A sitting governor intervenes in the parole process, setting up the release of an individual who then goes on to commit another horrible crime. Sound familiar? Well, our political media will only cover a story like that if that governor is running for president, right? Think again.
The Kansas City Star’s resident political stenographer writes this gem in today’s paper [tiny URL]:
….Stick this one in your bonnet: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will win either the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary.
Whaaaat? You’ve never heard of Huck?
Get him on your radar screen. Huckabee has supplanted John McCain as the hot GOP contender on the circuit these days….
Of course, our political chattering classes can’t be bothered to do a little bit of research:
….Suttlar noted that just prior to Huckabee’s appearance before the board the board had voted 4-1 against Dumond’s parole. After Huckabee’s board appearance, her colleagues largely reversed themselves, voting 4-1 for Dumond’s release.
“Why did all the votes change?” Suttlar asked. The board members knew the governor’s position. And Huckabee knows what influence a governor has over a board. Who’s going to turn down a governor?”
A board member, who only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said, “We are not talking rocket science here. The board jobs are known to some degree [to be] political patronage…
Why would the Star’s Kraske jump on the Huckabee hype bandwagon? Stenography.
Fun While It Lasted [tiny URL]
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 26, 2007; 11:13 AM
….My view of the Huckabee hype is fairly simple: Reporters have run out of things to say about Hillary, Barack, Rudy, Mitt and the gang. Every conceivable story has been written, from cleavage to laughter to multiple marriages, and it’s only October. We need a dark horse to shake up the race. Reporters like Huckabee. So he becomes the flavor du jour….
Lazy stenography.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Gail Collins: There To Make MoDo and Bobo Look Smart
….DuMond was released not out of some independent sense of compassion but because a wingnut campaign on his behalf was launched because the woman DuMond raped was a distant relative of Bill Clinton…
And the Missouri connection? You know, something that maybe, just maybe, a so-called Missouri political reporter should know?
…Saturday, June 30, 2001
Arkansas parolee is charged in killing of Missouri woman
LIBERTY (AP) – Prosecutors on Friday charged Arkansas parolee Wayne DuMond with first-degree murder in the death of a Missouri woman and said they had not ruled out seeking the death penalty for the convicted castrated rapist.
DuMond, 51, is charged in the Sept. 20 death of Carol Shields, 39, of Parkville, who was found suffocated in a friend’s Clay County apartment about 10 miles from DuMond’s home.
The woman was killed about seven weeks after DuMond moved to the Kansas City area…..
Missouri Courts
7CR101002894 – ST V WAYNE E DUMOND
07/25/2001 Docket Entry: Filing:
Text: 1 – 1002100 – MURDER 1ST DEGREE – Class A felony – EMPTY CHARGE CODE SECURITY FIELD
Docket Entry: Judge/Clerk – Note
Text: RELATED CASES FIELD: LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Docket Entry: Filing:
Text: Indictment filed : BOND DENIED : warrant issued MJM….
….7CR101002894 – ST V WAYNE E DUMOND
Date Filed: 07/25/2001
Location: Clay
Case Type: Criminal/Infract.- see Charges
Disposition: Jury Verdict – Guilty
Date of Disposition: 01/09/2004…
As for Mike Huckabee intervening in the parole of an individual who later goes on to commit murder in another state? Our dysfunctional media has rules about covering those kinds of things in their political reporting. IOKIYAR.
(it’s okay if you’re a republican)
