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Barbour defends controversial pardons as based on the Christian belief in forgiveness
Fox News ^ | January 13th, 2012 | AP

Posted on 01/14/2012 3:27:06 AM PST by KantianBurke

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Friday he's "very comfortable" with his decision to grant pardons or other clemency to more than 200 people, including convicted killers, in his last days in office, telling Fox News that Mississippi is predominantly Christian and believes in forgiveness.

The pardons have set off outrage among some victims' families and prompted a judge to block the release of some of the pardoned inmates out of concern that proper notification rules were not followed.

Barbour told Fox News that any problem with paperwork was an accident on the part of corrections officials, who needed to send the notices out earlier to get them published in newspapers on time. But he defended the pardons.

"I understand and recognize that these families had love ones who were the victims of terrible crimes ... and I sympathize with the fact that this hurts them, that they lost somebody like that and that they're not going to forget it and they want vengance," Barbour said on Fox News' "Special Report."

"But what the state does and has done ... most people in Mississippi are Christians or profess to be Christians, and we believe in forgiveness and we believe in second chances," he said.

Barbour told the Associated Press in an earlier interview that it's a tradition in Mississippi for governors to free the trusties who worked at the Governor's Mansion. Four inmates freed this past weekend are convicted killers who worked as trusties.

And the former governor said he's not concerned that the freed trusties might harm anyone. "I have absolute confidence, so much confidence, that I'd let my grandchildren play with these five men," the Republican said.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: barbour; barbour4criminals; barbour4dnc; barbour4felons; barbour4romney; fool; forgiveness; haleybarbour; mississippi; murderer; pardons
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
This election is about defeating Obama...not nit picking the Repub candidates to death. In reality, you kill the whole party.

Romney is not all things but I think he will be forced to do a good job especially if we get both houses. I think Bolton thinks the same way. GET BEHIND THE REPUB CANDIDATE.

21 posted on 01/14/2012 4:31:38 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: DH

Yup. Old men get soft in the head and weak in the knees. Politicians should start at thirty and retire at sixty.


22 posted on 01/14/2012 4:31:50 AM PST by CalvaryJohn (What is keeping that damned asteroid?)
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To: Sacajaweau

23 posted on 01/14/2012 4:33:55 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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To: Sacajaweau

Slow down there.

Only one primary - out of 50 - has yet voted.

After Newt beats Romney in the primaries, then we can have this conversation about rallying behind our candidate.

Until then, all bets are off! Romney’s a sleazeball. He’s going to lose.


24 posted on 01/14/2012 4:35:54 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (ROMNEY / ALINSKY 2012 (sarcasm))
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To: KantianBurke
It is amazing how softheaded some Christians are.

Crimes are suppose to be punished, that is a Biblical concept.

25 posted on 01/14/2012 4:36:25 AM PST by fortheDeclaration (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Burke)
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To: Sacajaweau

We haven’t picked one yet.


26 posted on 01/14/2012 4:39:32 AM PST by fortheDeclaration (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Burke)
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To: KantianBurke

Another idiot, Hally Huckibe


27 posted on 01/14/2012 4:41:24 AM PST by stockpirate (Romney and Ann Coulture are Big Government socialists, just like other republican elites.)
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To: Timber Rattler
"What a weak-kneed, hypocrite!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.
There was something about him I didn't like. I now know what it was. . . . . .

28 posted on 01/14/2012 4:48:47 AM PST by DeaconRed (Cold War Veteran. . . . US Army Security Agency 1964-1968)
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To: KantianBurke

Um... so if it were done out of Christian belief (which it may have been) why did he wait till the last day in office to release them and not the first day when he would have paid a cost politically? I think he is not being authentic.


29 posted on 01/14/2012 4:53:19 AM PST by Walkingfeather
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To: KantianBurke

If he was so certain the people of Mississippi were so forgiving, why didn’t he set these scumbags free at the end of his first term?


30 posted on 01/14/2012 5:02:34 AM PST by Krankor (Her voice was soft and cool. Her eyes were clear and bright. But she's not there.)
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To: Sacajaweau

I will be glad to get behind the Repub Candidate as along as that candidate is not Romney or Paul.


31 posted on 01/14/2012 5:04:02 AM PST by Venturer
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To: sinanju

Brown acid.


32 posted on 01/14/2012 5:10:13 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Gimme that old time fossil fuel.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Won’t say anything about Barbour’s pardons, but back in 1976 a younger Haley Barbour led Gerald Ford’s campaign efforts in the southeastern states.

He helped twist the arms of delegates from Mississippi to put Ford over the top in the close race with Ronald Reagan in 1976.

Barbour was always from the insider establishment RINO wing of the GOP.


33 posted on 01/14/2012 5:21:57 AM PST by Nextrush (President Sarah Palin sounds just right to me)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Governors who pardon monsters should be civilly and criminally responsible if they commit further crimes after they are released from prison. Easy for a gutless wonder like Barbour to make himself good while putting others at risk. Put his own neck on the line and we’ll see how much Christian charity he actually possesses.


34 posted on 01/14/2012 5:22:48 AM PST by littleharbour
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To: KantianBurke; xzins; wmfights

Was anyone executed in Mississippi under this clown’s watch?

If he is willing to pardon murderers because its the Christian thing to do, then why didn’t he just empty the prisons of all the robbers and thieves?


35 posted on 01/14/2012 5:26:33 AM PST by P-Marlowe (Romney. The poster boy for Corporate Welfare and Vulture Capitalism.)
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To: P-Marlowe

“then why didn’t he just empty the prisons of all the robbers and thieves?”

Because they all weren’t his personal slaves on his plantation.


36 posted on 01/14/2012 5:28:34 AM PST by KantianBurke (Where was the Tea Party when Dubya was spending like a drunken sailor?)
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To: KantianBurke
I really get tired of reading about “Christians” misguided belief in forgiveness. God also requires a sense of justice. That is the purpose of law and one of the reason God gave us law. This distorted view of “turning the other cheek” is a phony excuse to make people “feel” a false sense of spirituality. Forgiveness is not a Christian belief unless it's balanced with justice.
37 posted on 01/14/2012 5:30:55 AM PST by HarleyD
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To: KantianBurke

Apparently he only issued pardons to his friends.


38 posted on 01/14/2012 5:32:21 AM PST by P-Marlowe (Romney. The poster boy for Corporate Welfare and Vulture Capitalism.)
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To: KantianBurke

Apparently he only issued pardons to his friends.


39 posted on 01/14/2012 5:32:25 AM PST by P-Marlowe (Romney. The poster boy for Corporate Welfare and Vulture Capitalism.)
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To: KantianBurke

That’s like saying I believe in the welfare state because it’s Christian charity.


40 posted on 01/14/2012 5:33:40 AM PST by anglian
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