Posted on 01/12/2008 5:22:11 PM PST by nwrep
Edited on 01/12/2008 5:54:38 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
(no link)
`DON’T REGULATE MY FRIENDSHIPS,’ HUCKABEE SAYS OF PAL OSBORNE
The Commercial Appeal - February 9, 2000
Author: David A. Lieb The Associated Press
Gov. Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that he has a clear conscience about accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from a philanthropist with extravagant ways whom he considers a friend.
Huckabee defended the gifts from Jennings Osborne by saying he’s never asked Osborne for anything and that Osborne has never sought anything in exchange for the gifts .
Financial disclosure forms for Huckabee , his family and office show he received $112,000 worth of gifts during 1999 - almost half from Osborne.
“If you have a clear conscience about what you’re doing, then the issue is not for someone else to decide what my conscience should be,” Huckabee said while appearing on Little Rock radio station KSYG. “Don’t regulate my friendships and don’t prohibit my friendships,” the governor said.
Huckabee made similar comments Monday when questioned by reporters after a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion.
State law requires public servants to list gifts received by the official or a spouse valued at more than $100 and those valued at more than $250 received by dependent children.
Osborne donated $53,382 in goods and services, including $23,032 worth of clothing and $11,700 for once-a-week pastries sent to workers at the Governor’s Office and the mansion.
Other Osborne gifts included $10,400 for a year’s worth of flowers for the Governor’s Mansion and $7,500 for a May 12 party for the governor’s staff.
“I’ll admit when I found out how much the value of this was, I was astonished,” Huckabee said.
But the governor said he had no qualms about keeping the gifts .
“A lot of the things he just had sent over,” Huckabee said Monday.
“I guess I could always say no. But I’m not going to let being governor keep me from having friends.”
Osborne has said he had no idea of the total value of the gifts and, in fact, does not check the price when buying such things as suits.
Osborne is known for his extravagance, including his grand Christmas light displays, free fireworks and his mammoth-sized barbecue servings at various events. He operates Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center.
Last February, Huckabee appointed Osborne to the War Memorial Stadium Commission, which currently is fighting a proposal to move one of three annual University of Arkansas football games from Little Rock to the Fayetteville campus.
Huckabee has come out in favor of keeping three games a year at War Memorial Stadium.
But the governor says his friendship with Osborne goes back to before he became the state’s chief executive.
(snip)
You know what, I completely & totally forgot about his wife running for State office while he was running for reelection as Governor of Arkansas. Why is this stuff not being brought out?
I’ll tell you why. Because the Liberal Media wants Huck to be the GOP nominee then they’ll kill him. They’re “keeping they’re powder dry” knowing that when they finish with him in the General Election, it will make ‘08 look like 1972 and 1984, only this time it will be the Republican getting trounced. And be trounced he will be.
Anybody who thinks America will elect a Baptist preacher POTUS, is kidding themselves. They will elect a Muslim (Barack Hussein Osama Obama) but not a Baptist preacher.
Thanks for all of this invaluable information, magg.
Huckster ping
Thanks for the additional info that you’ve posted. This guy sickens me.
(no link)
HUCKABEE : MORRIS STILL ‘FRIEND’ - RAPS AFFAIR, BUT WON’T SCORN EX-ADVISER
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - September 4, 1996
Author: Joan I. Duffy The Commercial Appeal Little Rock Bureau
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee expressed ‘’sorrow and sadness’’ Tuesday at the scandal that has befallen a campaign consultant the Republican governor shared for a time with President Clinton.
Dick Morris, the consultant credited with driving Clinton’s move to the right, resigned on the day of Clinton’s Democratic Convention acceptance speech after a tabloid published a story that Morris carried on a nine-month romance with a $200-a-night prostitute. The story said Morris told the woman confidential White House information and allowed her to listen in to telephone conversations with the President.
‘’I consider him a friend and I don’t turn on friends who do something I don’t approve of,’’ Huckabee said Tuesday.
Morris, who helped direct Clinton’s 1980 comeback election for governor, became Huckabee ‘s consultant in the 1993 special election for lieutenant governor. Huckabee won that race after losing a 1992 contest against U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.). Huckabee and Morris teamed up again in the 1994 lieutenant governor’s race and the consultant was with Huckabee at the start of his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by David Pryor (D-Ark.)
Huckabee announced last year that he and Morris had parted company after Morris resumed consulting with Clinton. At the time, Huckabee cited the possibility of conflicts and concern over campaign security.
Huckabee was asked Tuesday if Morris ever shared White House information with him.
‘’I would characterize the relationship as one strictly focused on the races in 1993 and 1994,’’ Huckabee said. ‘’I was always confident with the level of confidentiality.’’
Huckabee skirted questions about when he last spoke to the consultant. News reports have identified Morris as the person in the White House whom Huckabee contacted last month when he needed the administration’s help on an abortion issue.
Huckabee refused last month to allow the state to pay the Medicaid bill for an abortion performed on a 15-year-old retarded girl raped by her step-father, citing Arkansas’s constitutional ban on publicly-funded abortions.
The governor announced a plan to send Medicaid abortion bills to a private fund for payment after saying he cleared the arrangement with the White House.
I remember reading one time, and I think it was after Iowa, about how she said they were going to have so much fun in the White House after winning the election. Does anyone else remember reading that?
I thought Mrs. Huck was supposed to “graciously submit” to her husband. Hypocrite alert.
Some of the people of Arkansas are suing Huck for some of his more outrageous ventures.
Arkansas Citizen to Sue Mike Huckabee Over His Involvement With Establishing Mexican Consulate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1942884/posts
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0807/448893.html
Huckabee Asks Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Hard Drives
“Huckabee said in court papers filed Monday that Parsons’ lawsuit violates the qualified immunity public servants are granted in Arkansas under the state’s constitution. He also said Parsons has not served him in the lawsuit.
“
In a small departure from most of Huckabee’s campaign events, his wife, Janet, took the stage to address the crowd and introduce the band.
“I can’t wait to be your first lady because I think it is going to be too cool, and we are going to have too much fun,” Janet Huckabee said.
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/huckabee-packs-them-in-and-puts-on-a-show-2008-01-01.html
Ping
gotta keep this for reference!
Bump
WOW.....This guy gets creepier and creepier, almost by the hour.
He simply cannot be the GOP standard bearer. Can’t happen.
Thanks for the ping.
Hank
OH No, shes a power hungry bigin’.
Just what we need.
S-h-h. Listen. I think I hear some Bibles thumping...
I know this is the New York Times and I like to take anything they say with a large grain of salt but something about Huckabee doesn’t pass my smell test and this coming from a Fundamentalist Christian.
He sure does.
Thanks for the ping.
You're welcome!
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