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.

[JimRed]

Even more galling Bill O’Reilly calls Huckabee a “stand up guy” basically for appearing on the Factor.

Would you have preferred that he decline to be interviewed?

[SunkenCiv]

• Maurice Clemmons, man wanted for questioning, has long criminal history
• Huckabee says he probably will not run in 2012; UPDATE: Tacoma cop killer was freed by Huckabee
• Person of interest in police killings had life sentence commuted (by Huckabee)
• Police surround Seattle home where person of interest in police shooting may be hiding
• Shooting Suspect Not Found Inside Seattle Home
• RAW DATA: Clemmons' Commutation Proclamation
• Police murders suspect Maurice Clemmons evades capture
• Huckabee Commuted 95-Year Sentence Of Seattle Cop Killer
• Clemmons shot [and killed] by police
• Seattle Police Shoot and Kill Suspect in Murder of Four Police Officers
• Clemmons deemed 'dangerous' by psychologists

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Silly.

[Revolting cat!]

Silly.

[editor-surveyor]

This is pathetic!

Huck is definitely responsible for these deaths. - No murder sentence should ever be commuted. This is what allowed the parole, which also should never happen in a murder case.

Don’t attempt to say that Huck isn’t soft on crime; he is, and on illegal immigration, and on voting fraud, and on all the other failures of liberalism. The one thing I won’t accuse Huck of is being a real Christian. If he were, he would have known that “finding Jesus” does not absolve one of their crimes, nor the consequences thereof.

[NormsRevenge]

Plenty of ‘blame’ (if that is the correct word) to go around no matter how you comb the piles off acts, sadly, Huck’s signature was on the bottom of over 1000 requests for commutations and pardons... some felt he was soft on criminals while claiming to be hard on crime.

In politics, there used to be a ‘3 strikes’ rule too... now it is rarely applied.. unless your fate is to have an R by your name on the ballot. Nothing new to see careers hoisted on their own petard.

I’m not a Huck hater , hate saps the soul of serenity in the midst of chaos, the fact he is also a Rino in guise of conservative values (can he pass the 7 of 10 litmus test?), should not sway opinion either but what other measuring sticks do we have?

Thanks for posting it.

—

Mike Huckabee’s 10 Most-Publicized Sentence Commutations
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/12/mike_huckabees_10_most-publici.php

[livius]

That’s all true. I’m not defending Huckabee and I don’t even like him very much and never have. But what I’m saying is that blaming it all on Huckabee is ridiculous, and turning every thread on it into a hate-Huckabee thread completely destroys the usefulness of the discussion. Remember, he didn’t commute Clemmons’s sentence in a void, but in response to the demands of “community leaders” at the time and the generalized notion that a young criminal shouldn’t receive a severe sentence.

And none of the things that happened after that had anything to do with him, but they were all consistent failures to address the problem. And they were systemic failures, and that’s what we should be discussing.

Plus, I’m sure if somebody digs hard enough, at some point they’ll find that somebody from Clemmons’ apparently very active family was involved in letting him go “by accident” the first time. I think there are people within the system itself who sympathize with the criminals and will actively attempt to prevent the system, lame though it be, from working.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I say he’s spread himself too thin.

[spectre]

LOL!

[BigSkyFreeper]

Would you have preferred that he decline to be interviewed?

He's got his own damn show.  Why should he be interviewed on BillO's?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Watching BillO and Huck on the same show is like watching two giant ego’s fighting it to the death in a cage match.

[discostu]

He’s still a tax and spend former Arkansas governor. We went down that path for president once already, I didn’t really like how it turned out.

[BigSkyFreeper]

O’Reilly loves to go after people before they come on his show and then he wimps outs.

Why did Huck need to go on O'Reilly's show?  He's got his own to spend an whole hour telling the whole world he did the right thing.

[GOP_Raider]

...mostly ones who supported Romney in the last go-round

Hey, I didn't support Romney, what the hell?

(Wait, I think that was a subtle swipe at National Review, in this case, carry on.)

[Yaelle]

"It's just a BOOKSHELF, you idiots. Don't ruin my perfectly decent Christmas ad!! It is NOT A CROSS!"

"My son did NOTHING WRONG! He put that dog out of its misery! I was right to have him evade punishment!"

"I did NOT have Lap-Band surgery!! That operation was a HERNIA repair! It has NOTHING to do with how I personally worked off all that weight rapidly!!"

"And so what if I pardoned 1033 criminals?? They were just good people who needed a little Christian LOVE! Not ALL of them killed again once they got out! Come ON."

[Conspiracy Guy]

I don’t hate Huck. I just think he has terrible judgement, (will not ever get my vote). Clemmons is just one of his mistakes. Without Huck’s commutation, parole would not have been possible.

No I don’t hate Huck and I didn’t vote for him in the primary. I did not vote for McCain in the primary either. There really wasn’t a good choice so I voted Romney in the primary and McCain in the general election.

Huck is toast for sure, but I don’t hate him.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Agreed. He has displayed bad judgement. I don’t hate him but I wouldn’t give him my vote for dog catcher.

[BigSkyFreeper]

From the NY Times (Letter from the prosecutor at link at left, Huckabee's reply below):

Parole and Clemency for Maurice Clemmons

In 2000, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, who is now suspected of fatally shooting four police officers in Washington State. Mr. Clemmons had been convicted in Arkansas for a series of burglaries and robberies that began in 1989, and would not have been eligible for parole until 2021. But Mr. Huckabee, who as governor granted more than 1,000 pardon or clemency requests, made him eligible for immediate parole.

 

 

[JimRed]

He's got his own damn show. Why should he be interviewed on BillO's?

In a word- audience. BOR gets probably ten times the viewers.

[LibertarianInExile]

“commutation did not pardon, declare innocent or acquit Clemmons of his wrong doing...blah,blah...Huckabee’s involvement with Clemmons was over...blah,blah...NOT a Huckabee commutation...allowed Clemmons to walk free...blah,blah...”

Huck commuted a sentence that would have kept this weasel in jail and the crime would never have been committed were he there. Attenuating the crime from the commutation does not somehow remove that commutation from the chain of causation. You’re right—that funny FACT is something that is quite important.