Posted on 12/01/2009 10:49:21 AM PST by Mount Athos
Under fire for commuting the sentence of suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called some of the criticisms “disgusting” and suggested they were attempts to score political points.
“It really does show how sick our society has become that people are more concerned about a campaign three years from now than those grieving families in Washington,” Huckabee said during an interview on Joe Scarborough’s radio show. “It is disgusting, but people use anything as a political weapon.”
Huckabee granted Clemmons, a suspect in the killings of four police officers in Washington state over the weekend, clemency in 2001. He had served 11 years in prison after being sentenced at the age of 18 to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft and was set to serve the 60 years, in addition to the 48 years he was already serving on five felony counts.
After his sentence was commuted, Clemmons was paroled by an Arkansas board and moved to Washington in 2004, where he was charged with eight felonies prior to gunning down the police officers in a coffee shop.
Clemmons was shot and killed Tuesday morning by an officer investigating a stolen car.
Huckabee has been thrashed in the right-wing blogosphere by leading online conservative voices who have criticized his commutation of Clemmons’ sentence.
In addition, Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty – one of Huckabee’s potential challengers for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012– said Tuesday that he would not have granted Clemmons clemency if he had been in Huckabee’s position.
“I don't think I've ever voted for clemency,” Pawlenty told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “We’ve given out pardons for things after everybody has served out their term, but again, usually for more minor offenses. But clemency? Certainly not. Commutation of sentence? Certainly not.
Huckabee defended his choice to grant the Arkansas felon clemency by insisting that Clemmons original sentence went too far.
“If he were a white kid from an upper middle class family he would have gotten a lawyer and some counseling,” Huckabee said. “But because he was a young black kid he got 108 years.”
Huckabee said the sentence was “far disproportionate from any other punishment in Arkansas at the time for a similar crime.”
“It’s a lot easier to be a pundit or a commentator or a blogger than to govern the state and have to make tough decisions,” he said. “People are talking about this from a political standpoint, but what they need to be asking is how did the system break down?”
LOL. Ask me about 2012 and I’ll reply, “you betcha.” :)
Yes. This reaction of his proves that Huckabee is a selfish, amoral person.
He should be saying “I definitely understand the public reaction to my letting this crimal go free. I would feel the same way in their position. This was a horrible mistake; I out of the goodness of my heart chose to give some guys a second chance, and apparently I was wrong. I humbly ask the world for forgiveness. I may never be able to forgive myself.”
THAT is what a good, religious, G-d-fearing person SHOULD say, rather than go on the attack against people who are upset he let this killer free to rape children and kill four cops.
Huckabee is a dangerous person and should be in no position of authority at all, not even as a commentator. He is moved ONLY by his selfish desires. The rest is fake.
Oh no! Another Palinista! LOL. Well, yer welcome to stay anyway. FR will make the days of FredRepublic seem like an open minded Kumbaya session if she decides to run.
I like: Stick a fork in his popcorn popper. His squirrel is done.
LOL. No, I went through the Palinista thing with my dear friend, BobJ yesterday. Palin’s Patriots. I like her best of all thus far and she’s not running...yet. I’m open minded as you know and I’m well aware you have another young Hunter. Plenty of time for our “bets” and you’re mind reading. :)
Seriously Mike, you expect us to believe that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Clemmons
Clemmons lived in Marianna, Arkansas in his early youth, and moved to Little Rock as a teen. Clemmons was arrested when he was a junior at Hall High School for carrying a .25-caliber pistol on school property.[3] [4] He claimed to be carrying the gun because he was "beaten by dopers", and said he had "something for them" if they attacked him again. Clemmons has been accused of numerous violent incidents while being tried in Arkansas on various charges. During one trial, he was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer because the presiding judge ordered extra security, claiming Clemmons had threatened him. In another instance, Clemmons was accused of throwing a lock at a bailiff, but instead it accidentally hit his mother. Clemmons has also reportedly hidden a piece of metal in his sock to use as a weapon, and reached for a guard's pistol while being transported to court.[3]
By 1990, Clemmons was sentenced to 108 years in prison for a number of criminal charges from his teenage years. The total prison term stemmed from multiple sentences, some of which were concurrent to others and some were consecutive.[5] The largest sentencing came in 1990, when he was given a 60-year prison term for breaking into an Arkansas state trooper's home and stealing about $6,700-worth of items, including a gun.[4][6] During his sentencing on the charges, a circuit judge told Clemmons that he had broken his mother's heart, to which Clemmons responded, "I have broken my own heart."[3] Clemmons was also sentenced in 1989 to 35 years in prison for aggravated robbery and theft in Little Rock, after he stole a purse from a woman, claimed to have a gun and punched her. Among his other sentencings were six years for weapon possession based on his high school arrest;[4] and eight years for burglary, theft and probation in Pulaski County on September 9, 1989.[5]
You are mind reading!
Go Rogue with us, you know you want to....
This is not his first “Willie Horton.” Wayne Dumond ring a bell with Huckabee apologists?
This is NOT about politics. It’s about (in no particular order) four dead police officers, a raped child, nine fatherless children, four widowed spouses, a raped and murdered woman, and countless other victims.
I was truly shocked by Huckabee’s immediate statement after the incident. His follow up statements only serve to appall me further.
Huckabee apologists take off your blinders. It’s like talking to an Obamabot.
Huck speaks from first-person experience here.
His (white) teenaged son tortured and then hung a helpless stray puppy. When he was caught (because he did all this while on a Scout campout and had plenty of witnesses), Daddy Governor "made it all go away."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78241
His pathetic (still white) son caught carrying a loaded Glock onto a plane WHILE Daddy was running for Pres: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268762,00.html
“Be honest and tell me who you support in the primary????”
I don’t support anybody yet. It is too far distant. There are no announced candidates for primaries, which will next be for 2010, btw. I’m interested in 2010.
So YOU be honest and read my posting history, and find evidence I fit into one of your two categories.
So why don’t you admit the need for a category for FACTS?
***and motherless
Good post...I was thinking about his kids while I was reading that quote.
I do not fall into either of your categories. I am open for 2012 as long as we get a candidate who is an unabashed conservative who has the BALLS to properly explain conservative principles to the country and show that these principles BETTER help ALL Americans, as well as stand up to the Alinsky tactics of the left, and LAUGH at the mocking this candidate (and family) will receive from the press.
And I am Jewish.
However, I actually believe the best about my fellow FReepers, unlike you who believe that only a small minority of us have pure motives.
I believe that a lot of us, of whatever stripe, have also enough common sense to notice that Huckabee is a man who has lied about some very unimportant things, in a very loud and nasty way. These lies are red flags for a very needy personality, someone who will never be trustworthy because his own needs will always trump everything else. This is not a man for leadership. His behavior with his son who at the least had conduct disorder, and at most may be a future serial killer, was uncharitable to society, morally dishonest, and against the law.
I do not believe his loud Christianity in the face of all his lies and treachery. I see it as a cloak he hides behind to win votes. His public comments on his release of this child rapist and killer demonstrate that he has no Christian humility in his heart at all. He expresses no responsibility. He is only focused on everyone’s opinion of him and how to combat it.
Shame on you for not believing that your fellow FReepers might have genuine reasons for not trusting Huckabee.
Who knows who wil be running. My guys are Hunter/DeMint/King/Pence/Palin. In that order.
But let’s worry about 2010 and get some collective victories under our belts before we disintegrate again.
Talk about a tear jerking post. My heart breaks. Prayers for these families.
It’s what I pretend to do best!
By comparison Michael Dukakis took his like a man.
That’s probably all you need to know.
If you watch Huckabee’s Fox show, you’ll notice he is regaining the weight he brags about losing.
Stick a fork in Huck, he’s done.
Fox shouldn’t honor him with his own show—better yet give it to Sarah Palin.
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