Monday, April 4, 2011
Mike Huckabee Huckabee and the crushed hard drives
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 1:13 PM
Mike Huckabee is a solid contender if not the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. Even if he isn't declared, reporters are back at work plowing the fertile ground of the Huckabee era in Arkansas.
Latest: "Huckabee Hearts Secrecy" in Mother Jones, by Siddhartha Mahanta.
There's a Mike Huckabee mystery that won't go away.Send a public records request seeking documents from his 12-year stint as Arkansas governor, as Mother Jones did recently, and an eyebrow-raising reply will come back: The records are unavailable, and the computer hard drives that once contained them were erased and physically destroyed by the Huckabee administration as the governor prepared to leave office and launch a presidential bid.
In 2007, during Huckabee's campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, the issue of the eradicated hard drives surfaced briefly, but it was never fully examined, and key questions remain. Why had Huckabee gone to such great lengths to wipe out his own records? What ever happened to a backup collection that was provided to a Huckabee aide?
Huckabee is now considering another presidential run, and if he does enter the race, he would do so as a frontrunner. Which would make the case of the missing records all the more significant. These records would shed light on Huckabee's governorship—and could provide insight into how a President Huckabee might run the country. Meanwhile, observers of Arkansas' political scene—including one of Huckabee's former GOP allies—say the episode is characteristic of a politician who was distrustful and secretive by nature.
As I told Mahanta, however, the problem is not only Huckabee, but Arkansas. As currently construed, we have the most permissive law for governors I've ever heard of. Their records cannot be inspected for any reason and they can take them all with them. At least, that's how the law stands until somebody gets the money and time together to file a lawsuit that seeks a narrower definition of "working papers" than what currently exists. Better still would be a law change on gubernatorial papers. Some papers should be opened immediately and a provision should be made to save them for history. Too late for Huckabee, Clinton and all the rest, unfortunately. We can hope their archives will ultimately disclose all, but hope is all we have to go on.
Speaking of Mike Huckabee, governor's Working Papers
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Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
What else is there to say? He did it--we know he did it--everybody should know he did it.
Tricky Dick could have learned a thing or three from Mauling mike.
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Duh, I don't get it.
This is being treated like it's news. NEW news. Mother Jones, AmericaBlog . . . I thought everybody knew all this already. I mean, I'm glad it's all being reiterated and reiterated, but . . . .
http://www.americablog.com/2011/04/huckabe…
No, I've thought about it long and hard for eight minutes and it's STILL inconceivable that I am THAT much further ahead of the curve than, you know, everybody.
Happily, there's this.
"Maybe people are finally starting to see the Tea Party for what it really is -- a large group of politically naïve white voters who are being manipulated to vote against their best interests by radical millionaires and billionaires like the Koch brothers and Dick Armey."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-the-De…
Uh, you DO understand that what Thom Hartmann's fascinating classroom lecture covers, from the only first-hand participant in the ORIGINAL Tea Party in Boston, is the revolt of America's citizens against corporate power, corporate corruption and corporate tax cuts.
That revolt, of course, led to the American Revolution.
Time for another, ladies and gentlemen?
As Hartmann says in conclusion . . . "Spread the word."
Here's that link again, Razorbabies.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/tho…
New or old Ms Norma , the world needs to know Huck as we do. I watched the PBS bio of Huey P Long..... Huck is a mix of Huey, and Andy Griffin's FACE IN THE CROWD. Dangerous
Just for fun imagine the impossible, Hickabee as POTUS.
His secrecy and inside dealing could make Nixon look like a cub scout.
Any new comer has the lack of knowledge about their past and can reinvent themselves, then over time as they show they are catching on their competition digs further.
Sort of like a sucker punch in a bar, but you only get one chance. i expect Huckles will not be allowed to get much momentum before he is piled on by his own.
Bottom line Huck can raise a couple million for himself but not much more for a campaign so he is not a viable candidate.
His first national run was his one sucker punch option and caribou barbie and grandpa McCain were able to hold him off.
Well....I do declare that the Huckster is looking more and more like Tricky Dick Nixon.
Let those without a memory read this Mother Jones article! It should be enough to clue the most clueless into the fact that Mike Huckabee has been a sneaky crooked son of a bitch since his first trip out of the cradle.
I pitched a wall-eyed fit for months after this hard drive crushing fiasco, a whole lot of us did and it mattered NOT. I was very disappointed in Mike Beebe as I was with Barack Obama when they both took office after a criminal cabal yet urged us to LOOK FORWARD-----NOT BACK. So far neither has lifted a finger to bring their guilty predecessors to justice. $335,000 dollars in crushed state hard drives...and that's OK? And Fort Baptist is fixin to tax me 5 dollars per head for each of my cats and dogs????
It's tax time.....let us LOOK FORWARD----NOT BACK on the taxes I owe for 2010. Let us LOOK FORWARD-----NOT BACK on all the non-violent prisoners at Tucker & Cummins.....would save us a hell of a lot of tax money. Let us LOOK FORWARD-----NOT BACK on every FK'ing thing...crush all the hard drives and let's start over like we're all Huckabees.
If Ma were alive today she'd probably say that all bad people flock to drug running and carrying whores over state lines. I do believe for once Ma would be wrong. Looks to me that all bad people flock to politics and it just might be possible there are no honest people in office today. It just might be possible!
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