Mike Huckabee's (Hard) Drive
The most significant thing Mike Huckabee has lost: more than 100 pounds! The most significant thing Mike Huckabee has found: Jesus (I would presume). The most significant thing Mike Huckabee's aides have destroyed so no one can ever find again: 12 years of computer records generated during his three terms as governor of Arkansas.
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 February, Mother Jones wrote to the office of Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe seeking access to a variety of records concerning his predecessor's tenure, including Huckabee's travel records, calendars, call logs, and emails. Beebe's chief legal counsel, Tim Gauger, replied in a letter that "former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been 'cleaned' and physically destroyed."
He added, "In short, our office does not possess, does not have access to, and is not the custodian of any of the records you seek."...
Some of Huckabee's gubernatorial papers do still exist, records that were selected by his office and handed over to his alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University. Due to funding hang-ups and other delays, a spokeswoman for the university says the records won't be accessible to the public for another two years. That is, after the conclusion of the 2012 presidential contest.
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Why am I not surprised?
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This is kind of like the Trump hair meme that got sent out last week after Trump started talking about birth certificates. I wonder if that great writer alec Baldwin has weighed in yet?
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He's too busy deriding nuclear reactors that are nothing like the one in Fukushima because they might be unsafe like the one in Fukushima.
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It's funny Otto, if you check out other sites like Andrew Sullivan, and The Nation, it's the same tripe that Balko writes about a day or 2 later. It's almost like clock work. So much for "of no party or clique". Mr Balko is in the in crowd for sure!
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What the fuck are you on about? Imagine that, a blog referring to things that other bloggers or journalists wrote about a day or two ago. What is the world coming to?
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I am pleased to see that a Huckabee administration (FSM forbid!) would be just as open as the Obama administration.
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Fuck, now I want to know what he's hiding. Pictures of him fat? A dead girl? What?!?
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Pictures of him fat? A dead girl? What?!?
Pictures of him eating a fat dead girl and saying "Whaaaaaaat?!"
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Okay, I just have to ask this but when you say "eating" a fat dead girl, do you mean that from a gastronomical or sexual frame of reference?
'Course I'm not sure which depraved act would be more horrible to ponder him committing...
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Both, just don't ask which he did first.
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For one thing, a paper trail of the 900+ felons he pardoned/commuted while in office. One of them since murdered four cops.
His 20% support is exactly the same number as the delusional fundie nut GOP base is.
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Who knew shrikey was such a law-n-order hardass?
Are you voting Trump in the primaries, or are you holding out for Guiliani to make another run?
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It's only okay to pardon criminals if you have a (D) after your name.
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Well, sometimes....
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Depends on ...
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This time, vote for Kang.
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So pardoning people is bad, shriek? It's good to know that you're an utterly unprincipled partisan, though...wait, I already knew that, you classless fuck.
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Where did I write that it was always bad?
Learn to understand what you read.
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It's only bad when Republicans do it, Episiarch. Geez, I thought you knew that.
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So clarify for me, dumbfuck. It is bad that he pardoned a lot of people? Come on, shriek: tell me. Make it crystal clear, you fucking slimebag.
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Its not about the concept of a pardon, you piece of shit misanthrope.
He erased the way he did them - as favors to other preachers, payback, religious favoritism, political favors and then putting down prosecutors who stated that felons would repeat their crimes.
Are you in prison too, by the way?
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So it's bad when Huckabee does it, but good when TEAM BLUE does it? You are the most predictable piece of abject shit to ever see the light of day, you utter scumbag.
Huckabee is a fat redneck shithead, but at least he pardoned people who had ridiculous sentences. But you're such a partisan douchebag, you can't even give him the one thing he might deserve a little credit for.
Tell us about your short sales, you fucking moron. Did you buy gold?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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At least Bill Clinton saved his shady pardon for the last day of his Presidency - a thinker to the end (unlike the Huckster).
Support his fat ass then, I don't care. He is destined to lose.
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You are the stupidest person I've ever seen, shriek. You're aggressively stupid. You make rectal look like Einstein.
I'm actually having trouble understanding just how fucking stupid you are. "Support his fat ass then"? Did you actually write that? Are you so incredibly stupid that you could envision me supporting Huckabee based on me saying that pardons were good?
Please, you absolute cretin, say more unfathomably dumb shit. At this point, it's all just gravy.
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The point to make here is that pardons are supposed to be granted to correct miscarriages of justice, not to give a "second chance" to legitimate criminals who are supposed to have "seen the light" or whatever bullshit metaphor they like to use. Balko has written at considerable length on this.
I'm not saying Huckabee never granted an appropriate pardon -- I know virtually nothing about the specific records of Huck, Billy C, or anybody else -- but the rhetoric surrounding pardons deployed by empty suits on both sides of the aisle rarely matches the purpose for which the process is actually meant. Pardons aren't an opportunity for a benevolent governor to display compassion, they are a corrective measure to protect true victims of government abuse.
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Well said.
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Pardons are
n'tan opportunity for abenevolentbeholden governor to displaycompassionhis true hidden allegiances, they are a corrective measureto protecttrue victims of government abusehis cronies and potential future campaign contributors.This is true of both Team Red and Team Blue, from time to time.
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It's also the most monarchical power granted to government executives in this country.
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Ah, Epi. Your vocabulary is going down hill. It doesn't become you. Don't stoop to the level of the lowest on this blog.
CB.
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Yeah Huckabee is a sucker for a felon who finds Jesus. Now, with that many pardons he probably did pardon an innocent man or two, but he did release a few violent felons who have gone on to commit more crimes against innocent people.
I am a law and order guy. Those who commit crimes (I mean actual crimes with a victim) should be thrown in jail for long periods of time, and the pardon power should be used, IMO, only for when innocence is revealed. This idea that rapists and thieves should be released because they swear they have discovered The Lord needs to stop.
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So pardoning people is bad, shriek? It's good to know that you're an utterly unprincipled partisan, though...wait, I already knew that, you classless fuck.
If you're pardoning 900 people in one term, either you've got a massively dysfunctional justice system -- way beyond Balko nutpunch levels -- or you're letting violent criminals out into society. Considering that Huckabee clemency recipients have been convicted of post-pardon rapes and murders, the latter seems more likely.
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Is this an endorsement of the GOP? Only 1 in 5 Republicans is a kook?
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The video of the voodoo ritual where Huckabee sold his soul and his weight in exchange for improbable political success.
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Pictures of him fat?
Tubby, or not tubby, that is the question....
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This charlatan "Christian" is emblematic of the train-wreck GOP field of misfit candidates.
The only one worthy of respect, Christie, is adamant he won't run while Ann Coulter is conceding the race if he doesn't.
I just hope Trump hangs in there and makes it a real 3-ring circus so at least we get some good laughs out of Comedy Central.
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I hate to agree with shrike, but Christie is the best of the Republican candidates. Trump, however, might be the perfect candidate. Given his ability to run businesses into bankruptcy, he would be the perfect President to preside over the bankruptcy of the US.
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Gary Johnson
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I was joking about Trump, btw.
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What about the train-wreck field of Democrat candidates, shrike?
Fuck both of the fields.
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Principal Wiggins barfed on the lumberjack that was sitting next to him. Mayor Grundy barfed on his wife's tits. But when the smell hit the crowd, that's when Lardass' plan really started to work. Girlfriends barfed on boyfriends. Kids barfed on their parents. A fat lady barfed in her purse. The Donnelly-twins barfed on each other. And the women's auxiliary barfed all over the Benevolent Order of Antelopes. And Lardass just sat back and enjoyed what he created.
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I think Huckabee's too pudgy for anything about him to be described as hard.
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Vermont Gun Owner|4.4.11 @ 7:30PM|#
I think Huckabee's too pudgy for anything about him to be described as hard.What about his coronary arteries?
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The evidence of what Mike Huckabee did as Governor is in the public domain. He took over a State in a moribund economy, improved the infrastructure, and put it into a fiscally sound condition. For his efforts, he was named by Time magazine one of the 5 best Governors in America. No one disputes this.
The rest is for Mitt Romney's staff to try to dig up dirt.
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Huckabee is a good Christian man, David. Your love for him is unclean in the eyes of the Lord.
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You sound like a schill.
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A shill, even.
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Huckabee is the first politician that I have ever openly supported (and I voted in the 1964 election). I am not a southerner, a Baptist, or a devotee of his views on abortion or gay marriage. I just know a good man when I see one.
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He's such a good man, he made sure his staffers completely cleaned up after him and left the governor's mansion and all the file cabinets nice and clean and spotless for the next governor!
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He combines the worst impulses of social conservatives and economic liberals, and throws in a dash of pardoning rapists and murderers who find the Lord and proceed to rape and murder again after getting out of jail.
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And you'll find that Time Magazine's endorsements don't carry much weight around here.
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So you think Mother Jones is pimping for Mittens?
You need to practice your spin. Tis is just weak sauce.
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Time Magazine's plaudits won't get you much agreement around here, but Cato Institute's F rating of his increases in taxes and spending certainly damns your case.
For the record, I don't know a single person here on the Romney bus.
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I thought Tulpa was a Romney supporter.
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Yes, I admit with shame.
He's less bad than any of the candidates who actually have a shot.
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I believe the record shows that Huckabee lowered taxes 94 times as Governor of Arkansas. The Cato Institute is full of people with the kind of values that have led to the national train wreck. They have no credibility with thoughtful people.
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They have no credibility with thoughtful people.
But how do they rate among true Scotsmen?
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The Cato Institute is full of people with the kind of values that have led to the national train wreck.
If that's your attitude you better find a different blog to evangelize.
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The evidence of what Mike Huckabee did as Governor is in the public domain.
So the hard drives were physically destroyed...why, exactly? Of course, nobody knows the answer to that question. Which is the whole point.
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If Huckabee was a criminal, you would see a very neat set of records available for all to see. After the books were cooked. That is how dishonest people operate.
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He went one better - just completely destroyed the books, so there's no record for anyone to see.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....oh, wait....Time Magazine rated him one of the best? Well, shit...he's A-OK then. Time - that's the gold standard! As you say, "No one disputes" that.
The Huckster® for Spender in Chief, 2012! Woo hoo!
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Can they be sued over records retention laws?
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Well, none of this is in the least bit shady.
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Maybe it's just me, but I saw him on Colbert and it looked like the Huckster went and found near all that weight that he once lost.
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former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been 'cleaned' and physically destroyed.
Some of Huckabee's gubernatorial papers do still exist, records that were selected by his office and handed over to his alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University. Due to funding hang-ups and other delays, a spokeswoman for the university says the records won't be accessible to the public for another two years. That is, after the conclusion of the 2012 presidential contest.
I find nothing about this situation even the slightest bit questionable. Governor Huckabee did all of his due diligence in hiding...I mean, making space in the governor's mansion as a courtesy to his replacement.
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He is hiding a either a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Since he's republican and evangelical, I vote the latter
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Maybe he is hiding both a girlfriend and a boyfriend?
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The Honorable Clinton, Tucker and Huckabee.
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"former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been 'cleaned' and physically destroyed."
As the Church Lady would say "How convenient."
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This seems pretty minor. Huckabee has his problems, but he's a supporter of the FairTax which would give our economy a huge boost and restore property rights in this country. It does both by abolishing all income and payroll taxes as well as all business taxes and replaces them with a single rate sales tax on all new items and services (www.fairtax.org). Huckabee's appointees in Arkansas could have destroyed the entire governor's mansion and I would still be thrilled to see him replace Obama as pres.
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You can give up on the Fair Tax as conceived by the Boortz fake libertarian.
He wants a Constitutional amendment to enact it - fat chance on that.
I'd put the over/under on that at 48 years.
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Moreover, something he can do just as easily as a blowhard pundit as he can as president.
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The FairTax is a loopy argument to support a federal sales tax. It would be better if sales taxes were forbidden all together than placing in the fed's domain.
As a business owner I can tell you that sales tax is the worst of all taxes. You cannot put enough lipstick on this pig to make it pretty. Sales tax is a tax on what you do with the money you've earned. Income tax, however evil, is neutral on how spend what's left. Huck's a statist among statists.
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No, Huckabee wants to end all the tax corruption with one master stroke.
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All other types of corruption he's cool with.
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Pretty minor? Corporate executives are sent to jail for less. Transparency and freedom of information are by no means "minor". Defend whatever policy you want, but the guy doesn't get a pass on blatant large-scale tampering because you like his ideas on taxation.
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I stand by my comment. Mother Jones is leftwing outfit set to go all Alinsky on anyone who has an R (or L if we run a candidate that could beat their guy). The incoming governer Bebee requested all new hard drives so the old ones were destroyed (which is what they do in gov't to old computers - destroy the hard drive and recycle the rest). He gave his paper records to a college that has not yet sorted through them (I got my PhD and so I can confirm that college are often slow and unorganized). His story checks out. A lot of people have a beef with Huck and I don't blame them given some of the ignorant things he's said about us, but we shouldn't accuse him of illegal behavior if he's just following SOPs.
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Just what this country so desperately needs - another single-issue voter. (Possibly) correct on 1 point makes him the most qualified, right?
If I were you Chris I'd wait for the return of either Giuliani or Bloomberg... oh, wait... Giuliani/Bloomberg '12!
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Why not? The income tax is a disgusting and disturbing violation of our rights. Hey, if the Libertarians stand a chance this election, believe me, I'm pulling the level for the Libertarian. Since that isn't happening any time soon, I'm picking the best of the Republicans and if he's only the best because of one issue, I'll hope he wins. Giulinai would be good. He's got the right ideas socially (except gay marriage of course) and mostly economically, but we need to be realistic about his chances.
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Put a (D) after Huckabee, and Team Blue would be bleating about how his right to privacy is being invaded.
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^+1^
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To be on the safe side since they went through all of that trouble to erase the hard drive it must have contained evidence that every person that went missing in Arkansas, and every murder that has not been solved between those twelve years in Arkansas and the towns that border the state were done at the hands of none other than Mike Huckabe himself. We should assume at least that much going into trial just to be on the safe side. Anything less would be a miscarriage of justice for the victims of Huckabees' horrendous crimes.
To think, he almost got away with it, the sneaky butthole.
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I'm just betting that Sandi took a shit in Arkansas once. Just a hunch.
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All I can see is Gomer Pyle when I see the Huckster. I'd be surprised if he gives much of a run-he has a good gig being the new Paul Harvey.
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All I can see is Gomer Pyle when I see the Huckster. I'd be surprised if he gives much of a run-he has a good gig being the new Paul Harvey.
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a) totally unacceptable from a public official, this isn't just some "ooopsie" to gloss over.
b) I don't understand why things like this even come up. If I'm ever a politician, or if I ever work for a company that provides me with a computer and internet at work, I'm sure as hell going to make sure my official equipment/email has only harmless, mundane official things on it, while my personal and/or unseemly affairs are conducted on my own computer, on my own network.
c) that said, it's actually refreshing that someone involved in politics understands technology enough that they wiped and physically destroyed the drives, instead of just "emptying the trash" and selling the used compus or giving them to goodwill.
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The only surprise here is that every politician since Nixon hasn't done it.
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Funny how poor Mother Jones feigns outrage at being stymied in their fishing expedition.
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Funny how the right wing went berserk when Sandy Burger strolled out of the National Archives with Clinton Administration paperwork stuffed down his pants, yet the Huckster doing essentially the same thing is no big deal (chortle, chortle!).
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Stymied by the destruction of 12 years of public records, Ben.
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ah shucks guys it was an accident! I told the boys we were gonna play horseshoes and they done went and used those them there hard drives to drive the stakes in the ground. Sorry about that!
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I think Christie and any other serious contender should be looking forward to polishing their credentials for 2016.
Incumbents are hard to beat and this one more so (Meredith Vieara already pounding the drums this morning about
how great it is that Obama has brought unemployment down to 8.8%). To beat Obama in 2012 will take a Republican who is head and shoulders above the crowd and looked on favorably by a majority of citizens. I don't see him or her, do you? To beat Biden or whomever the Dems run in 2016, not so much. If Palin had serious presidential ambitions, she should have told McCain no, finished her term as governor, taken on Murkowski for Senate, asked for a seat on Foreign Relations and hit the lecture circuit as a sitting U.S. Senator. Even so, she would be a 2016 candidate, not 2012. The GOP just didn't have anyone on the farm teed up for 2008 or 2012
with the credentials that could overcome the feelgood charisma of The One. -
Huckabee having those drives erased is old news. It wasn't much of an issue when he ran for POTUS in 2008.
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From 2007
"Just before leaving office as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee spent $500,000 of state emergency funds to destroy hard drives used by his administration. Why hasn’t the media raised a red flag over this obvious scandal? "
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well i can tell you something that was on his now destroyed hard drives. he commuted a life sentence for a murderer named Maurice Clemmons because Maurice, pledged his faith in God.
Maurice then moved to Washington State, became one of the largest ecstasy pill importers/dealers in Tacoma and then raped his 12 year old step daughter. after getting out on bail for the rape, even though it was his potential 3rd strike in Washington resulting in a life sentence if convicted, he drove to a local coffee shop, walked in, gunned down 4 cops enjoying a coffee before their shift.
all in the name of God I am sure. Mr Huckabee is a disgrace who puts his religion before peoples safety. -
forgot the link, read up on this wonderful Christian man the Rev. Huckabee let loose on Washington State.
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Thanks