The Seattle Times reports that Maurice Clemons, the man wanted in connection with the shooting of four police officers in a suburban Seattle coffee shop, was granted clemency by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and released from prison early over the objections of prosecutors. (Plenty of details in the Seattle piece about Clemons Arkansas crimes and the circumstances of his commutation, and Huckabee’s comments.)
On Political Wire, Taegan Goddard wonders whether this might be among the reasons Huckabee recently said that he was more unlikely than likely to run for prez in 2012.
Minnesotans may wonder what a non-candidacy by Huckabee might do to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s chance of entering 2012 as the favorite of social conservatives.
Call me old fashioned, but with 4 cops slaughtered in an execution and the perp still at large, I’m not all that worried about Mike Huckabee’s career right now.
There is a certain amount of irony, that Mike Huckabee is currently working for Roger Ailes at the Fox Network.
It was Mr Ailes who with Lee Atwater helped to conceptualize the Willie Horton ad which was used to help destroy Mr. Dukakis in the campaign against the then presidential candidate George H Bush in 1988.
Michelle Malkin’s Web site has already made mention of “Huckabee’s Willie Horton II.”
They have already started to eat their own.
Some say that Governor Pawlenty appears to suffer from Romney’s flaw of running away from his record. I would say that 2012 is many political lifetimes away.
After all, look what one “bad” day did for former Governor Mike Huckabee.
I hope the perp is found and secured so no others are at risk from him.
After Lee Atwater Willy Hortonized Dukakis in 88, slimeball political tactics became more important in how i judge (negatively) candidates and their campaigns.
For me, it’s too much a stretch to lay such repeat offender stuff at the feet of a Dukakis or Huckabee. You’d let no one out of prison short of full sentence served.
I hope this doesn’t define the Republican races. Or Democratic ones for that matter
Two points:
1. “Unfortunate” is a poor choice of words by Mr. Eric Black, considering four people are dead and four families devastated.
2. Mike Huckleberry is a second teamer and nobody cares if he runs for president.
I think Huckabee’s role in this tragic event is a legitimate topic of consideration for two reasons.
First, here’s another one of these right wing Republicans who’s made a career out of railing about personal responsibility. When it comes to paying for health care, abortion, unemployment, education, and wealfare it’s all about personal responsibility. But when these champions of personal responsibility make really big mistakes all they can do is blame someone else. This is what Huckabee is currently doing on the Fox news circuit. This hypocrisy and dishonesty must be noted because no one ever claims with as much volume or certainty to be bringing honor and integrity to American politics as do these self appointed champions of our “values”. If “values” voting had not been such a toxic influence on American politics for the last 25 years this would be just another bad call by a Governor, but with Palin stomping around to the exact same tune people need to remember that believing in the infallible does not make one infallible. When did hypocrisy, dishonesty, and arrogance become Christian values?
The second reason to consider Huckabee’s complicity in this tragedy is religion. Hucabee (and Palin) believes in a theology that wants to obliterate the separation of church and state. They want to replace our secular government with a Christian government. At the heart of this theology is the belief that their brand of Christianity is absolutely “true”, and consequently infallible. They believe their faith is infallible, and their actions inspired by God. So the question has to be asked, and Huckabee ought to have to answer: did God really want this killer released to he could murder four police men, or did Huckabee get his signals crossed? We’ve already had one president who believed he was being directed by God, do we really want another? Do politicians like Huckabee get to claim divine guidance selectively? Maybe there’s a difference between faith and hubris, and maybe people who don’t know the difference ought not be voted for.
Huckabee is someone who I could never vote for, but in this instance he seems to have been unjustly maligned.
According to a guest on (I believe) MSNBC, Huckabee did authorize an early release for this killer after he had served years as a model prisoner. This was about 7 or 8 years ago, however.
Within the last few months, however, he was either given an early release or paroled by some level of government in Washington. This is the release we should be concerned about.
//Huckabee is someone who I could never vote for, but in this instance he seems to have been unjustly maligned.
This ignores Huchabee’s record. His practice of “forgiveness” was by his own account divinely inspired, and this was not his only such pardon or commutation. These pardons were pattern of behavior for Huckabee, not an anomaly. This is not the only Huckabee release to have gone on to resume a life of crime. The fact the system failed to correct or compensate for Huckabee’s mistake in no way relieves Huckabee of his responsibility for this decision. The fact is this man was not in prison because because Huck let him out, and he did so over objections, and against recommendation. Keep your eye on the ball, the fact that others failed to put the guy back in prison after Huck let him out doesn’t get Huck off the hook.
Ordinarily you cut someone some slack for failing to predict the future, but this guy, specifically touts his ability to predict the future by virtue of divine inspiration. You could claim that no one would have predicted this outcome, but when Huck issued these commutations he was predicting the outcome, and he got it wrong, and it wasn’t the first and only time. In any case, this was a huge mistake predictable or not that’s the way the universe operates, consequences are not necessarily proportionate, and the future is not predictable. Ordinarily mature people are aware of these facts and decisions are tempered by that knowledge. But not with this guy, he issued these pardons and commutations with absolute certainty.
Maybe no one could have predicted this outcome, but did Huck even consider this outcome? And having set this guy free, predictable or not, is he taking responsibility for his mistake? No, he’s blaming others for failing to correct his error. Apparently he expected the legal system that he himself was fond of criticizing to catch his fumbles and didn’t, so it’s their bad not his? Has he even said that he feels bad about this or regrets it? No, he’s not being maligned, he personally went out his way to set this killer free. Remember, Governors don’t sit around handing out pardons to model prisoners as a matter of course. Pardons and commutations are personal interventions. This was not an ordinary mistake, it’s not a mistake your or I could have made, we don’t get to hand out pardons. Huckabee’s response and rationale actually make him more culpable.