Huckabee: Still a Mystery

I must admit I have been watching, mouth agape, Mike Huckabee's rise in the Iowa polls this past month. His appeal, of course, is to Christian conservatives, who appreciate his down-home style, his stance on issues of importance to them, and his background as a preacher.

The reason my mouth is on the floor while I watch all this is that these supposed "values voters" either have no values at all or are ignoring Huckabee's, shall we say, checkered past. Upon close examination, Huckabee's gubernatorial record shows little by way of strict morality.

Most important, as I noted more than a month and a half ago, was his inexplicable push to release a convicted rapist (Wayne Dumond) who went on to rape and murder after then Governor Huckabee personally pled his case before the Arkansas parole board. That board then released Dumond as a result of Huckabee's intervention.

Then there's his family's looting of Arkansas's $60,000 mansion fund. Then there was his destruction of the 100 hard drives belonging to top staff, just before he left office. Any one of these scandals alone would be enough to bring down a candidate. And yet, holier-than-thou Mike is still standing, especially beloved by so-called values voters. What's wrong with this picture?

It could be that the mainstream media have been ignoring Huckabee's foibles. If that's the reason, perhaps his days at the top of the polls are numbered.

The Washington Post, for example, just reported, "Huckabee Is Under Heightened Scrutiny." Since MSM tend to run as a pack, perhaps the information about Huckabee's weaknesses will finally be conveyed to his worshipers. If they are truly values voters, they'll run screaming into someone else's camp.