This story gets a little bit convoluted, but if you follow along, I promise it eventually leads to the doorstep of our favorite Huckster, world-renowned expert on Indonesian Mau Maus, and unequaled lover of Churchillian busts, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.
The story begins with the sudden resignation of Lu Hardin, the President of Palm Beach Atlantic University
You have to love the way representatives of Palm Beach Atlantic in this article
claim to have no idea why Hardin resigned, other than the ubiquitous “family reasons.”
Hardin was hired at Palm Beach in 2008, soon after leaving the presidency of Central Arkansas University in the midst of an emerging scandal. Th Board of Directors at UCA had secretly given him a $300,000 bonus. Apparently the bonus was not available fast enough, though, and Hardin conducted a wire fraud scheme in order to be able to use it more quickly. This is what led to the indictment. Why was this guy the president of Central Arkansas University? Drumroll please.....
He was a Democratic state senator for 14 years, made an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in 1996, and was later tapped by Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee to lead the Arkansas Higher Education Department. Hardin, an attorney, had been a professor of legal studies at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
While higher education director, Hardin joined Huckabee in the Republican Party in April 1997. Five years later, with Huckabee’s strong recommendation, Hardin was named UCA president.
It was not known publicly until hardin’s guilty plea early this week why he needed the money, but now it has come out here in the South Florida Sun Sentinel
Gambling debts are what led former University of Central Arkansas president Lu Hardin to falsify documents so he could draw immediately from a $300,000 bonus, a longtime friend said Tuesday.
Mike Huckabee surely does view the world differently than Barack Obama. Whose view, and judgment, looks better?