Someone is trying to knock Mike Huckabee out of the race with this hard-hitting ad attacking Huckabee for freeing Wayne Dumond. Who's behind the ad and the web site huckabeefacts.com? The most obvious suspect is Mitt Romney, who lost his crucial (and expensive) Iowa lead to Huck. But like a good Agatha Christie novel, anyone in the GOP race could be behind this.

There's lots of great detective work at TPM Election Central.

wanderindiana thinks McCain's team did it:

The whois information posted by james upthread points to a service provider, 1and1, who has been used in the past by isupportjoe.com (a GOP-based Joe Lieberman site which never came to fruition, outed before it was operational), which had been registered in a netblock used by Becki Donatelli and other GOP types. Now, IIRC, a bunch of these folks were to be running John McCain's internet ops. Just speculation, by my money would be on McCain's camp.

Nickm adds another McCain connection:

Although the huckabeefacts.com domain was registered through 1and1.com, the server where the page resides is in Scottsdale, AZ, run by secureserver.net. One of the last hops to the server is through Phoenix. Hmmmmm...

Will the Corporate Media ask Mr. Straight Talk about it? Stay tuned...

Update 1:Arkansas Republican Keith Emis is taking credit:

Hello. This is Keith Emis. I organized the production of the attached video. Below is a statement regarding Mike Huckabee, Lois Davidson and Carol Sue Shields.

I saw Mrs. Davidson on CBS News last week talking about how Wayne Dumond murdered her daughter Carol Sue Shields. Shields was murdered because Mike Huckabee began pushing for Dumond's freedom when he became governor. Dumond was eventually released.

There is no doubt Mrs. Davidson has a powerful story to tell, but I wasn't sure she had an outlet to share it. I agreed with her that Mike Huckabee has no business being president.

I have always been a behind the scenes guy in Arkansas politics, working for Fay Boozman in 1998 and Senator Tim Hutchinson in 2002, so being out front on anything political is highly unusual for me, but this is different.

I contacted Mrs. Davidson and asked her if she would be willing to speak on camera about her daughter, her daughter's murderer, and the man who helped win his freedom. I got a camera crew to go with me to Missouri to Mrs. Davidson's home. We filmed a very kind lady who shouldn't have lost her daughter.

Mrs. Davidson's story is important. It's one that anyone voting in the Republican primaries should hear.

Sincerely,

Keith W. Emis

According to Arkansas Times edit Max Brantley, Emis isn't supporting any of the Republicans:

Emis, 29, grew up in Fayetteville and works in his family's Data Forms business in Greenland. He said he incurred no expenses, save gas and video tapes, and used friends as volunteer help, including one with video production experience. His uncle Donn Emis, a Fayetteville DJ, did the voiceover.

Emis said the stories about the Missouri victims "made him sad." He called Mrs. Davidson and asked if he could visit. She talked to him Sunday and he returned Tuesday and Wednesday to do the video. He declines to talk about politics, such as other disagreements he might have, if any, with Mike Huckabee. Emis comes from a part of the state where Huckabee has left many disaffected Republicans, however, on account of issues ranging from taxes to immigration. Emis wants to stick to Dumond.

"I am not supporting anyone in the presidential race," he said.

"It really made me sad. She's just a simple, nice woman [and a retired Wal-Mart employee]. Her daughter was murdered and it didn't have to happen. And it did happen because Mike Huckabee worked to get Wayne Dumond out of prisons."

We'll see if Emis' story holds up or if one of the candidates is secretly behind his work...