The owner of mikehuckabee.com (edelta is the corporate entity that maintained the site, but Democratic regular Kurt Sims has always been the man behind the curtain) had indicated to me a week or so ago that financial health needs likely would dictate the sale of the website to one of the increasing offers for the site from Republican sources. I think the National Republican Committee was working on the deal. Earlier efforts by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s lawyers to threaten Kurt out of existence hadn’t worked. But the site has now gone dark and cached pages are being deleted from the web. Last I heard the price was in the $3,500 to $5,000 range. He should have held out for more. The page was a thorn in the candidate’s side, with recitations of his foibles as governor, particularly his penchant for pardons for criminals.
We’ll miss Kurt’s pungent posts on the Huckster. But I know he has the knowhow to set up some alternate sites with the same material. (You did save it all, didn’t you Kurt?)
Most recently, the site carried a fine link to our article on Huckabee’s work to free the murderer Wayne Dumond (pictured here professing innocence to the multiple rapes and killings he committed — some after his Huckabee-helped release — before death finally took him in a Missouri prison). Lest anyone forget, here’s the link.
Here’s a look at an old page through the wayback machine, not yet destroyed. (Now posted at top of this item.)
UPDATE AND CORRECTION: I heard from Kurt Sims overnight. He said he was the owner of the site, not eDelta.net, and that he had sold it for health reasons, not financial. He wanted it known that he’d given Democratic interests every opportunity to bid, but none had been interested. He said he had no plans for similar websites in the future. “Life is just too short to waste time on such things,” he said. Sims also said Arkansas Politics’ report that the sale price was $5,000 was correct. A law firm did the purchase. Their client wasn’t identified, but the Huckabee campaign earlier had acquired some other web addresses employing his name. Huckabee’s lawyer, Kevin Crass, had once threatened legal action against Sims to get him to relinquish the site. And one more thing: When I talked to Sims about this for an Insider item back in April, I also mentioned that he controlled mikehuckabee.org, too. I presume it wa part of the deal.