Why Gov. Huckabee released deadly rapist

Hullabaloo had this video.

You might know about this already. Tristero writes:

Why did Huckabee work to release Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist?

Answer: Because Wayne Dumond was the darling of the extreme right. And Huckabee was trying to curry their favor.

Huckabee listened hard when right wing activists in New York and Arkansas claimed, without a shred of evidence, that Dumond had been framed for rape. But Huckabee never bothered, apparently, to read the transcript of Dumond's rape trial. And shamefully, he ignored the pleas of the rape victim herself not to release Dumond.

But how on Earth could the imprisonment of a serial rapist become a right-wing cause-celebre?

Answer: Dumond's victim - in the rape that landed him in prison - was a distant cousin of then-Governor Bill Clinton. According to the extreme right, Dumond was framed for the rape. In addition, Clinton may have had, according to the right, some involvement in vigilante justice, Arkansas-style. While awaiting trial for the rape of Clinton's distant relation, a drunken Dumond was castrated. He claimed that three men associated with the local Sheriff attacked and mutilated him. The far right intimated that Clinton may have put the Sheriff up to it. (Of course, the insinuation was bogus, based on nothing but imagination. In fact, investigators suspected that Dumond castrated himself when drunk, behavior that is not unheard of with rapists.)

The people Huckabee listened to, and trusted, told him that Clinton framed Dumond for the rape of his cousin and, in retaliation, possibly ordered his castration.

That is the absurd story Huckabee believed and caused him actively to work for Dumond's release from prison. Whether Huckabee acted out of political cynicism and opportunism or was simply gullible (or both) doesn't matter. That Huckabee would fall for such a preposterous conspiracy tale - and ignore actual trial testimony and the pleas of a rape victim - demonstrates that he has neither the judgment nor strength of character to be considered seriously for any position of responsibility, let alone the most powerful political office on Earth. . . .