2008 Best Buried Detail in Yesterday’s NYT
posted by on December 10 at 15:19 PM
For the last couple days I’ve been saying “President Huckabee” under my breath, just trying to get used to the sound of it. “President Huckabee. President Huckabee. President Huckabee.”
Since I’ve been so busy getting used to the sound of his name I really haven’t been following the rapist-pardoning, AIDS-quarantining stuff. But yesterday I read the front-page story on Huckabee in the New York Times, and, as did everyone who read that story in the print edition, came to the most startling little detail buried on the jump-to page. The rapist whom Huckabee either did or did not have a hand in getting released (and who later went on to murder a woman after getting out of prison) was named Wayne DuMond.
Mr. DuMond was convicted in the 1984 rape of a teenager who was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas. While he was out on bail awaiting trial, Mr. DuMond said men forced his way into his home and castrated him, but the authorities said they thought he might have castrated himself in a play for sympathy. He was sentenced to life in prison.
That’s pretty startling already. Then comes this:
[S]oon after taking office, Mr. Huckabee met in October 1996 with members of the parole board, all of whom had been appointed by his Democratic predecessors. Mr. DuMond’s case, with its twists and turns—including a $110,000 judgment against a sheriff who kept Mr. DuMond’s testicles in a jar on his desk—had become something of a celebrated cause among conservative activists, who charged that Mr. Clinton’s relation to the victim had led to Mr. DuMond’s being railroaded.
Testicles. In a jar. On a sheriff’s desk.
As you were.
woah.
and then the sherrif threw his f'in coffe cup at me...shouting some crap like "stay out of Malibu, Lebowski!"
He's like Bush but an actual Southerner, with all the baggage that entails
Wait, he castrated himself and THEN he raped someone else? I must be misunderstanding what castrated means....
he raped somebody, then castrated himself, then murdered someone.
@ 4
that is what Huckabee thought. but it just proves rape is about violence not sexual desire.
I thought castration mellowed you out. Jeez.
If he castrated himself, or was castrated by intruders, how did his balls end up pickled on the Sheriff's desk? "Authorities said" he did it himself. Yeah right, funny how Authorities ended up with a new paperweight.
It may have been buried in that particular article, but I've read it in numerous other places.
The whole story is revolting. What he did to those women, what was done to him, everyone with a hand in it seems monstrous.
@4: First he raped a woman, then he was castrated while awaiting trial, then he was let out of prison and murdered a different woman than who was originally raped.
Whoops, I didn't mean to repeat #5, I took too long between refreshing.
Welcome to Arkansas. I don't recommend stopping.
And I thought Huckabee couldn't get any stranger ... I was wrong.
Devil's advocate here, but if he had his balls cut off before he came up for parole, maybe they were thinking (correctly as it turns out) "well, it's not like he's gonna rape anyone" Is it only with hindsight that letting him out seems like a bad move?
Anyway, I'm sick of how politicians have to have perfect records on everything. I'd rather oppose Huckabee because he's a wingnut than because we can second guess one decision he made ages ago.
@12
I think this tale of moonshine swilling, banjo strumming, inbred lunacy speaks to him being a wingnut. But, you know, maybe most elected officials have a jar of nuts in their closet.
@7: If you're sick in the head, cutting off your balls probably doesn't change much.
@13 I know i would if i were a county Sheriff. it would be a nice formaldehyde-y snow-globe.
Castration does not prevent cloitus. It does reduce drive. That's why full eunuchs often had enough removed to physically prevent cloitus.
It was probably related to misunderstanding this that the parole board released him.
And it goes to show the first thing we learned in health class: the body's largest sexual organ is the brain.
"Cloitus" ?
i need to check this "cloitus" out.
sounds durrrty, not unlike the south itself.
@12,
There's more to that than you think. His former victims, there were several, pleaded with the parole board and Huckabee not to let Dumond out. They argued that he would likely murdered someone. Huckabee (mostly) ignored those pleas, but did know about them. He's now trying to claim that he never received their letters.
I still see no reason to let a violent predator out of prison, even if he supposedly no longer has the ability to commit the specific violent act he was imprisoned for. Violent prick is as violent prick does.
>Castration does not prevent cloitus. It does reduce drive. That's why full eunuchs often had enough removed to physically prevent cloitus.
So what exactly does castration mean? I used to think it meant cutting off the penis, but it sounds like he still had his...
Castration normally just removes the balls, which is what was in the jar.
He raped a cousin of Bill Clinton's. Free Republic and other right-wing group campaigned loud and hard for his release because they were convinced he was an innocent man framed by the Clintons or because raping a Clinton doesn't really count in their mind. Seriously.
Free Republic's championing of this rapist/murderer is now, of course, verboten over there.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).