if this specific topic is a little ridiculous.
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Right, because, as everyone knows, Arkansas governorship is clearly not a valid qualification to become President.
 
R

ronito

Member
No. Having a psycho kid wont make or break your election. However, one thing we forget campaigns aren't destroyed in one swoop. You'll hardly see one event as destroying someone, but it's usually little holes punched in the hull here and there. Eventually it will sink. The general rule of politics is "If it doesn't help me, it hurts me."

This doesn't help him.
 
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