A Word to the Huck Haters

Parcbench ^ | December 1, 2009 | Kevin McCullough

[Silly]

Cop-Killer???

A little bit of light needs to be shed on a funny little thing called FACTS as it pertains to the issues surrounding the suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons. Shamefully prominent voices in the Conservative punditocracy (mostly ones who supported Romney in the last go-round) have come out attempting to link Gov. Mike Huckabee to the killings in Seattle that took the lives of four police officers.

Most of these spared little thought for the families, and jumped right into the band-wagon in denouncing Huck as soft on crime, and a friend to criminals, or a bleeding heart Christian. (Funny how the mainstream always accuses Christians of not having a heart.)

All that being said, these Conservative pundits are wrong on the material substance in linking the two and if they continue to do so it says more about their own character than that of the former Governor.

Yes Gov. Huckabee commuted a 100+ year sentence for a person who was a minor when he committed a series of burglaries. He commuted it all the way down to 40 years.

But let’s get some facts straight:

1. That commutation did not pardon, declare innocent or acquit Clemmons of his wrong doing.

2. Clemmons remained on parole following his commutation and when he violated that parole he was brought in for those crimes. (At this point in time, Huckabee’s involvement with Clemmons was over.)

3. It was prosecutorial malfeasance that THEN allowed Clemmons to walk free, NOT a Huckabee commutation.

4. Sometime after that incident Clemmons moves to Washington State, and by all signs possible, lives the life of a model citizen.

5. After that 5-6 year stretch of time Clemmons begins to have skirmishes with Washington State authorities.

6. In Washington State there is a 3 strike law. Which means that when accumulating serious offenses in that state, the third time will incur automatic sentencing that can not be altered.

7. The child-rape Clemmons was most recently charged with was considered his 3rd strike IN WASHINGTON.

[stockpirate]

Clemmons had a getaway driver in the police shootings. He was a pardoned double murderer that he met in jail that Huck also pardoned.

I didn’t like Huck before this happened, he reminds me of a carnival barker snake oil salesman. Not to give snake oil salesmen a bad name.

[Mr. Silverback]

Huckabee Derangement Syndrome

I agree that it's not Huckabee's sole fault, and that people later in the chain did more to get things to this point than he did...but are we going to start calling every objection to a pol "derangment syndrome?" Not only are the people who dislike Huckabee on this board far more reasonable than many of the folks who had it in for Romney, Rudy, McCain or even Fred, they generally have their facts straight and deploy them effectively. For every post I saw last year that was truly hateful about Huck, there were 20 that were off the chain about McCain, and that was before he won the nomination.

He's a tax-raiser, soft on crime, has a loopy immigration stance and a tax plan that guarantees a Democrat win. No derangement is involved in that assessment, and that's the clear-eyed assessment I've heard again and again on FR.

[sitetest]

“Yes Gov. Huckabee commuted a 100+ year sentence for a person who was a minor when he committed a series of burglaries. He commuted it all the way down to 40 years.”

This is disingenuous. Gov. Huckabee commuted the 100+ year sentence down to 47 years, 5 months and 19 days, so that Mr. Clemmons then became eligible for parole the day of the commutation, after having served roughly only 11 years.

The practical effect of Gov. Huckabee’s action was to enable Mr. Clemmons to go free after 11 years of incarceration for some very serious felonies.

As well, some of the things for which he WASN'T prosecuted are in some ways scarier than the things for which he was sent away, such as [from wikipedia]:

- Clemmons was accused multiple times of displaying violence during court appearances. On one occassion, Clemmons dismantled a metal door stop and hid it in his sock to use as a weapon;

- One another instance, Clemmons took a lock from his holding cell and threw it at a bailiff, but missed and accidentally hit his mother instead;

- Clemmons was once accused of reaching for a guard’s pistol while being transported to court;

- 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.

If I'd have been governor, I may have reduced the sentence from 108 years, too. But making this very dangerous person serve less than 30 or 40 years was a literally fatal error in judgment.

This wasn't the sort of person to be let out of prison much before his 60th or 70th birthday. One might argue that this wasn't the sort of person to be released from prison while he still drew breath.

Gov. Huckabee’s judgment in this case was way beyond awful. It is a legitimate issue by which to evaluate his potential candidacy for president. I'm not sure that I'd disqualify him on this alone, but it wouldn't take much beyond this for me to consider him entirely unfit to be president.

[Mr. Silverback]

Doesn't this line also apply to GWB and MOST people in the Republican Party?

Hmmm...well then, should we compound that problem by nominating a guy who thinks that way to take on an incumbent President?

[muawiyah]

Still, I don’t support The Huck for President. On the other hand I don’t support Romney either, or Giuliani, or whoever.

[pissant]

I like Romney even less than Huck, and I still blame Huck. Ask him about Wayne Dumond too.

[muawiyah]

Fool ~ Washington’s governor is a far Leftwingtard of the worst sort, and she cheats in elections. She’ll probably attend this guy’s funeral and lament his passing!

[muawiyah]

We covered Wayne Drumond. No doubt when Bill Clinton had the sheriff castrate him while in jail that had a negative impact on the man.

[trisham]

He’s an arrogant nanny-stater.

[HamiltonJay]

“Clemmons remained on parole following his commutation and when he violated that parole he was brought in for those crimes. (At this point in time, Huckabee’s involvement with Clemmons was over.)”

Um.. had he not had his sentence commuted he would not have been out in the general public to commit those crimes.

I am no fan of Romney or Huck, and I despise both of them and find it pitiable that they are even being discusses ad presidential hopefuls.

Now with that said, on my list of greivances against Huck, communiting this guys sentence is way way way down the list.

However since you wish to talk facts, the Fact on this matter remain, the Governor commuted his sentence, and let him out of prison, something that clearly should not have been done. There was no claim of misjustice in his trial or even controversy over whether he did the deeds he was convicted for. As such the only reason for commutation of this animals sentence was Huck’s own personal misplaced “compassion”.. or more importantly, what he believed was “compassion”.

Sorry, those are the Facts in this case.

And that’s from someone with no love for Romney or Huck.

[Mr. Silverback]

You’re 100% correct, Staten.

Huckabee’s decision to commute this sentence wasn’t unreasonable. It’s the fact that he did so many commutations and so many of them broke bad without the help of any others (no stupid prosecutors, etc.) is what counts.

[Mr. Silverback]

Only one quibble: Palin was not a reason for the loss, she was the reason it wasn’t a blowout.

[sitetest]

Dear StatenIsland,

“Should I commute his sentence down to 40+ years?”

The real question was, “Should I sufficiently commute his sentence so that he’ll be eligible for parole today, after serving only 11 years?”

Because that was the actual effect of the governor’s action. Gov. Huckabee commuted Mr. Clemmons to preciely 47 years, 5 months and 19 days, so that Mr. Clemmons would be eligible for parole immediately after the commutation, after only about 11 years in prison.

As well, the scariest things that Mr. Clemmons were not the crimes for which he was charged, convicted and sentenced. Here’s an interesting paragraph from the wiki article on him:

---

Clemmons was accused multiple times of displaying violence during court appearances. On one occassion, Clemmons dismantled a metal door stop and hid it in his sock to use as a weapon also reportedly hidden a piece of metal in his sock to use as a weapon. It was discovered and confiscated by a court bailiff. One another instance, Clemmons took a lock from his holding cell and threw it at a bailiff, but missed and accidentally hit his mother instead.[3][4] Clemmons was once accused of reaching for a guard’s pistol while being transported to court. 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.[3]

---

This is a fellow who needed to be locked up for a very, very long time, a lot longer than 11 years.

The commutation was a decision that was obviously faulty the day it was made.

sitetest

[Mr. Silverback]

The MSM wants this guy - Huckaphoney - to be the Rep candidate. Then everything will come out on him - drip by drip.

Exactly.

[Republic of Texas]

I don’t hate Huck, he’s just not a Conservative, and therefore not worth my time.

[dfwgator]

I hated him before this, so this has no impact.

[RichInOC]

If the gov hadn’t commuted Maurice Clemmon’s sentence, Clemmons would most likely still be a guest of the State of Arkansas. And those cops would most likely still be alive right now.

This isn’t anything personal against Mike Huckabee. Having something like this on one’s record would be a problem for any other Republican governor, as far as I’m concerned. Yes, even Sarah Palin. Even bigger if it were the second clemency gone wrong, with the potential of more.

That said, I lived through eight years of a president from Hope, Arkansas who hated to take responsibility for his actions. Been there, done that. I have absolutely no desire to go through any more.

Governor, here’s your sign:

[sig226]

That’s true, but the left used her as a lightning rod. Unfortunately, it worked. I can not understand the so called conservatives I know who chose against her because she, “didn’t have enough experience.” Like 0bama had any experience at all, and Biden had any experience as other than being the biggest fool in the U.S. Senate.

I don’t know if Palin can rehabilitate her image, which is sad. She seems to be one of the good ones.

[Fudd Fan]

Please don’t ping me to this sort of apologia.

[Fudd Fan]

AMEN!!