Arkansas Blog: Yesterday morning's Huck

It's 4 a.m. Thursday.

I write this about 24 hours after our server crashed. We appear to be functioning again. I apologize for the inconvenience and thank the many who called and wrote to be sure we were alerted. I can't give you a technical explanation, but our site was hacked. The damage was so severe it required installation of a new database server and then the migration of all the backed-up information. It has been frustrating for everyone. I am going to go back online with a long string of stuff piled up yesterday and then hope to return to normal programming.

THE HUCKSTER, PART UMPTEEN: Great story in Democrat-Gazette Wednesday by Seth Blomeley about yet another smelly bit of financial wheeling-dealing by former Gov. Mike Huckabee. It seems he took in money from private donors – with the aid and secretive abetting of a sleazily compromised Finance and Administration Department (it administered a bank account and kept no records of its publicly financed work?) – to pay for his $40,000-$50,000 official portrait and didn’t report the contributors as the law requires. Huckabee always has tricks for such occasions. See, he’d alibi, the portrait was the gift -- which he reported on an obscure government form and not his personal financial statement -- not the money. Nobody agrees with that interpretation, including a Huckabee supporter, former Sen. Doyle Webb, who wrote the law that requires the disclosure of contributors. This is reminiscent of the reasoning by which Huckabee failed to report gifts of private jet travel to him and his family. The gift was to his PAC, or some such organization, not him, he argued about a ride he got from state Medicaid millionaire Ted Suhl. Really. Did the PAC ride the jet or did the Huckafamily? The huge question left by today’s story – in addition to identities of the donors -- is whether this secret Huckabee fund was used for other purposes in addition to the portrait. You also can’t help wondering about other slush funds and end-around reporting tricks as yet undisclosed.

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME: Speaking of Huckstering. Several readers have offered solicitous comments on news that the Mike Huckabee campaign has laid off paid workers and others are going without paychecks. Readers send fervent wishes that the three Huckabee children, brother-in-law and daughter-in-law remain in paid campaign positions.

HUCK NO: A Benton County Republican Committee straw poll puts Huckabee way back in third. Ron Paultards, as Wonkette calls them, carry the day. Copy and paste:

http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/58005/

BETTER THAN NOTHING, SLIGHTLY: Duncan Hunter endorsed The Huck Wednesday.

NASTIER THAN SANTORUM? Sex columnist Dan Savage, who turned the name Santorum into a synonym for, well, read the preceding link, because of Rick Santorum’s antipathy to gay people is now challenging readers to create a sexual definition for the word “Huckabee” since he equated homosexuality with bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia.

FOCUS ON FRENCH HILL: The Little Rock banker with Bush ties who is working to bring old money Republicans into the Huckabee campaign is profiled in the Dallas Morning News Thursday.

Comments

The site is still running on Windows Server 2003, so it's not surprising that it got hacked again.

I'd take all of this Microsoft crap and throw it in the dumpster. Get Linux for the servers and Macs for the staff, and things will run much more smoothly.

Posted by: Arkansas Blogger | January 24, 2008 04:56 AM

Huck did it. He's cutting off the national press in favor of local coverage as he continues his christain charge arouind the country, his paid kids in tow. He decided to take care of you, too -- again. Glad you're back online. I suffered withdrawal symptoms until far into the night. And now -- a lot to catch up on. After I pay my bills. The postman comes early again, unlike a month ago.

Posted by: Doigotta | January 24, 2008 08:36 AM

If I was a Baptist preacher I'd be royally pissed at Mike Huckabee. Not that they don't cause their own problems now and then, but as dirt continues to fall out of his Huckapants, which Christ is Huckabee serving? Are we to believe that all Baptist preachers are as corrupt as Huckabee? Surely someone this truth-challenged about Huckamoney would lie about where he's hid his Huckapenis. What the use of amassing and hiding money if you can't knock off a little strange now and then?

Holy Breezy Osborne over the mantel! How badly did Arkansas, with the 6th highest number of people living at the poverty level, need a 50 thousand dollar painting of Mike Huckabee? A 25 dollar Glamor Shot photo blown up for 25 bucks at Kinko's would have served the same purpose. Maybe those deserving employees at the DFA who get fired for aiding and abetting Huckagraft will turn on Huck and tell us all the details. Yet Simon Bar Huckabee will get off scott free like he always does no doubt using the Lord's Ranch jet to transport another trove of secret money to bury behind the mansion in NLR.

Is it time yet for Governor Beebe to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate Huck's last couple of years in office? Is it going to take the unearthing of dead children with Huck's footprint on their throats before there's any action? Twat do you have to do to get arrested in Arkansas? Oh...I know....let the grass get a little too high in the yard or fail to paint your house and it's Slammer City. Entering politics gives ya a get out of jail free card, huh? How does a parent explain all this to their kids? No wonder we can't get out of 48th!

Posted by: Deathbyinches | January 24, 2008 08:49 AM

As soon as I saw the typical Windows/ASP error page I was pretty sure that you were either hacked, caught a virus or that a software update killed everything (rather common on 2003).
As someone who has had to assist in supporting Windows for a number of years, I ask you to please switch to something that is reliable.
Linux, Unix or Apple (which is Unix) would be SO much more reliable and user friendly.
I have to use Windows in the office. I learned many years ago to despise Windows because it just does not work and is so difficult to maintain. I am Apple and Linux at home and never have any problems.

Posted by: kretara | January 24, 2008 09:43 AM

>> And while Mr. Huckabee polls well in many parts of Texas, he has raised far less money in the state than Rudy Giuliani or Mr. Romney.<< NYT

Holy Republican Cash Cow! Last time I noticed it was Sleepy Fred Thompson leading in Texas fund raising.
Isn't Texas the last Great White Hope left for Huck to pull a rabbit out of his ass? Wait ! Who was it that posted time and again:

HUCK IS FINISHED.

Glad you guys are back, hobbling along with the rest of us rounding up all the news no one else has...yet.

Posted by: eLwood | January 24, 2008 09:46 AM

Along the lines of what Ark Blogger and kretara said, the backend of this site is pretty sad at times. I've had days where I've seen ASP un-handled execptions (seriously, I learned try/catch blocks in college) for obtaining data from Fox 16, random DB errors, etc. Pick up the phone, call ol' Farmer Al, tell him to find someone who might be able to make this work a bit better than the boys in Maumelle.

Posted by: anoncow | January 24, 2008 03:37 PM

Thank you for the enlightenment as to the new definition of "santorum"! You would think coming up with an alternative definition for "huckabee" would be a breeze, what with the potential inspiration of the "u-c-k" built right into the name. But I'm coming up with a big, fat zero.

Posted by: hugh mann | January 24, 2008 04:52 PM

Arkansas Blog

Yesterday morning's Huck

Comments

Post a comment