Papamoka Straight Talk: The Not so Innocent Huckabee

Mike Huckabee is not as innocent as he would like you to believe. Apparently, the former Governor of Arkansas has a very colorful past and he’s trying to out run it by pretending yesterday does not exist once you cross the state line. With his front runner so called political status comes the price of not just one organization looking at his past but millions.

Bribe, as defined by the dictionary is money paid in order to influence opinion of someone in a position of trust. No matter how you spin the facts of money passing from one person to the checking account of Mike Huckabee it’s still a bribe. Over at the New York Times they have this to say on some of the Governors past…

In its three-year life span, the organization, Action America, collected $119,916 from a dozen or so donors. Among them were former Senator Bob Dole’s political action committee, an Arkansas cotton gin owner who had been jailed for stock fraud, and R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco giant that had opposed the Clinton health plan. As for Mr. Huckabee, he ended up with $61,500 for his efforts before becoming governor in July 1996 and shuttering the group. - New York Times

Is this the vast political experience that he will bring to the White House if he is elected President? I believe the nation has had enough of “This White House for Sale” tactics and policy. Always in search of truth and justice I Google searched Huckabee Ethics Violations and was amazed to see some of the things this politician aka man of the cloth has been accused of.

Huckabee Depletes Emergency Fund, Destructs Government Property as He Leaves Office. "Former Gov. Mike Huckabee depleted the governor's office emergency fund in the final weeks of his administration in part to pay for the destruction of computer hard drives in his office. That left Gov. Mike Beebe, who replaced Huckabee on Jan. 9, with no emergency funds for the last half of fiscal 2007. Documents that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, describe the destruction of the computer drives, as ordered by Huckabee's office, and Huckabee complaining strongly about his cell phone and Blackberry not working" [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/19/07]

Snip-a-bee

Why do you suppose the good Reverend aka Governor would have all of those hard drives destroyed? Was the Governor’s office doing something it was not supposed to be doing? Maybe they wanted to hide the fact that they were all bad spellers! Then again they could have been slackers and spent the entire time Huckabee was in office online shopping? Ya, that must be it!

Huckabee Defended Parole of Convicted Rapist Who Later Committed Murder. Governor Huckabee found himself defending the "parole, during Huckabee's governorship, of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, who later committed a murder in Missouri. Huckabee said he regretted Dumond's actions but denied playing a proactive role in the release decision by Arkansas' parole board, and claimed that most of the board's members had been appointed by his predecessors." [New York Times, 1/29/07] - Democrats.org

How dare those pesky Democrat’s try to lambaste the Governor. You can never trust them as a realistic source for news about HACK-a-Bee so off I went to Fox News and there was even more about him taking “Gifts”.

Two of the complaints against Huckabee pertain to unreported gifts — the canoe and a $200 stadium blanket received by his wife, Janet. Two stem from cash the governor or his wife received but did not initially report. The panel also ruled in 2003 that Huckabee's campaign violated state law when it used its funds to pay for an event during the summer of 2002 called Gospel Fest

During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas secretary of state's office. (He accepted 187 gifts in his first three years as governor but was not required to report their value.) - Fox News

What Fox News didn’t tell us is that the $150,000 could have all been in the form of Weight Watchers coupons. He has lost a few pounds recently. It could have happened that way! Maybe…

Papamoka