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October 21, 2002
Arkansas Politics
Arkansas Politics
As this morning's Washington Times reports, the Senate race here is tight. I was glad to see the latest poll shows Sen. Hutchinson has closed the gap & is now tied with Mr. Pryor. As I've said below, I'm still picking Hutchinson to win. I just don't think Mr. Pryor's daddy's coattails are strong enough to overcome his position on several key issues, and his general sleaze factor.Former President Clinton is here, stumping for the Democrats, according to our local state paper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (Here's the link to the current article, but since the Demo-zette stupidly doesn't permanently archive its online articles, I'm not sure how long the link will be good.) Apparently Bubba was here primarily to drum up support for Jimmie Lou Fisher, the Democratic candidate for governor. Jimmie Lou has a tough row to hoe, as the current Governor, Mike Huckabee (Rep.), is well-liked, both for the positive things he's done for the state, and for seemingly being a decent person who keeps his pants on... a product of the Clinton legacy you might say.
But here's the interesting part of the article:
Clinton also addressed criticism from the Huckabee campaign regarding Fisher’s accusing Huckabee of being too eager to grant clemency to convicted murderers.
Huckabee has complained that Fisher hasn’t criticized Clinton for clemencies he granted while governor.
" The hypocrisy she’s showing on this issue is absolutely breathtaking, "Huckabee said in a statement Sunday.
The Huckabee campaign released documents showing Clinton gave clemency to 42 people convicted of first-degree murder, all but four coming during his first term in 1979 and 1980.
" I think I did, by the way, make some mistakes my first term, "Clinton said." The difference is I admitted I made some mistakes and I changed the system. We set up a very clear and widely supported system where all the victims had heavy input. "
Coincidentally, many of those receiving clemency were connected in some way to Clinton supporters, if memory serves. Clinton's last minute pardon scandal while President was no big surprise to us.
Clinton said that the victim wasn’t consulted in the DuMond case. Wayne DuMond was convicted in 1985 of raping Ashley Stevens of Forrest City, a distant cousin of Clinton’s.
" On the DuMond case, not only do I think the feelings of the victim were not considered, I think the victim was almost dismissed and derided on occasion, "Clinton said.
Whoa! I can't believe he re-opened that can of worms. For those of you who ain't from around here, DuMond was indeed convicted of the rape of a distant cousin of Clinton's, while Clinton was Gov. What is not mentioned is that while Mr. DuMond was awaiting trial, two "masked men" broke into his house and castrated him, with a pocket knife I believe. Amazingly, his severed testicles were discovered on display in a glass jar in the local sheriff's office, but no one quite knew how they got there. And, as I remember it, no one was ever charged or convicted of the assault. Draw your own conclusions. Additionally, the case against him wasn't too strong, but his trial & conviction was, shall we say, fast-tracked. A lot of folks believed he got railroaded, and others thought, all things considered, that if he was guilty, he'd been punished enough. Gov. Tucker, who succeeded Clinton, reduced his sentence. And later, Gov. Huckabee helped him get paroled. Mr. DuMond is currently awaiting trial in Missouri on murder charges. Whether that means that he was probably guilty of the rape or that this is a result of his lengthy imprisonment, I can't say.
The article ends with a quote from Clinton's speech at the fundraiser, which made me wish I wasn't eating breakfast at the time, cuz I damn near ruined my laptop.
" This being Sunday and all, I hope I’m not struck down by lightning when I start this speech by saying — well, you know I’m not running for anything, so I can say things I didn’t used to say. "But when Jimmie Lou first started talking about getting into this campaign, we had a meeting, she and I did with [longtime Clinton supporters in Little Rock] Bill Clark and Jim Pledger, and we decided the rally of the campaign should be, ‘ Let’s get all the old guys to get it up one more time for Jimmie Lou. ’"
Ahem. (For those of you not familiar with our sometimes bizarre Southern names, Jimmie Lou is female, which I'm sure is a relief. ) Well, Bubba, you'd know more about that than I would, but I think that's a helluva campaign slogan.
Arkansas politics are always so...interesting, aren't they?
Posted by Rita at October 21, 2002 09:30 AM