[Vision2020] Another Big Time Conservative Christian Hypocrite

[Gray Tree Crab aka Big Bertha]

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-huckabee26jan26,0,5318630.story?track=notottext
*From the Los Angeles Times*
Huckabee's book deal after Jonesboro tragedy still rankles Critics say the
Arkansas governor cashed in on the school shooting with the 1998 publication
of 'Kids Who Kill.'
By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 26, 2008

JONESBORO, ARK. — After two middle-school boys in camouflage gear shot and
killed four classmates and a teacher here, leaving 10 others wounded and a
community shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone would see opportunity
in the tragedy for a book deal.

Indeed, within days a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an Arkansas writer
to produce a book on youth violence.

Victims' families were outraged. They called the payment blood money and
said the author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that the money
go to the school, victims' relatives or scholarships for the wounded, not to
the writer's personal bank account. He refused.

That the author was Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' governor at the time, made
their resentment all the stronger.

"He took advantage of us," said Pam Herring, whose daughter, Paige Ann, had
just turned 12 when she was shot to death.

"He was out for one thing and that was money," said Mitch Wright, whose
wife, Shannon, a teacher, died protecting children. "He made money at our
expense."

The slaughter at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro in March 1998 was, at
the time, one of the worst school incidents in American history. Today, with
Huckabee a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, his book
deal continues to aggravate many of the victims' families.

Some critics of Huckabee say the incident fits his pattern as governor of
enriching himself with gifts of cash, clothes and furniture donated by
supporters.

At the time of the shootings, Huckabee was under investigation for numerous
ethics violations, many of them for not reporting outside income and gifts.
In all, he was fined or sanctioned five times by the Arkansas Ethics
Commission.

Inauguration funds reportedly were used to buy clothes for his wife, Janet,
and the couple later set up a "wedding registry" at department stores and
collected linens, toasters and other furnishings from supporters; they had
been married 25 years.

Bobby McDaniel, a Jonesboro lawyer who represented some of the families,
said Huckabee "never saw a gift he didn't take." Newspaper editorial writers
called him a "money-grubbing governor" and nicknamed him "Mike the
Huckster."

"It was all quite unseemly," Vaughn McQuary, chairman of the state
Democratic Party at the time, said in a recent interview about the book
contract. "The governor of a state should set a better example."

Huckabee's campaign did not respond to requests for an interview. But
Huckabee has publicly defended his book deal, saying the $11.99, 180-page
paperback had been planned before two boys opened fire at Westside, and that
the tragedy simply would give him the springboard to air his broader views
that youth culture was destroying families. "The book is not about
Jonesboro," he insisted.

But when the book was rushed to print a month after the shootings, it was
titled "Kids Who Kill." The cover is a photo of a boy about the age of the
Jonesboro killers pointing a gun at the reader. The back cover promo states:
"The quest for quick answers has robbed us of the truth" about Jonesboro.
"Until now."

The opening pages begin: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, a sudden burst
of gunfire cut through the crowded schoolyard of Westside Middle School in
Jonesboro, Arkansas. . . . "

Much of the rest of the book is a compilation of quotes from theologians and
historical figures, and includes transcripts of two radio addresses Huckabee
gave after the shooting. Huckabee has written or co-written several books,
all dealing with motivational subjects such as character and dieting, but
none has been as controversial as "Kids Who Kill."

Dennis Milligan, the current chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, who
has endorsed Huckabee for the presidency, defended the governor's book deal:
"He's entitled to whatever the specific profits were from that book. And as
to why he didn't donate the proceeds, obviously it was something he wasn't
moved to do and didn't feel like he had any obligation to contribute, with
respect to his personal funds."

Milligan also defended Huckabee's receiving gifts as governor, saying many
were just tokens of appreciation and that none of them helped buy any
special influence. Milligan mentioned, for instance, a pair of cowboy boots
and a canoe, and said Huckabee always was careful to return expensive gifts
that exceeded the allowable limits. "He is an honorable guy," Milligan said.

On the afternoon of the shootings, Huckabee was flying home to Little Rock
after making a speech in Washington. An air traffic controller radioed the
pilot, who told the governor. Two boys, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew
Golden, 11, dressed in Army-style camouflage and armed with guns, pulled the
school fire alarm after the lunch hour and fired at classmates and teachers
as they filed outside.

Reaching the state Capitol, Huckabee called a news conference and
immediately blasted the youth culture. "It makes me angry," he said. "It's
in the television programs they watch, the movies they see, the language
they use, the things they are exposed to and the glorification of those
things."

The next day, he and his wife, wearing white ribbons on their lapels, met in
Jonesboro for about 40 minutes with many of the victims' families. He spent
more than an hour with teachers and staff. Huckabee, a Baptist minister,
also went to the hospital and helped families begin to work through their
grief.

"I remember him and his wife coming down the hall," said David Betts, whose
niece, Ashley, was among the wounded. "They were the most compassionate
people I've ever seen. It wasn't just a walk-in visit. He stayed with us. He
supported us and prayed with us."

But Huckabee was not among the 9,000 people who attended a memorial service
a week later at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center in
Jonesboro. Aides said he was on a planned family vacation in the Caribbean.
He did send a letter, quoting the Bible that man is saved by God and not the
laws he enacts.

Herring and Wright were concerned that there was no law to prevent the
shooters from profiting financially, since they were juveniles and would be
released from prison when they turned 21. They said they told Huckabee they
wanted assurances the killers could not write books or sell their stories to
Hollywood, and that Huckabee looked them both in the eyes and said: "That
would be blood money."

At a second meeting in Jonesboro, Wright said Huckabee again vowed it would
be "blood money" for the shooters, with Huckabee adding this time: "No one
should profit."

Then, ten days after the shooting, it was announced that Huckabee had signed
his own book deal, to be written with George Grant, a prolific author of
Christian books. The publisher was an arm of the Southern Baptist
Convention, the denomination in which Huckabee was ordained.

Officials at the publishing house declined to discuss the arrangements for
the book, saying they comment only on current authors. Grant did not respond
to requests for an interview.

Huckabee has insisted the idea came to him before the shootings. Asked by a
newspaper reporter at the time if he was trying to turn a dollar by
capitalizing on the Jonesboro deaths, Huckabee angrily responded: "No more
than you're capitalizing on it when you write stories about Jonesboro and
sell ads and sell the paper."

Dogged about why he declined to donate any of the book proceeds to the
scholarship fund, Huckabee said he planned to use the money for his own
children's college education. Later Huckabee stayed in his private office in
the Capitol in an attempt to evade further questions. Then he rushed to his
state car and slammed the door on reporters.

McDaniel, the Jonesboro lawyer, said such incidents didn't seem to hurt
Huckabee. He noted that Huckabee had a knack for impressing voters and
winning elections, "even if he does have a very short fuse and a temper."

Indeed, not only was he reelected in 1998, he carried Jonesboro, a state
college town on the northern edge of the Mississippi Delta. To many in
Arkansas, that feat speaks to his twin gifts as a natural politician and an
inspiring religious leader.

McQuary, the former state Democratic chairman, said Huckabee was very
charismatic and could uplift people in a state that has struggled with
poverty: "Surprisingly, he was quite popular, especially in such a
Democratic-majority state. Do not underestimate him on the campaign trail."

richard.serrano at latimes.com

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-- 
Gray Tree Crab aka "Big Bertha"
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