Soon-to-be-former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, for reasons known only to him, has decided to hitch his wagon to a politically-connected child molester and his reality-TV star family, in an aggressive online defense predictably casting the perpetrator and his protectors as the victims, in the place of those that he victimized.
“Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst,” Huckabee wrote in a controversial Facebook post on Friday, as reports were emerging on incidents of molestation involving Josh Duggar, the eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the conservative Christian stars of “19 Kids and Counting.”
Josh Duggar, now 27, was first accused of molesting young girls in 2002, according to a 2006 police report released by the online news site InTouch. Jim Bob Duggar admitted the behavior to his father, who didn’t report what had happened to authorities, though a year later, when more accusations against Josh were brought to his father’s attention, action was taken, sorta, kinda, in the form of shipping Josh off to spend a few months working for a family friend.
Upon his return, Josh was forced to confess his actions to church elders and a state trooper, who did not take any action to investigate the bombshell allegations.
It was two years later that the Duggars were first introduced to the mainstream media world in a TV special on Discovery Health that opened the door to the 2008 premiere of their own reality TV show.
But it almost didn’t happen, that trek down the road to reality-TV fame and fortune. A 2006 taping for “Oprah” featuring the family that never aired led to a tipster reaching out to Harpo Studios, Orpah Winfrey’s production company, to inform the show of the allegations regarding sexual misconduct and cover-up.
The production company forwarded this information to police in Springfield, Ark., the Duggars’ hometown, prompting an investigation into the matter, which saw Jim Bob Duggar refuse to allow police to question Josh regarding the allegations, with the investigation eventually fizzling as a result.
Ahem, time to cue up the Huckabee.
“He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities,” Huckabee wrote in his Facebook screed, assuming that nobody reading along has access to Google, because this statement is otherwise demonstrably untrue.
The Duggars, sold to the mainstream viewing public as paragons of conservative Christian family virtue, thus obstructed justice at the risk of the further victimization of young girls, including their own daughters, to protect their brand name, as it was being constructed into an enterprise lucrative for them, lucrative for TLC and lucrative for their political fellow travelers.
There’s a special section in hell reserved for people who would do that, sure, but Mike Huckabee, and let’s address him directly here, one on one, come on, man, you’re smarter than that, or at least we thought you were smarter than that, until yesterday.
Some might consider it admirable that you’re going out of your way to stick up for a friend, but this story is so beyond effed up that we’d totally forgive you if you’d just sat this one out on the sidelines.
At most, you put out a statement of tepid support for the family, emphasize that you are there for the actual victims, the girls, make some reference to this being a teaching moment on what we can all do to prevent the victimization of girls, and move on.
Instead, you used the same keyboard that you deployed to criticize the Obamas for allowing their teen daughters to listen to music of Beyonce because you don’t approve of the way Beyonce dresses to defend a family that covered up the actions of a child molester, and somehow found that despicable act to be a “testament to his family’s authenticity and humility.”
“Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things.” Wise words here, Mike. You’re a good person, but this clearly regrettable mistake on your part is beyond disgusting, and you can only hope that it’s not the first line in your political obituary, which is being written as we speak.
– Column by Chris Graham
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