Just when you though Mike Huckabee was looking like yet another Republican savior (first it was McCain, then Thompson, now Huckabee–their saviors have a habit of quickly self-destructing), we find out that he has some serious slime to gloss over: he argued for the release of a serial rapist and may have been instrumental in the rapist being released many years before he should have been (he was sentenced to life plus twenty years). That rapist then went on to rape and kill at least two more women.

The reason he wanted the rapist released? Because he was convicted by a jury for raping a woman who was a distant relative of Bill Clinton. For some conservatives, in their furious anti-Clinton frenzy, that amounted to an innocent man being set up by Clinton, who was clearly a mass murderer who had nearly omnipotent outreach to destroy anyone and everyone who came even within miles of anyone even remotely connected to him. I’m not kidding; some conservatives even today still believe that Clinton had dozens of people, including prominent politicians and journalists, as well as Secret Service agents, whacked. (Don’t believe me? Check out “The List,” as it’s referred to–apparently, the Clintons not only had Vince Foster killed, but John F. Kennedy Jr., Ron Brown, Admiral Jeremy Boorda, CIA Director William Colby, and many others. It’s not satire–these people are serious.)

Here’s the key part of the story, as told in the Chicago Tribune:

A jury sent DuMond to prison in 1985 for the rape of Ashley Stevens, 17, a distant relative of then-Gov. Bill Clinton.

His imprisonment became a rallying point for Clinton critics in Arkansas, who said they believed DuMond was in prison because of the Clinton connection.

In 1996, then-Gov. Huckabee joined the discussion, saying he planned to commute DuMond’s sentence in part because evidence in the case was “questionable.” Huckabee’s commutation announcement set off bitter complaints. On Jan. 16, 1997, he reversed the decision and denied clemency, although he told DuMond in a letter “my desire is that you be released from prison.”

That day, the Arkansas Post Prison Transfer Board agreed to release DuMond.

Sheer coincidence, naturally, according to Huckabee. And he claims that he had never been alerted the any evidence that the rapist was dangerous–which is now being refuted by several women who say they warned Huckabee about the man.

Of course, he denies having had any part in the rapist’s release. But even if that’s the truth–and the circumstances cast grave doubt on that claim–then Huckabee still had a strong personal desire to release a man who, when released, raped and killed at least two women.

That’s not going to look too good next November.