Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee gave an interview to Christianity Today and was asked about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her political future. Ms. Palin was in Fayetteville, Arkansas today signing copies of her book.
A lot of people compare you and Sarah Palin as conservative Christian candidates. What separates you two? What makes you different?
Well, it’s hard for me to say what’s different because I don’t know. I don’t know how people make the comparison. We were both governors, we certainly are both pretty clear in our expression of faith, so yeah, we share those things. But other than those things, I’m not sure where the comparisons are. We’re both Republican, we’re both pro-life—there are a lot of similarities that way—but she has a very different political direction than I do. I’m not sure of her future politically, and I’m really not sure of mine either.
Gene Lyons is the latest Arkansas columnist to declare the end of Mr. Huckabee’s political career.
Once again, Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate, struggled to explain his catastrophically poor judgment. Once again, a violent felon turned loose on his say-so had run amok. Once again, according to Huckabee, currently a FOX News channel talk show host, the disaster was everybody’s fault but his own. He issued a buck-passing statement blaming “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington.”
. . . The Washington tragedy almost surely marks the end of Huckabee’s political career.
I DOUBT THAT! THE GOVERNOR’S POLITICAL CAREER IS OVER WHEN HE SAYS IT IS. THERE ARE STILL MILLIONS OF PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO SUPPORT HIM. THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE GIVING HIM A HARD TIME WOULD HAVE NEVER VOTED FOR HIM ANYWAY, SO NO LOSE!
God Bless you Mr. Huckabee
Those easy to identify “Huckabee Haters” will most likely skip this post because reality and truth to them is like flashing a cross to a vampire. That’s okay. There may be others, however, who are genuinely uninformed and are open to actually learning what I will call the “actual facts.”
First of all, you no doubt have heard Mike Huckabee’s name mentioned in many, if not all of the stories on this topic because he “commuted” or changed the 108 year sentence of Maurice Clemmons to 47 years back in the year 2000. He has taken full responsibility for the decision he made back then. However, a number of his fellow “conservatives” are not taking their responsibility for the “actual facts.” I could list names here, but I might miss one or two and I think we all know who they are anyway.
The case before Governor Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago was that of a 16 year old African-American youth named Maurice Clemmons, who had received a disproportionate sentence of 108 years for burglary and robbery charges. In his teen years he had burglarized an unoccupied home, stealing a cell phone and appliances. He also had stolen a purse from a woman without the use of a weapon and had been caught in possession of a firearm. Due to these crimes, he had already served 11 years of this lengthy sentence in an Arkansas prison and was now in his mid to late twenties by this time. Eleven years was already more time than most similar cases would have received for the entire length of their sentence.
Under Arkansas law, governor’s do NOT parole anyone. It is done by the “Post Prison Transfer Board.” That board can recommend “clemency” which simply means leniency or mercy. In this case, they recommended by a 5 – 0 vote that Maurice Clemmons sentence be reduced. Governor Huckabee reviewed over 1000 of these cases each and every year of the 10 1/2 years he was Governor. Ninety-two percent of the time over this period, any request for “clemency” was denied. Most of those that were granted were for clearing a person’s record for a minor offense from 20 years previous.
The trial judge in the case supported the commutation. During the 30 day period legally required for “public comment”, there were no objections registered by any authorities, despite claims of the local prosecutor that he “was afraid something like this would happen.” If this were true ( which it is not) this prosecutor has failed to explain something very important. In 2007, Clemmons was back in prison for a parole violation. This prosecutor ( who likes to blame Huckabee) not only failed to pursue charges, he actually dropped them, which allowed Maurice Clemmons to go free. Clemmons then moved 2300 miles away to the state of Washington and there continued to avoid extradition back to Arkansas or be locked up by Washington authorities as he displayed signs of psychotic behavior.
Governor Huckabee is responsible for the commutation in 2000 and has openly admitted that on several occasions. Video of this is available almost any place you want to look on the internet. The Governor has also stated emphatically that he would obviously not have commuted his sentence in 2004 after Clemmons had been re-arrested or in any of the years following.
Huckabee has clearly and openly explained his decision in 2000, but obviously cannot explain the decision of the very vocal prosecutor in Little Rock. Now to some of those glaring “actual facts” often purposefully hidden by some of the radio “talking heads” and others, and again – I think we all know who they are.
1. Clemmons was NEVER “pardoned.” He was not even considered for a pardon. Yet, that word is used all over the place to describe Mike Huckabee’s actions.
2. The commutation didn’t release him. It made him “parole eligible.” Clemmons had to meet the conditions for the parole board. At this point, he was obviously no longer a teenager as he had already been in prison for 11 years. Since he met the conditions, the parole board did release him.
3. Despite what you may have read or heard, there are NO records that the prosecutor, law enforcement, the Attorney General, or victims objected in any way to the commutation. The only response Huckabee did receive was letters of “support” from members of the community and the trial judge himself !
4. Clemmons was back in prison by 2004 and would have stayed there until 2015 due to violating his parole. However, for whatever reason, the prosecutor did not properly file the paper work in order to keep him locked up.
5. The Maurice Clemmons of the year 2000 obviously did not exhibit the traits and behaviors that he would express years later during several arrests in the state of Washington.
6. “Religion” had nothing to do with the commutation. I have seen these charges mentioned in actual news stories and they are honestly laughable. The Governor’s own personal faith or any claims of faith by inmates did NOT factor into any sort of decision making. Nothing in the record itself even suggests something so ridiculous.
He has mentioned many times in public and/or in writing that he values soldiers and police officers VERY highly with fireman and schoolteachers a close second. I know he regrets commuting his sentence making him “eligible for parole” more than any of us can even begin to imagine. For just 30 seconds, put yourself in his shoes an hour after he realized what had happened. He has repeatedly stated this was HIS responsibility and it was based on the evidence at that time. He can and has taken full responsibility for HIS actions, but it is an impossibility for him to take responsibility for the actions of other people nor for the misinformed words of commentators. Mike Huckabee is not only a “once in a lifetime” political candidate. In my view, he is a “once in a lifetime” sort of a human being. In or out of politics, he has more character and class in his little finger nail than most of his “haters” do collectively.
Again, Governor Huckabee publicly took responsibility on the O’Reilly Factor November 30th for what HE did. He can not take responsibility for what he DID NOT DO. That would be like blaming this killers parents for the murders because they did not raise their son properly. Or–for a suspect to admit to crimes he did not commit just because newspaper headlines said he may be guilty.
Any focus on other human beings, other than the murderer himself (now deceased) would have to be be directed to the judges who most recently set him free. They had his entire (and recent ) record in front of them in which they could base their decisions on. Governor Huckabee obviously could not do that years ago in Arkansas because the most heinous by far of all the crimes HAD NOT BEEN COMMITTED YET ! A 4 year old could figure that out.
This is a bad situation and I really mourn for these family members as any caring person would, but blaming Mike Huckabee for this makes zero sense, unless you are in the GOP group who hated Mike before this happened anyway, and feel this can be twisted into nasty sounding headlines to de-rail any possible future Presidential aspirations. There’s a verse in the O.T. that says “Remember Lot’s wife.” I would suggest….” Remember Trent Lott.”
Will this ruin Mike’s political future ? I don’t know. I’m just saying it shouldn’t. If it does, it is wrong and incredibly stupid beyond belief. I believe this tragic situation would make the Governor an even BETTER President, rather than a more flawed one.
All the false and hateful comments about Mike are “natural” because we all possess a “human nature.” However, believers have been called to a “super-natural” way of life. My request would simply be that if you are a “Huck Hater”, at least consider looking at the “actual facts” with an open mind. The truth might just set you free.
Of course, there’s nothing very good about this. However, the timing is actually ok for Mike Huckabee. Go ahead and “get the skeletons out of the closet” now. It’ll then be old news by the time the primaries heat up in 2012. Better that all this comes out now rather than in “the heat of the election”. Everybody will have forgotten about it by 2012.
Well John did people forget about Willie Horton?
how much are you guys getting paid to say all these buttery things now that 4 beatiful people are dead, God rest their souls
..I Supported Mike on the ‘net and within my financial means, (Small, lol ). when he was running for President.
This bothers me not only for the 4 officers but for the reported high number of felons that he pardoned / commuted. I also wish he had not ‘generalized the blame’ in his statement. A simple statement like “That was one decision that I wish I could have to take back” or something similar, might have been better.
That being said, if you look at all of the details of the case Mike is only one of many to blame. The Pardon Board, The State of Washington Legal System . . . They all made serious errors in judgement. Mike was only one part of what went wrong. Yes, it will be remembered and pointed out at any bid for an election for National Office but so will some misteps by Sarah; Mitt’s Mass. Health Care debacle; . . . every candidate, like every one of us, has made bad choices, or had well meaning efforts go bad.
Mike seems to me to be one of the most honorable politicians that we have. He did a lot of good in Arkansas. Sure he has the usual detractors like the liberal press, but many of the harder right conservatives like Rush and Hannity think that he is not conservative enough. To me that means that Mike is sitting pretty good as far as a political posture goes. Mike is conservative where it counts such as fiscal responsibility, smaller government, belief that a healthy business climate is what creates jobs, (not government programs) and a strong military with only necessary deployment.
One of the important attributes about Mike is that, I believe, he would be one of the best Republicans to ‘reach across the aisle’ and get the less radical Democrats to help work on good legislation that we really need.
To summarize, I was distressed to hear that Mike commuted this guy’s sentance. But I’d sleep a whole lot better with Mike sitting in the Oval Office than most of the others, especially the one that sits there now.
Dan’l Nautilus66@yahoo.com
I think Mike Huckabee’s political career is in a crisis. I can’t say for sure that it is over for him. But I assume this can only hurt him. We all remember Will Horton. This could very well be Huckabee’s Horton moment. We have to wait and see. On the upside, if there is any, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin might benefit from Huckabee’s political crisis.
http://www.TruGlobalist.com
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