I despise Huck as a politician, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Clemmons. My parents lived in Arkansas after the “Sun God” (Clinton) left Huck in charge. Huck is a nanny-stater (read: “social socialist”) who believes that morality somehow requires the transfer of tax money from payers to grifters.
I’m also quite aware that Huck was the foil used to elevate McCain in 2008.
The spin being presented on Clemmons is that nobody objected - but other people involved back then (on a much more intrinsic level) have disputed this.
Just my $.02, of course.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Former Arkansas Governor and Presidental Candidate Mike Huckabee spoke at the Annual Tippecanoe County Right to Life banquet in West Lafayette.
Huckabee has been under scrutiny after a man shot and killed four cops in a coffee shop in Seattle. Maurice Clemmons, the suspect, was facing a lifetime in prison in Arkansas when Huckabee was governor. Huckabee shortened Clemmons' sentence.
"Here was a kid at age 16 had committed a burgarly and a robbery and got a 108 year sentence," Huckabee said Tuesday night at the Right to Life annual banquet on Purdue's campus. "The judge thought it was unfair. The parole board did and recommended to me to commute his sentence. I didn't let him loose because I didn't have that power as a governor. I commutted his sentence to 47 years giving him the oppurtunity to be parole eligible."
TRANSLATION: THE FIX WAS IN.
Six days after posting bail in Washington on charges of child rape, Clemmons opened fire on four police officers. Huckabee says that isn't the same man he knew back in 2000.
"He wasn't a cop killer. He wasn't a rapist. He wasn't a violent criminal. He wasn't a fugitive from justice. He was a person at 16 did some dumb things and some criminal things. I don't know a single person that can look me in the eye and tell me that if they had that same file in front of them they wouldn't believe that maybe 47 years was a more appropriate sentence for what he did as a minor," Huckabee said.
Huckabee says that if he had to make that decision again today with the knowledge of what Clemmons was going to do, Huckabee would never have changed Clemmons' sentence.
"If I had the exact same information in front of me tonight that I did 9 years ago in a case exactly the same, I would make the exact same decision because I can't imagine anyone would not. If I could have looked into the future, of course I wouldn't have, but I couldn't do that," Huckabee said. "What I don't understand is those who could see his actions. The judges in Washington who knew he had raped a child and that he had now several psychotic episodes why he was able to get out on bail, that I can't answer."
There's a running thread on this now.
Jim went to jail and Bill should have.
I know it's difficult to keep all those Arkansas governors in mind when dealing with issues like this, but you really have to.
The Huck was elected and re-elected many times in Arkansas probably because he wasn't a crook.