Posted on 12/17/2007 1:46:43 PM PST by Aristotelian
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 groupto 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
“And this story about his kid, just strikes me as petty nit-picking.”
Go kill your neighbor’s dog and make sure they know you did it. You’ll see how petty and nit-picking they are about it.
There are some things kids do that I will leave the parents out of but STRANGLING a dog is not one of them. Since Newsweek is the source I can’t be sure this even happened so I’ll wait for further sources. Doesn’t really matter as I think Huck is a scumbag.
Excuse me but as a PK and a TK (Teacher’s kid, my father was actually both), this has nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, to do with being a PK. I knew several PKs growing up as well. Some were out of control, others were not. But this is sick. Whether or not Huckleberry covered this up or not, the fact that the kid did this says something about his upbringing. And anybody that brought up a kid like that I do not want near the White House.
But none of the other candidates have the real world experience of running a survive by making a profit type outfit. The US govt has the largest and most complex budget of any other govt or private corporation. We need a successful business man in WH, not a tax and spend liberal. There are some 1000 separate agencies in the federal govt spending ourselves into bankruptcies. Have you seen the size of national debt lately? And the unfunded liabilities in entitlements? They add up to something like 65 TRILLION.
Huckabee, Giuliani, McCain & Thompson have never met a payroll, never have run a profit making business. We had enough pure politicians in the White House.
The religious angle won’t matter if the country goes bankrupt for our children and grandchildren. How can I trust Huckabee when he expanded Arkansas budget from 6 Billion to 16 Billion as governor? And the democrats are all 10 times worse. Thompson is great but does he have the fire in the belly? Does he have the sharp mind to ferret out the thousands of wasteful spending programs in DC?
So you see my friend, the most important issue to me and my family is how much they raid my wallet. That affects where we can live, where the kids can go to college, literally what we can eat.
As for the pro-life angle, we had millions of abortions during Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43. And they were/are all pro-life. The president can’t stop abortions. The only way to protect a unborn life is to get the country behind it. When that happens, abortion will disappear. Then we won’t need abortion police to protect life.
I was afraid that someone would take offense to my statement which is why I included qualifiers and specified that it was a trait of the children of particularly ambitious Preachers.
In Bible College, my classmates were very often PKs or MKs and those were the most likely to violate rules and expect to not pay any price. It was a very prestigious school in my denomination and attracted the children of prominent families within that denomination.
Sweeping a child’s mis-deeds under the rug to prevent embarrassment is a good way to create a sociopathic personality trait. I hope you don’t take any of this personally as your presence on this forum would argue against you having had any such problem.
Photographer's daughter and terrified dog pose with the Huckabees.
Wow, this is disturbing. I only just heard of this. Ugh. I have been uncomfortable with this growing drum beat of so-called Huckabee power. I don’t like him and don’t trust him and he definately is not a conservative. I see him separated at birth from Gomer Pyle and not some great sage. His time is limited and soon Huckabee will be a faint memory of our past. Not soon enough for me but it will happen.
OK, you've missed exactly half of my vital point. Go back over my previous post. Let's say he said the same flip-flopping things about immigration, about same-sex marriage, about taxes, about pick-any-issue you want to. You're going to then tell me with a straight face that you can trust this flip-flopper about whatever pet issue you want to insert in my example? He's going to be trustworthy with the exact track record I showed you?
I don't know about you, but I weigh "waffles" as part of character (like John Kerry, for example) & promises kept or broken is likewise part of that character.
The religious angle wont matter if the country goes bankrupt for our children and grandchildren. How can I trust Huckabee when he expanded Arkansas budget from 6 Billion to 16 Billion as governor? And the democrats are all 10 times worse.
OK, no angle, religious or not, will matter if Romney becomes the Mormon mainstream pied piper to hell. Bill Clinton was a presidential role-model disaster for our young generation re: the scandal. Any president the voting block elevates to the highest role model position in our land accords the highest vote of respectability to the public aspects of what that person stands for. Illustration: If that person, for example, is a neatly tucked-away communist who's adopted a mask of "family values," & we elect him president, we are telling our kids that communism is OK to emulate. Furthermore, we are handing proselytizing fuel to communists everywhere. It would fuel their door-to-door boldness and other aggressive campaigns to be able to say, "See. Our respectable Communist leader holds the highest office in the land. Come study what helped make the man he is today!"
The same will hold true for the LDS monster PR specialists. It doesn't matter what Mitt would do or not do from the White House; the Salt Lake City HQ would push it into overdrive. Capitalization would be the operative word.
We need a successful business man in WH, not a tax and spend liberal.
Oh, you mean like the years he was on the Board for Marriott as Marriott was pulling in great sums of $ as being part of the porn industry? (in-room porn rentals) [Maybe as Commander-in-Chief, he could become the board member of a broader part of the porn industry if they promise to send more $ to pay off the national debt]
Aren't the stripes supposed to go the other way for the oldest kid? LOL
Uday Al-Hukabi?
If that's the case, I agree with you.
I agree, but the sins of the son should not be held against the father during a political campaign. Like I said, there's enough to criticize about Huck. No need to drag this into it.
This is about Hucks cover and coverup of the event. His son never faced any legal consequences because Daddy made it so.
True, that is a sin of the father. The dog has nothing to do with it.
Depends on how one defines a 'kid'. Most 17 year old boys I know are terribly immature, but I know they can be tried as adults most of the time.
We are talking about murdering an animal.
Yes, and he should have been punished. But Huck didn't kill the dog.
Thirdly, how can this NOT be a reflection of the Hucksters parenting skills?
So every time a child does something wrong, it is the parent's fault? Do you have kids? They do have wills of their own, even when small.
Finally, he is being accused of using his power to cover it all up.
Yes, he is. It seems weird because, in the article, it indicates that no charges were ever filed, yet the claim is that Huck brought pressure to bear so that charges wouldn't be filed. Maybe it's a timing thing.
Yep, and no commercial featuring warm Christmas thoughts will distract from it.
Thats the point.
The son was wrong yes.
But the problem here and one that should be held against the father especially during a political campaign, is when the father uses his political clout to coverup the sin of the son. So I disagree.
There is a need to drag this into it and a valid one.
I'm sure you know that, even if you do all you can to raise your kids right, they can do things that you would have never dreamed possible, especially in their teens when they are with other teens.
If this is true, and this is the head of the Arkansas State Police, among others making the claim, and if Huckabee tried to intervene on his son's behalf, then this is all about Huckabee.
The article indicates that no charges were ever filed, and yet Huck brought pressure to bear. For what? Perhaps it is a timing thing, and he didn't know they weren't going to press charges.
Actually, the article indicates no charges were ever filed, and yet the claim is that Huck pressured the director and even fired him. Over what? Something's weird here.
The article indicates no charges were ever filed, and yet the claim is that Huck pressured the director and even fired him. Over what? Something's weird here.
The article indicates no charges were ever filed, and yet it is said that Huck brought pressure to bear and even fired the director. Over what? Something seems strange about this.
I did. No charges were ever filed, and yet it is claimed that Huck brought pressure to bear and even fired the director. Something's weird about this story.
“There is not much that I would put past a PK(Preachers Kid). “
Hey, it was a preacher’s daughter who first taught me French kissing at church camp.
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