Mystery: Who's Behind Brutal Web Video Slamming Huckabee Over Paroled Rapist?

Comments (60)

james wrote on December 13, 2007 10:01 AM:

Looks like it was privately registered through a company in PA. Here's the web registration for that domain: http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=HuckabeeFacts&tld=com

BeAngryAtTheSun wrote on December 13, 2007 10:24 AM:

Do you think operatives within the Republican Party intend to eat their own?

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashhu.htm

I don't have much reason to think Matt Drudge has special insight into Democratic politics unless oppo research handed to him is dead-on. I also am suspicious that his view of the lack of press releases on Huckabee is due to party discipline rather than Huckabee only recently being taken seriously again.

HOWEVER, Huckabee may well be an easy general election target. (In this environment and with these choices, who isn't?) The Republican Party, or much more likely a faction within it, could easily be trying to create their own mini-hit job on Huckabee to prevent such an outcome, or at least go over the top so the issue is desensitized by the general campaign.

RandyR wrote on December 13, 2007 10:27 AM:

This must be said and heard everywhere. Huckabee let a rapist go because he listens to radical right wing haters. He heard the Clinton haters and the conspiracy theorists and instead of acting on good sense he let a man go on to murder. He never got it. That the right wing shrill is entertainment for some really bored people not policy. That AM radio crap is about formenting discontent for money, and would take up any cause that would increase ratings numbers. Policy should never come from the radio, it should come from careful and considered study. There is only one way out and I'm not going to tell him how.

wanderindiana wrote on December 13, 2007 10:38 AM:

The whois information posted by james upthread points to a service provider, 1and1, who has been used in the past by isupportjoe.com (a GOP-based Joe Lieberman site which never came to fruition, outed before it was operational), which had been registered in a netblock used by Becki Donatelli and other GOP types. Now, IIRC, a bunch of these folks were to be running John McCain's internet ops. Just speculation, by my money would be on McCain's camp.

Michael Lafferty wrote on December 13, 2007 10:59 AM:

You've got to love that blog roll at huckabeefacts.com:

Blogroll
• Drudge Report
• Arkansas Times Blog
• Huffington Post
• DailyKos
• National Review

Talk about casting a wide net for information of a related nature…

Anonymous wrote on December 13, 2007 11:07 AM:

I think Huckabee deserves it.

Anonymous wrote on December 13, 2007 11:08 AM:

Romney has to feel the most threatened by Huckabee right now, although really all of the candidates should be feeling pretty threatened by him.

ANM wrote on December 13, 2007 11:09 AM:

I wouldn't have thought it was likely to be McCain, simply because he perhaps benefits by a Huckabee win in Iowa, which would weaken Romney in NH.

Crust wrote on December 13, 2007 11:21 AM:

Here's a brutal piece by the estimable Gene Lyons on the Dumond case:

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/210393/

wanderindiana wrote on December 13, 2007 11:22 AM:

One more thing to muddy the waters: there's a huckabeefacts.org, registered 11/29/2007, only 12 days after huckabeefacts.com was registered. None of the other domain options (.net, .info, etc.) are registered AFAIK.

There are plenty of youtube videos on the .org site, many of which are posted by user "club4growth" -- but I don't see the video used on the .com site.

mostest wrote on December 13, 2007 11:24 AM:

As far as I can tell, it is all factual. The creator is a non issue for me.

M wrote on December 13, 2007 11:25 AM:

Who is directly threatened by Huckabee?

I think the answer to that question is the solution to the problem. Also, who has the money and willingness to go dirty in this fashion?

I think we need look no further away than Romney or Giuliani. Especially the latter. Heavy coverage of this "scandal" by the MSM could enable G to get back into things and turn his problems into real "old news."

I think arguments that airing this issue now is an attempt to "de-sensitize the GE" are a bit to conspiracy-theory to me. Most people right now are focused on getting "their guy" to win, not just any future Republican.

JimBob wrote on December 13, 2007 11:28 AM:

What the ad fails to say is the most important point, IMO. A governor can make a mistake, as can we all. What distinguishes Huck's mistake is that, apparently, his litmus test for parolability is a religious one: say you've "found Jesus," and go free. That's what I'm worried about.

Rumblelizard wrote on December 13, 2007 11:33 AM:

Exactly how is it "going dirty" to state the facts? Huckabee caused a brutal rapist to be released in order to score points with the right-wing noise machine. That brutal rapist went on to brutally rape and murder. If these facts come back to ruin Huckabee's political career, and hopefully, his life, well, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.

MillionthMonkey wrote on December 13, 2007 11:33 AM:

This is obviously from a Republican source, probably Guliani. It is at least clearly intended for a Republican audience. You can tell by what it leaves out.

A Democratic source would have included the best part- Huckabee freed this guy from prison because the 17 year old he raped was a distant second cousin of Bill Clinton.

Henk wrote on December 13, 2007 11:45 AM:

Yes we all make mistakes, but this is beyond a mistake. As has been stated Dumond was a wing-nut cause because the 17 year old Cheerleader that he was convicted of raping was a distant relative of Bill Clinton. This is the piece that needs to get out into the mainstream:The Huckster showwed a complete lack of judgement in believing the wing-nut Clinton conspiracy bullshit.

I would have prefered that this came out AFTER Reverend Huckabee was nominated, but...

NJ Phil wrote on December 13, 2007 11:48 AM:

Don't think the Republicans who are behind this ad won't come up with some way to blame Al Gore. Remember, according to Roger Ailes, Al Gore was the 'source' of the Willie Horton ads against Dukakis in 1988.

JZ wrote on December 13, 2007 11:49 AM:

Maybe the fact the ad doesn't mention Bill Clinton is a sign it comes from a Republican camp. The way the issue is cast now, it's bad for Huckabee. Add the Clinton Derangement Syndrome aspect to it and it hurts all Republicans and possibly inoculates Hillary from many attacks. All she needs to do is point to this and say, "See how crazy these people are?" There are many folks in the GOP who want to stop Huckabee because he would get demolished in the general election. Just about anyone in the party could've put this together. My guess is we'll know by the end of the day.

Zandru wrote on December 13, 2007 11:54 AM:

The ad didn't contain enough information, for my taste. No hints on why Huckabee granted the parole, or how contentious his overriding the parole board was. No mention that Dumont had become a cause celebré with the wingnuts because the victim had a distant relationship with Bill Clinton.

The ad was too slow-moving and purely subjective, in my opinion. But maybe that's what works in the South.

za wrote on December 13, 2007 11:55 AM:

a new era of politicking??

TeeVee is dying. The internet is king. If this goes viral, and it gets passed to millions from friends to friends in emails across the country, it could be a very quick end to Mr. Mike.

RobbyLove wrote on December 13, 2007 12:01 PM:

I just love the way you put this:

"The mother of Dumond's victim clearly participated in the shooting of this ad"

Oh really? What tipped you off that she participated? Was it the fact that she was in the video?

nickm wrote on December 13, 2007 12:02 PM:

Although the huckabeefacts.com domain was registered through 1and1.com, the server where the page resides is in Scottsdale, AZ, run by secureserver.net. One of the last hops to the server is through Phoenix.

Hmmmmm...

jeffgee wrote on December 13, 2007 12:03 PM:

The Hucksters aren't blaming Clinton? Their tightie rightie friends have found a way to blame him for everything else that's gone wrong since he left the WH.

lambert strether wrote on December 13, 2007 12:04 PM:

Who's behind it?

Well, Huckabee released Dumond, so I'd have to say Huckabee's behind it.

kth wrote on December 13, 2007 12:13 PM:

I doubt it's Guiliani, not that I would put it past him. But Huckabee's rise pretty much comes at the expense of one guy: Romney. And surely Huckabee is a less formidable GOP primary foe than Romney on a number of fronts: Dumond, policy apostasy, Huckabee's own lack of native intelligence.

The ad itself could have come from anyone/anywhere. But Romney's camp is the one sending the thank-you note.

za wrote on December 13, 2007 12:18 PM:

powerful..........

damning..........

and, best of all......accurate.

Singularity wrote on December 13, 2007 12:18 PM:

The fact that the server is in Arizona means nothing. It is likely being hosted on hardware owned by GoDaddy, which is Arizona-based, I believe, but is a nation-wide company.

My bet is that this Romney retaliation for the "Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are brothers" comment.

Also, if the physical location of the server means something, remember that Utah is just north of Arizona.

dennisS wrote on December 13, 2007 12:22 PM:

"I think Huckabee deserves it."

Even better the GOP faithful currently in a swoon for Huck deserve it. When they find out about this skeleton in the closet of their current savior, after Thompson et al disappointed them...

I think it could be the final straw causing their heads to explode. Or, they'll concoct an even more elaborate Clinton conspiracy theory to explain Huck's Dumond mistake, which would be very troubling but consistent with the nuttiness that surrounds CDS.

Ultimately he'll be the latest failure this cycle at unifying their base, let alone attracting independents, and that will be very satisfying.

za wrote on December 13, 2007 12:23 PM:

there's a contact email link there

huckabeefacts@gmail.com

I've emailed it and asked who it is.

KingDave wrote on December 13, 2007 12:24 PM:

nickm: the fact that it's hosted by secureserver.net doesn't tell us much.. secureserver.net is the hosting arm of registrar godaddy.com (located in Scottsdale, and probably the registrar whose service 1and1.com is reselling).

Anonymous wrote on December 13, 2007 12:25 PM:

An Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, takes responsibility on a blog linked from the site.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/

Here's a quote:
'There is no doubt Mrs. Davidson has a powerful story to tell, but I wasn't sure she had an outlet to share it. I agreed with her that Mike Huckabee has no business being president. I have always been a behind the scenes guy in Arkansas politics, working for Fay Boozman in 1998 and Senator Tim Hutchinson in 2002, so being out front on anything political is highly unusual for me, but this is different."

It's not clear whether a link to any other campaign will emerge, but Emis says no:
"I am not supporting anyone in the presidential race," he said.

Ermo wrote on December 13, 2007 12:27 PM:

Check out the Ark Times blog linked. It says "An Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, takes responsibility". Emis is quoted as saying his is not supporting any candidate in the primary.

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/

za wrote on December 13, 2007 12:48 PM:

um,

REPUBLICAN political operative.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/13/123542/81

"I have always been a behind the scenes guy in Arkansas politics, working for Fay Boozman in 1998 and Senator Tim Hutchinson in 2002, so being out front on anything political is highly unusual for me, but this is different."

hawaii wrote on December 13, 2007 12:53 PM:

Why do you refer to the author of it as "culprit". He's doing a good service as far as i can tell. What's with you people?

cevrero wrote on December 13, 2007 12:53 PM:

So how many rape cases get parole in this country? Isn't that the issue?....if there's any, what is the percentage of the criminal recommitting the same rape crime.
Why don't these news orgs give any pertinent related facts. What did Huckabee exactly misjudge here?

lisa wrote on December 13, 2007 1:01 PM:

I'm curious why you think this is "brutal."

It seems pretty straight-forward. It's true. It doesn't include crime scene photos. It doesn't even include the information that other victims of Dumond pleaded with Huckabee that he not be released.

It's negative, sure. But it's hardly brutal.

za wrote on December 13, 2007 1:04 PM:

"lisa" is right. It isn't "brutal"

It is powerful. It is daming. It is truthful.

And when the TRUTH itself, is damning, there's no need to be brutal.

TLB wrote on December 13, 2007 1:14 PM:

On a less of the judgment, more of the policy front, this anti-Huck video from me has gotten 5,000+ views:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Dp7FaKIJo

The earlier, not as good version is now over 20,000 views (youtube.com/watch?v=1KxDhesWutc).

Somehow I expect the MSM to concentrate on the Dumond case and not raise too many questions about the issues on my video. Doing so might cost certain people money and power, so best to ignore those issues.

onceler wrote on December 13, 2007 1:39 PM:

CREDIT where it's DUE dept. - I know this story was just made more prominent by HuffPost recently, but Atrios wrote about the matter way, way, way back when Markos from Daily Kos was saying that he was most afraid of Huckabee in the GOP field. Story has been out there for a while...

corpus juris wrote on December 13, 2007 2:02 PM:

I don't question that Emis was involved but if you believe his cover story there is this bridge in San Francisco that might be for sale.

This has all the earmarks of a professional hit. I am betting on Romney. He has to stop Huck.

Nicholas Weaver wrote on December 13, 2007 2:51 PM:

Corpus Juris: Why?

One of the great things about YouTube is you don't need to have someone backing you to do a good hitpiece.

I could easily believe that a party-loyal republican would read about the case, realize this would make Willy Horton look like Mother Theresia, and decide that it is better to make the storm now, because either

a) Huckabee goes down in flames

b) He rides it through and the story loses its power.

Spunky wrote on December 13, 2007 3:09 PM:

Considering how quickly Huckabee made a beeline to Romney after the debate to apologize, it's particularly revealing that Huckabee never even contacted the families of the victims.

"“Davidson and Williams said they’re particularly angry because Huckabee has never called them to apologize or explain his part in the DuMond case.”

“”In retrospect,” Huckabee said, “someone should have made some contact. They have every right to feel distraught. I say that with sorrow, respect, and absolute regret for the terrible things they went through.”

http://www.kctv5.com/news/14782769/detail.html

Calling the families would seem to be the first thing anyone with an ounce of compassion would do, why didn't Mike Huckabee? He is always saying he would say or do things differently in "retrospect." But people act upon the words of a President, I don't want to continually here "in retrospect I would have done things differently" from my President. Especially, when he controls the military and our nations future.

Orwell's Intuition wrote on December 13, 2007 3:19 PM:

What's really telling about Huckabee's vested interest in releasing Dumond is that his letter to Dumond begins as "Dear Wayne" rather than "Dear Mr. Dumond." In other words, "Howdy friend, I'm here to help."

Remember there is also another victim, raped and murdered by Dumond, in addition to Ms. Shields.

Her mama's anguish is heartbreaking.

corpus juris wrote on December 13, 2007 3:30 PM:

Nicholas

I live in Kansas City. The biggest ice storm of the year blanketed the area from Oklahoma to Iowa precisely when Emis said he and his volunteer film crew was making its way to and from Mrs. Davidson's home. If Emis was doing this out of the goodness of his heart he would have waited for the storm to pass. No, Emis was clearly on deadline. Emis used his uncle, a professional dj, to do the voice over. Emis who works in his parents office supply business, and his crew spent a day putting the video together, but the film and editing work is as good as anything produced by TPM. Deadline plus professional voice over and quality production values. Two plse two equal four. Emis was paid for his work.

Some people in Arkansas think Thompson is behind the video. Others disagree.

Mike wrote on December 13, 2007 3:39 PM:

Let's not forget why Dumond was in jail and got pardoned - he raped a girl that happened to be the daughter of a big Clinton supporter. Elsewhere folks have speculated that was the reason why so many right-wingers in Arkansas wanted him released. It was Clinton hatred as much as anything else that is the base of this disaster.

Someone needs to ask Huckabee if its OK to rape children of Clinton supporters in Arkansas.

Ermo wrote on December 13, 2007 3:45 PM:

Corpus Juris:

I didn't say Emis was accurate in his "cover story" but instead tried to supply info that was previously missing from the discussion. In other words, you can keep your bridge.

I have no doubt that other campaigns benefit and thus "could" be behind it. I also have no doubt that people independent of campaigns could have both the means and motive to pull something like this off. Finally, if a campaign encouraged it, it doesn't mean the candidate did so.

I haven't seen any evidence of particular ones, and some evidence will be needed to persuade me that this guy is lying. He didn't seem to be particularly trying to hide his own identity, since he put a link to a page revealing it on the website.

r€nato wrote on December 13, 2007 4:04 PM:

"Although the huckabeefacts.com domain was registered through 1and1.com, the server where the page resides is in Scottsdale, AZ, run by secureserver.net. One of the last hops to the server is through Phoenix.

GoDaddy.com.

corpus juris wrote on December 13, 2007 4:18 PM:

Erma, I wasn't critical of you in any way. I am critical of the ease with which all the professional journalists involved have accepted Emis' story. The video was big news right up to the disclosure that Emis was the guy who shot the video. Near as I can tell at that moment all the professionals said, "mystery solved, time to move along." Sorry, the story isn't have over. The real reporting should just be getting underway. It is as though the professionals don't want to look behind the curtain. They like the cover story.

votenic wrote on December 13, 2007 5:08 PM:

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Rick B wrote on December 13, 2007 7:21 PM:

This is a great ad, and using the Internet, it should have sufficient distribution to really damage Huckabee's campaign, both nationally and in Iowa.

The real news, if there is anything, is that a single individual with no funding put this together and put it up on the Web literally overnight. The questions that need to be investigated is whether this really is merely a single unhappy person using the Internet to spread his discontent, and how much effect it will have.

Assuming that there is no major campaign using Keith Emis as a stalking horse to get an attack ad out, I have three questions:
1. Will the corporate media pick up on this advertisement?
2. Will the next polls on Huckabee's progress nationally and in Iowa be effected by this advertisement? and
3. Will this advertisement lead to Romney winning the Iowa caucuses?

Granted, Huckabee is a fish-in-a-barrel candidate just dripping in weaknesses waiting to be attacked, but if the answer to any of those three questions is yes, then the relationship between the campaigns, the corporate media, and the Internet has been irrevocably changed, and the campaigns and the media will have to recognize it.

Charles Held wrote on December 13, 2007 9:50 PM:

Who's to blame? HUCKABEE, for paroling rapist/murderers.

On rapist/murderers, he's Dukakis.

On taxes, he's Clinton.

On illegals, he's Spitzer.

Miguel, ain'tcha runnin' in the wrong party?

DJ Ross wrote on December 13, 2007 10:55 PM:

People are right, nobody is perfect and if the Dumond case was an isolated event, I would agree that it could have been made by any Governor.

However, this is not an isolated event, and it isn't an issue of making a mistake. It is a clear dereliction of duty. During Huckabee's time in office he pardoned over 700 and some lists have it over 1000 inmates. Do the math. 8 years in office means he potentially pardoned one inmate every three days in office.

Also here are some of the more prominent pardons and the results of those:

"Beyond the Wayne DuMond case (paroled by Huckabee and went on to murder someone); Eugene Fields (DWI sentence commuted but re-arrested 3 years later after almost hitting a cop drunk); Samuel Taylor (granted clemency for drugs and theft only to go drug dealing again)... Mike has commuted NINE serious murderers whose whereabouts are unknown:"

Here is an image to illustrate the point:

http://www.mymanmitt.com/mitt-romney/uploaded_images/mostwanted-748402.jpg

Mitt Romney during his time as governor pardoned ZERO prisoners. He examined each case brought before him thoroughly to see if due process was violated. Huckabee has been discovered to have pardon some of these criminals including Dumond on the recommendation of Pastor friends who expressed a desire to see these individuals pardoned because they "found" Jesus.

Sorry but this is not someone I want running the country.

lschupp wrote on December 14, 2007 12:03 AM:

Ah Jeffgee your optimism got the better of you. Huckabee did blame Clinton. We knew he had to since EVERYTHING is Clinton's fault.

Christian wrote on December 14, 2007 12:14 PM:

Huck did it, and his opponents have a right to point it out. Our sympathy should be for this poor lady who unnecessarily lost her daughter to a murderer supported by Mike Huckabee. It is a tragic story and good reason for republicans to reject Huck. His liberal positions are so repugnant to me that I couldn't support him if he got the nomination. He is a true big-government liberal out of the same mold as the Clintons except for the abortion issue.

Utopia wrote on December 14, 2007 4:28 PM:

And now the video is no longer available. I don't wear a tin foil hat, but ...

U

hahahha wrote on December 15, 2007 12:43 AM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrXijUzepxI

Mr.Murder wrote on January 2, 2008 2:56 PM:

Huckabee had evidence that six women were raped by Dumond, and a 'nam veteran was beaten to death by him using claw hammers in a public park in Oklahoma.

He turned state's evidence for the beating death, and the other rapes included a plea down to assault, and two that were reported later. One of those he confessed in questioning then recanted. One incident reported before being caught stalking the victim's house at her back yard at a later time.

The others were reported late for evidence gathering for that era. He shared proximity to them and the events matched his M.O.

The beating death was over Dumond's dealings with a woman the man knew as well. For it to have gotten to the point of a man being jumpoed by three persons it must have been for a violent reason in and of itself.

Members of his own family have previously expressed remorse at his actions and said they didn't trust him for similar behaviors as well on past blogs.

One of his victims had a baby resulting from the assault.
His wife during the Huckabee release era was employed by a member of the Arkansas Project who was also a 2004 RNC delegate for Bush/Cheney who had a law firm in Houston Texas that probably provided legal assistance for filing parole appeals. That is where he was initially supposed to be released, I woinder if Dubya's AG or Counsel made any pitch to verify his standing in their state?

His former trial lawyer after seeing the kind of person he was up close later went to be a donor to Hillary, years later.

Huckabee, got prayer?

Dave Adams wrote on January 10, 2008 4:25 PM:

I think Lisa, motest and many other here have it right.

If Huckabee had simply let Dumond out on the recommendation of the Parole Board then this ad would be somewhat unfair.

On the other hand the evidence seems to point to the likelyhood that Huckabee went way out of his way to get this perp out of prison. He bears responsibility for his actions.

Liam wrote on January 10, 2008 5:04 PM:

Why is it being labeled as being brutal?

From all I have read about it, Huckabee did exactly what is being claimed. He also granted releases to those who worked in the governors mansion, if one of his preacher pals asked for one. Sounds like Iran is not the only place that is controlled by an all powerful theocracy.

Liam wrote on January 10, 2008 5:11 PM:

While on the subject of exposing the truth about Republican phonies; Check out this report on CNN about Ron Paul. I hope that progressives who have being buying into this creep's pitch will finally wake up.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/10/paul.newsletters/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks -- including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went "to pick up their welfare checks."
art.essay.ronpaul.polreport.jpg

This is a copy of one of the "Ron Paul Political Report" newsletters, which has stirred controversy.
Click to view previous image
1 of 2
Click to view next image

CNN recently obtained the newsletters -- written in the 1990s and one from the late 1980s -- after a report was published about their existence in the New Republic.

None of the newsletters CNN found says who wrote them, but each was published under Paul's name between his stints as a U.S. congressman from Texas.

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