Huckabee took thousands in gifts, records show

Source: The Guardian

A $1,000 pair of cufflinks from a supporter, tens of thousands of dollars of clothing from a wealthy Little Rock businessman and thousands in gift certificates and cash from staff and appointees were among the lavish gifts given to Republican presidential candidate and unexpected frontrunner Mike Huckabee while he was governor of Arkansas.

The gifts fell within Arkansas's ethics rules but have raised questions among the governor's political opponents and ethics analysts at a time when scrutiny of the candidate is intensifying, and are at odds with the humble persona Huckabee has adopted on the campaign trail.

(snip)

Huckabee's chief source of largesse was Jennings Osborne, a Little Rock businessman who made his money in the medical testing business. In 1996, Huckabee's first year as governor, Osborne bought furniture for the governor's office and a fountain pen for the governor's use, and regularly sent flower arrangements. In subsequent years Osborne bought Huckabee gift certificates to department stores and clothing boutiques, 200 copies of a book Huckabee wrote, ties, flowers and air travel.

(snip)

A former top Huckabee staffer said the governor saw nothing wrong with Osborne's gifts. "It was because of his background as a preacher," said the staffer, who asked to remain anonymous. "They typically get gifts. In his own mind he was righteous, so the appearance didn't matter." Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/mikehuckabee/story/0,,2227378,00.html

Huckabee is a goddamn fine con artist.

The chicks will be going nuts over this mustache before long.

might just peck you back.

going on--why would one man lavish such a variety of gifts on another? Flowers? Clothes? Weird--something ain't right here.

I've seen her several times, but never with a smile.

yeah, it's amazing how many of his type are "righteous" in their own minds. :eyes: Anything can be excused with the christian "forgiven" get out of jail free card. His background as a preacher should, if anything, make him more aware of how wrong it is to accept lucre from those wanting favors from him.
Chalk Huckleberry into the "faux-christian" hypocrite category, writ large.

except the occasional girlfriend. So how wide is this Osborne's stance?

you're just not lucky I guess.

this would be a big red flag. He was in a position of power and thought it was just fine to receive expensive personal gifts from a wealthy businessman. It never occurred to him that there was anything wrong with this. It never occurred to him that he wouldn't be getting this stuff if he was not governor. It never occurred to him, a minister, that he was using his position of power to gain wealth, or that there was a problem with that.

He was being purchased like a prostitute and he (supposedly) had no idea it was happening.

Someone so tone-deaf about the ethical dangers of doing this should never be elected to any public office again.

Occasional fresh produce or home-canned goods from some of the farming families in the congregation. Never tens of thousands of dollars of clothing, though. Guess my dad was doing it wrong.

Not the same thing at all for a well paid preacher or governor accepting thousands of dollars in gifts.

corrupt, partisan, and religiously insane.

I wonder if this will get any traction stateside? Probably not, as folks sort of expect Republicans to be corrupt. But if a Democrat rides in a limo or takes a chartered jet, it's apparently the Shame of the Nation.

The one constant that is not being spoken about is terror and terroism. You have Rudy who will use this in his campaign and it will be a winner for him, and on the other hand you have obama out there running on racial harmony. You take the two issues and terror trumps racial harmony. Why? because even though people know there is still racism in america most people are at a point they are happy with race relations and need no one to tell them different.

Ben David

thankfully, none of our candidates accepted gifts that do not violate any ethics rules, so I won't feel like a hypocrite if I rip Huckabee here for it because I know I won't have to defend a Dem for doing the same thing when it gets reported next week. :sarcasm:

Ho boy.

We want him to win. All of our candidates do better against Huck than Rudy !

as an excuse? Please, only charlatan preachers like the con-men, Hinn, Tilton, the TBN network, Pat Robertson, etc... would accept such extravagant gifts. Oh wait, the Huckster is a charlatan. Makes sense now.

couldn't do much better than "Jennings Osborne".

:rofl:

Maybe he and Huck were doing Not Gay Stuff.

believes women should submit to their men, and that AIDS patients should be quarantined.

And I thought he looked like the nicest of the Republican bunch. They're all corrupt, depraved bastards.

Sounds like these two have a special stall in an Arkansas airport.

I'm sorry, it's just...weird. Men don't normally send other men flowers--certainly not on a regular basis.

Talking about how Huckabee loved the "perks" of receiving gifts as both a preacher and as governor of Arkansas. Hell, having the wedding registry after the "covenant" remarriage with his wife was beyond the pale.

Wondering...?

What might have been Huck's financial Kick Back
after fulfilling Dumond's end game Dreams
of Raping and Murdering Women?

Opps...! that's old forgotten news.

Another sleazy repukian pervert on the take, will it never end, no, the repukian faithful don't care if these creeps destroy our crountry as long they get tax breaks!

"They typically get gifts. In his own mind he was righteous, so the appearance didn't matter."


Oh boy. Hard to say which is worse - the fact that Huckabee saw nothing wrong with taking the gifts or that it was "because of his background as a preacher." Maybe I am naive, but I should thing a preacher background should make one more sensitive to the "appearance of wrongdoing", not less.

The best seller maker warehouses stuffed with ridiculous books, Huck, Adams Apple Colter and the rest of the loony right echo chamber will soon be fuel for massive book burnings to make way for the new crop of sanctimonious crap coming from the delusional pen of the right.

What a phony Huckabee is.

They ain't bribes. Now git down on your knees and pray.

My client was a die hard rethug, but said Huckabee was a tool for the wealthy there. Also said he was an empty suit. We can only pray he gets the nod from the rethug base.

...Fresh, hot, quivering love for sale!

Why deny a preacher a few pretties. He was practicing to be president. Flowers and pretty pens and fine clothes, uumh? Where was the Craigster when this was all going on.

From Politico:

Mike Huckabee accepted more than 90 gifts from 21 Arkansans he appointed to state posts during his decade as governor, a Politico analysis of state public records found.

Since setting his sights on the White House, those supporters, their families and their companies have kept on giving. They contributed nearly $161,000 to a pre-presidential campaign account and Huckabee's official campaign committee since late last year, according to state and federal campaign finance records.

(snip)

Huckabee also gave appointments to givers of less extravagant gifts who have yet to appear in his campaign donation reports.

He accepted a barbecue grill from a resort owned by the family of a man he appointed to the state’s State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission.

He accepted as gifts seemingly common services, including car repairs. He reported receiving free eye care and “eye wear” from an optometrist and an ophthalmologist — both of whom he tapped for spots on the boards overseeing their respective professions.

(snip)

When Adam's furniture gift, worth more than $70,000, was first revealed, Huckabee claimed it was his family’s to keep. He backed down after a lawsuit was filed over the furniture and his family’s use of a $60,000-a-year fund, which the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported had been used to pay for pizza, a doghouse, a magazine subscription and pantyhose for Janet Huckabee.

The suit was settled with the furniture still in the mansion and Huckabee, while admitting no wrongdoing, acknowledging a dispute “regarding reimbursements.”

more…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7401.html

What a first class loser!