Mike Huckabee Gets Railed by Ariana Huffington for His Role in Release of Rapist Wayne Dumond

The way in which US Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has responded to Ariana Huffington's article regarding his release of rapist Wayne Dumond "has exposed the dissembling reality behind the charming, articulate, more-preacher-than-politician facade - and has called into question both his judgment and his integrity", so says Ms. Huffington.

One of the most popular news blogs, The Huffington Post reported on how Huckabee seemingly eagerly ensured the speedy release of Dumond.

As for former parole board members coming forward now who say that Mr. Huckabee, as governor, persuaded them to release Mr. DuMond, the Republican candidate offered this tonight:

That's what is so heartbreaking about this. There are families who are truly, understandably and reasonably grief-stricken. And for people to now politicize these deaths and to try to make a political case out of it, rather than to simply understand that a system failed and that we ought to extend our grief and heartfelt sorrow to these families, I just regret that politics is reduced to that.

We can guarantee you that this will not go away. Mr. Huckabee will be asked and asked about the DuMond case. As he has been. And should his campaign take hold nationally, you can bet scary commercials will be on the horizon. If not already in the can in someone's darkroom.

Huckabee has lashed out at the Huffington Post and Ariana on MSNBC Thursday morning.

"Huckabee's response has been to fudge the truth, point the finger at everyone in sight, and -- that old standby -- blame the messenger," Huffington stated on her blog.  "But no amount of denials and mudslinging by Huckabee can make the devastating evidence -- and what that evidence reveals about him -- go away."

Wayne Eugene Dumond (September 10, 1949 - August 31, 2005) was an American criminal, born in Dewitt, Arkansas.

In 1972, Dumond was arrested for beating a man to death in Oklahoma. Dumond was not charged in that case after agreeing to testify for the prosecution against two others. But he admitted on the witness stand that he was among those who struck the murder victim with a claw hammer.

In 1973, Dumond was arrested and placed on probation for five years for admitting in Oregon to molesting a teen-age girl in the parking lot of a shopping center.

Dumond was convicted of two rapes and one murder. He received his first rape conviction in Arkansas in 1984. The victim was a distant relative of then-Governor Bill Clinton. In March 1985, after his arrest but before his trial Dumond was attacked in his home and castrated by two men. No arrests were made in the incident, but Dumond successfully sued the St. Francis County and the local Sheriff who publicly displayed Dumond's severed testicles and later flushed them down the toilet.

After Clinton was elected president, a right-wing campaign alleged that Clinton had framed an innocent man for rape. Prominent amongst those pushing for Dumond to be pardoned were Guy Reel, author of "Unequal Justice: Wayne Dumond, Bill Clinton, and the Politics of Rape in Arkansas", Steve Dunleavy of the New York Post and Jay Cole, Baptist pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville, who had championed the cause of Wayne Dumond for more than a decade on his radio show.

Many of the arguments advanced by Dumond's supporters have since been shown to be incorrect. Dunleavy claimed that Dumond was "Vietnam veteran with no record" despite arrests for violent crime and previous rape charges going back to 1972, that DNA evidence had exonerated Dumond, although no such evidence existed, and that Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep Dumond in prison, despite the then Governor's explicitly recusing himself from the case due to his distant blood-ties to the to the 17 year-old victim. He also referred to Ashley Stevens on the record as the "so-called victim," and asserted "That rape never happened."

Dumond's case received nationwide publicity due to the alleged complicity of 2008 Presidential election candidate Mike Huckabee in securing parole for Wayne Dumond , while Huckabee was governor of Arkansas.

When Mike Huckabee became governor, he supported the release of Dumond, with one state official stating "The problem with the governor is that he listens to Jay Cole and reads Steve Dunleavy and believes them ... without doing other substantiative work,".[7] Huckabee wrote to Dumond in January 1997: "My desire is that you be released from prison," and had to be persuaded not to commute his sentence in October 1996.

Ariana Huffington:

"In the statement, Huckabee's campaign acknowledges the accuracy of the quotes attributed to Reeves in our story, but splits hairs over whether Huckabee's claims that Dumond's conviction was "outlandish" and "way out of bounds for his crime" (brutally raping a 17 year old cheerleader) were in the context of a discussion about "paroling" the rapist or in the context of a discussion about granting him "clemency" or "a pardon."

"Even Huckabee appears vague on the semantics he now considers so important, having told Tim Russert in January: "They asked me did I think that he should be paroled, or something to that effect, and I simply said, "I think that his case has got to be given, you know, a serious look." The campaign now concedes he said more than that.

"Most important, Huckabee made it clear to the parole board that he thought Dumond should be free. Does it really make any difference in terms of the tragic outcome whether Dumond would be freed through parole, clemency, or pardon? Isn't the point that Huckabee wanted him freed and that the board, which had recently voted 4-1 against paroling him, reversed course three months later and voted 4-1 for his release.

None of Huckabee's finger pointing (he mentioned Bill Clinton 12 times while discussing the Dumond case in his press conference on Tuesday) addresses the key questions raised by this tragic story: why Huckabee continued to favor the rapist's release, even after being sent police reports and wrenching letters from several of his victims detailing his horrific crimes (which included raping a woman while her 3 year old daughter lay beside her in bed); and why Huckabee, to this day, continues to insist "No one could have predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out" when we can read for ourselves the words of his victims predicting that the man would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.

Huffington promises not to let this one go and it could serve to harm Huckabee's campaign, which in recent weeks has seen the Presidential candidate climbing in the polls.

Mike Huckabee has jumped from 50-1 odds at Sportsbook.com to 18-1 odds, an indication that gamblers are placing their money on Huckabee.  Likewise, Huckabee has gone from +2500 to +600 odds at BetUS just nudging out canidate Ron Paul.

Filed Under: 2008 US Presidential Betting Odds

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

Originally published December 7, 2007 6:39 am EST