Huckabee says "Son Did NOT Mistreat that DOG!

[KoKo]

December 18, 2007
Huckabee says son did not mistreat dog

Huckabee spoke on CNN's Larry King Live Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican Mike Huckabee sharply denied reports Monday he used his influence as Arkansas governor to scuttle a police investigation into allegations his son tortured a dog while a counselor at a boy scout camp.

"Let me categorically say that is absolutely not true," the presidential candidate said on CNN's Larry King Live. "I never used my influence. In fact, if anything, I said treat it like you would anything else. I don't want special treatment for him or against him."

Huckabee was responding to a report in the current issue of Newsweek, in which former Arkansas State Police Director John Bailey says he was fired by Huckabee in part because he wanted to investigate an allegation that the then-governor's son David tortured and hung a stray dog.

The incident allegedly occurred at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. David Huckabee, then a counselor there, was later expelled for not being "consistent with the Boy Scout mission" of being "kind," according to a letter from the camp's director obtained by the magazine. Shortly after the younger Huckabee was expelled, allegations surfaced that he was involved in the cruel treatment of the dog.

"There was a dog that came in. It was mangy. It looked like it was going to attack," Mike Huckabee said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live. "He was a staffer at the camp. They put the dog down. They didn't do a good job of talking to the leaders. The way it was handled was not ideal, but there was no criminal activity."

The Arkansas Republican also noted his son went on to become an Eagle Scout, and suggested Bailey had an "an axe to grind" because he had been fired.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

[panader0]

1. Just remember: DOG is GOD spelled backwards!

[ingac70]

2. If I got fired...

for investigating a psycho that tortured an animal to death, I'd have an axe to grind too.

[Hieronymus]

3. You bet.

[madeline_con]

4. This is HUGH! The first step to serial killing is killing animals.

Are there a lot of unsolved murders in the area?

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Serial Killer!

So true, so true...http://wikiality.com/David_Huckabee

[madeline_con]

8. Colbert rox! Thanks. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Oh Lord...

and the dog wanted it. Or...

the dog didn't say no

the dog didn't feel a thing

Clinton abused a dog at some point in his distant or not so distant past

Saddam abused dogs worse

it wasn't really a dog it was actually a terrorist

the dog was related to terrorists

the dog talked on the phone to terrorists

the dog knew where a bomb was hidden that would hurt innocent Americans, unless the location of the bomb was torftured out of him!

[youthere]

12. The dog was dressed provocatively.

[Botany]

7. Keep talking Mike

David Huckabee

But John Bailey, then the director of Arkansas's state police, tells NEWSWEEK that Governor Huckabee's chief of staff and personal lawyer both leaned on him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor's request. Bailey, a career officer who had been appointed chief by Huckabee's Democratic predecessor, said he viewed the lawyer's intervention as improper and terminated the conversation. Seven months later, he was called into Huckabee's office and fired. "I've lost confidence in your ability to do your job," Bailey says Huckabee told him. One reason Huckabee cited was "I couldn't get you to help me with my son when I had that problem," according to Bailey. "Without question, was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son," says I. C. Smith, the former FBI chief in Little Rock, who worked closely with Bailey and called him a "courageous" and "very solid" professional.

Huckabee called Bailey's account "totally untrue" and described him as a "bitter" exemployee. "I asked him to resign because he had so alienated the entire state police," he said. "It had nothing to do with my son." Brenda Turner, Huckabee's then chief of staff, and Kevin Crass, the Huckabee family lawyer, also disputed Bailey's account, although both acknowledged talking to him about the dog killing. "I asked him, 'Is it normal for the state police to … investigate something that happened at a Boy Scout camp?' " Turner says. "We wanted the same treatment that anybody else would get." (Animal cruelty in Arkansas is a misdemeanor, not a felony.)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/78241

[NI4NI]

9. let me get this straight

Huckabee never used his influence to get his son out of a jam, but personally meets with members of the Arkansas State Parole Board to initiate the release of a convicted rapist (who went out to kill twice and rape again).......Gee, Thanks Dad!

[Middle finga]

10. Let's see if Huck Jr. get the Michael Vick treatment.

[yellowcanine]

11. Someone needs to ask the Huckster if hanging a dog constitutes torture.

And did his son hang the dog and if he did, why does he describe it a s "putting the dog down?" What organizations endorse that method of euthanization for an animal?