Critics say Huckabee cashed in on the school shooting with the 1998 publication of 'Kid who kill"

[AlCzervik]

By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 26, 2008

JONESBORO, ARK. — After two middle-school boys in camouflage gear shot and killed four classmates and a teacher here, leaving 10 others wounded and a community shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone would see opportunity in the tragedy for a book deal.

Indeed, within days a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an Arkansas writer to produce a book on youth violence.

Victims' families were outraged. They called the payment blood money and said the author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that the money go to the school, victims' relatives or scholarships for the wounded, not to the writer's personal bank account. He refused.

That the author was Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' governor at the time, made their resentment all the stronger.

"He took advantage of us," said Pam Herring, whose daughter, Paige Ann, had just turned 12 when she was shot to death.

"He was out for one thing and that was money," said Mitch Wright, whose wife, Shannon, a teacher, died protecting children. "He made money at our expense."

The slaughter at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro in March 1998 was, at the time, one of the worst school incidents in American history. Today, with Huckabee a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, his book deal continues to aggravate many of the victims' families.

Some critics of Huckabee say the incident fits his pattern as governor of enriching himself with gifts of cash, clothes and furniture donated by supporters.

At the time of the shootings, Huckabee was under investigation for numerous ethics violations, many of them for not reporting outside income and gifts. In all, he was fined or sanctioned five times by the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

Inauguration funds reportedly were used to buy clothes for his wife, Janet, and the couple later set up a "wedding registry" at department stores and collected linens, toasters and other furnishings from supporters; they had been married 25 years.

Bobby McDaniel, a Jonesboro lawyer who represented some of the families, said Huckabee "never saw a gift he didn't take." Newspaper editorial writers called him a "money-grubbing governor" and nicknamed him "Mike the Huckster."

"It was all quite unseemly," Vaughn McQuary, chairman of the state Democratic Party at the time, said in a recent interview about the book contract. "The governor of a state should set a better example."

Huckabee's campaign did not respond to requests for an interview. But Huckabee has publicly defended his book deal, saying the $11.99, 180-page paperback had been planned before two boys opened fire at Westside, and that the tragedy simply would give him the springboard to air his broader views that youth culture was destroying families. "The book is not about Jonesboro," he insisted.

But when the book was rushed to print a month after the shootings, it was titled "Kids Who Kill." The cover is a photo of a boy about the age of the Jonesboro killers pointing a gun at the reader. The back cover promo states: "The quest for quick answers has robbed us of the truth" about Jonesboro. "Until now."

The opening pages begin: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, a sudden burst of gunfire cut through the crowded schoolyard of Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. . . . "

Much of the rest of the book is a compilation of quotes from theologians and historical figures, and includes transcripts of two radio addresses Huckabee gave after the shooting. Huckabee has written or co-written several books, all dealing with motivational subjects such as character and dieting, but none has been as controversial as "Kids Who Kill."
more at link
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-huckabee26jan26,1,5460607,print.story

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I live in Arkansas,

and know folks of every political stripe. I have yet to find ANYONE who plans to vote for Huckabee. He is known as a con man around here.

[AlCzervik]

2. good, the longer he's around the worse he looks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. He is hated in northwest Arkansas

because he raised taxes and then forced school consolidation (which didn't close schools, just added another layer of administration, and made school taxes go up). Realize too that this part of the state is the most conservative. A friend of mine who is more active in state politics told me that his Republican support in the legislature was down to 13 individuals when he left office.

[AlCzervik]

5. thats good info, thank you.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Profited from other parents' loss, and then didn't bother to go

to the memorial service. Christian leader, right there.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Have you seen the holiday card of him and his family?

His sons look like they'd like to throttle him, at minimum, and his wife, to both scream and cry at the same time.

If there are unhappy kids in the world who act out, part of the responsibility is with the adults who raise them. Who will of course turn themselves inside-out avoiding the slightest trace of responsibility.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. ...

:kick:

[Mz Pip]

8. The Huckster

wrote a book? What was it? A picture book called "How to Shoot Your Pet Goat?"

Mz Pip
:dem:

[rosesaylavee]

9. K & R

More need to know about the Huckster.