you still commuted or pardoned more than 1000 criminals including 12 murderers.
Soft on crime is soft on crime.

You are probably 100% correct and justified in your actions on this. But that doesn’t change the fact that you combine all the virtues of a politician, a televangelist, and a used car salesman.

To me you are just untrustworthy, so please, stay at Fox, and never run for anything ever again.

Try looking at the facts instead. Do 16 year olds deserve 100+ year sentences over burglary and robbery charges? Gov. Huckabee did not set a psycho out on the streets. He reduced an absurd sentence in line with the recommendation of the trial judge. No good deed goes unpunished, and sure enough, the failures of other people are being used against the Governor.

If you want to argue that Mike Huckabee is soft on crime, that’s an argument I’m willing to hear; however, smarmy quips in a comment do not an argument make. Using a tragedy as political sledgehammer displays a lack of class usually found among our “friends” in the fringe media. I think we can, should and must hold ourselves to a higher standard around here.

You said: There are some glaring facts that some conservative talkers seem to miss:

It is clear, Governor, that we conservatives are not in your camp. Take your finger pointing mea culpa elsewhere.

Governor, I applaud your compassion and I surely hope you can come to peace with what happened here. No doubt you did what you felt was right, but I think 8% commutation rate is evidence that you were too forgiving. As reported by MSNBC.COM’s First Read:

“Bill Clinton, who served as governor of the state between 1979 and 1992, issued a total of 426 pardons and commutations, the Arkansas Leader pointed out in the middle of Huckabee’s tenure in 2004.

Republican Frank White and Democrat Jim Guy Tucker issued 39 and 42, respectively. By the end of his 10-and-a-half years as governor, Huckabee had issued 1,033.

As of 2004, Huckabee had issued more pardons than the leaders of six neighboring states combined — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Missouri — in the preceding eight years.”

Our justice system is broken and too often violent criminals are put out on the street only to rape or kill our citizenry. While I don’t think you deserve blame for what Clemmons did, you were part of the chain of events that failed to get this bad guy off the street, even though there was ample opportunity to do so.

Two nits to pick…

One, your comment “… many of my fellow conservatives…”
Many fellow conservatives DON’T consider you one, your being quite presumptuous from some of our point of view

Two, you other comment “If presented the same facts today, I would have acted in the same manner.”
This shows poor judgment and an inability to learn from mistakes.

The history of commutationS and pardonS troubles me. The defense of this one (”If presented the same facts today, I would have acted in the same manner.”) troubles me further. Still, I respect that you came here, answered critics,

Next up: “Why I Enacted RomneyCare” by Contestant No. 2.

Really nice because it seems that this putz was anything but a good guy. Talking about traits in 2000 doesn’t quite match up to what he was(past tense since he’s dead). BTW Mike, are you still hating our Governor here in Texas?

BTW, I really don’t want you to run President in 2012. If you try, we will dig up all that nasty stuff that you want to hide.

I am so PO’d about this I could spit. I am sick of you RINO rebublicans whining and sniveling while Rome burns. You screwed up. Admit it. You and Romney and Gingrich and Cantor etc. should be screaming from the roof tops every day about what these libs are doing to this country, not playing guitar on your show that nobody watches. You guys stand around strategizing while Palin does all the heavy lifting. You are a disgrace along with 99% of the Republican leadership. Go home. You already lost once and you will lose again. You’re finished

When you grant clemency to that many people, a few will go horribly wrong.

The courts are there for a reason.

Your explanation seems reasonable to me. Nonetheless, I fear the political damage is probably done, especially after the Dumond incident.

Governor Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas commuted many sentences and issued many pardons. So did many presidents and governors nationwide both past and present. They do so acting upon recommendations of many. My point to this all is I have seen the criminals returned to the streets by “the system”. For the most part, violent human beings continue to be violent human beings. How qualified is a politician anyway to decide? Please tell me your qualifications governor. If there is anything right which may come from any of this tragedy, it is that politicians might think twice before acting upon the release of people convicted of violent crimes.

for letting us know your reasoning behind this commutation. Thank you also to Red State for allowing the Governor to express his opinion!!!

Tough crowd indeed.

I am sorry Governor, but I cannot say I am sympathetic. I thought you were absolutely off the mark on some of your comments you made regarding the Rifqa Bary situation.

Those remarks and the information that has come to light have solidified my opinion that while I think you are a very decent, well meaning man, I think you lack the sharp moral discernment that is needed in complex and ambiguous situations.

You have left me with the perception that you have an internal need to be seen as nice or to be liked or maybe to be seen as pious - I am not really sure and I don’t want to belabor the point because it is an impression more than a judgment.

However, we live in perilous times. I think you can do the most good for American by serving in ways that do not involve dealing with difficult and dangerous people such as criminals.

One of the core beliefs of Christianity is that actions have consequences. I have never seen much good come from people trying to help others by protecting them from the rightful consequences of their actions. Your actions as Governor have convinced me that you do not share this belief. It is not a particularly pleasant or fun belief and I can see how one might be tempted to overlook it and trade it away for the perceived good of social engineering.

Most unfortunate, but proper is this situation you are in.

I wish to God above that men who “serve” this Country would get a backbone and stop all of their one-sided egotistical pathetic judgements that affect all of us. Look at the consequences again and then tell us how you would do the same today. Why not release ALL of the rapists, murders, etc under age 20 and see what they contribute to society. I’m sure that not one of them would commit another crime, ever. I’m sure that Clemmons was just a fluke.

prosecuters and public defenders and the sentencing laws? Maybe the same crime same circumstances should be all get the long sentences instead of releasing a violent person back into society.

I’d bet a big reason why the prison population has more blacks than whites is because they are there are more blacks than whites in your state doing violent or more crimes with more severe punishments not just because they don’t have big money lawyers. I’ve gone to school in the suburbs for one year and a big city for the others and I’ve lived in projects. There are a lot of criminals and thugs in the projects!!! It’s a huge world of difference, go to any big city project. When we moved into the projects some cop cars were leaving and they told us do not bring in any electronics, they will be stolen. Do you think they warn the suburbanites the same way? Forget the projects even go to any regular neighborhood where the population is mostly black vs one where it’s mostly white. I can guarantee you the violent crimes will be less in the white area. He was charged with aggravated assualt. He was a violent person. I’m ignorant of legal terms but I’m guessing he used some kind of weapon.

It’s good you are compassionate, I’ve seen injustice and it’s heartbreaking. At the same time we have to becareful not to misplace our compassion. You have a lot of power to do a lot of good for people that need a voice.

Gov. Huckabee, you are no doubt correct in your assertions that other officials in this case made horrible decisions, but this fact changes nothing about your own decision.

“They did it too” never got me very far when appearing in the Court of My Dad to answer charges of throwing dirt clods at the neighborhood girls. Dad wouldn’t buy the argument then, and I’m not buying it now.

I do, however, give you credit for having the fortitude to appear here, in the lion’s den, and actually present your point of view. Lesser men would run and hide.

the moral of this story is that the advice of the people in the “helping professions” that make commutation, pardon, and parole recommendations really isn’t worth much. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers really are just modern day shamans and a jury of 12 good and true, or even 12 morons with drivers licenses, is worth a lot more than a sentencing report or a recommendation from the p-shrinks to a governor or board.

If there really was “over-sentencing” of young, black men, the AG and the Courts have ways to solve that problem; just having the governor give them “overs” really shouldn’t be on the menu.

Governor, if it were truly your intent to “take responsibility for [your] actions”, you would not be attempting to pass the buck over to the parole board, the AG, the prosecutor, or anybody else. You, as the former Governor of the State of Arkansas, hold the primary responsibility for Maurice Clemmons having been free to roam the streets of Lakewood, Washington; just as you were responsible for the freeing of Wayne DuMond.

We have been here before, Governor, and we are not amused. We knew about your “compassionate” impulse when you were running for President and we saw the blood DuMond had smeared upon your hands. We knew it was only a matter of time before another horror was committed. There are over a thousand more DuMonds and Clemmons running around in America today, Governor; do you intend this statement to serve as a blanket rationalization for all of them? How many more times do you think you might have to explain yourself, sir?

Don’t you dare suggest that any of “[your] fellow conservatives” shoulder “the responsibility for the facts of the case”, and don’t you dare try playing the racial-guilt card in Clemmons’ defense. In doing so you only demonstrate further why you were wholly unsuited for the Presidency in the first place. We are not going to forget about the four men who died in Lakewood, Governor; we are not going to forget about Carol Sue Shields and Sara Andrasek. You, sir, would do well to remember that, and you could best take responsibility for your role in freeing the men who committed these bloody deeds by quietly slinking into obscurity and penning no more finger-pointing apologias.

Show a little respect to our guest. You don’t have to agree, but don’t make a jerk of yourself.

History reminds me of another Governor who attempted to wash his hands as a sign of resignation while commuting the sentence of a murderer at the cost of the blood of an innocent. His hands were never dirtier… {Pilate}

I can take responsibility for my actions, but not for the actions of others nor the misinformed words of commentators.

Clearly your situation differs. However, you must understand, YOU set the precedent for all reviews of this individual’s performance among society whether in prison or on parole.

I would HOPE that you personally sought forgivness in what you are in fact accountable for…. NOT from the conservative choir…. but rather with your own personal source of redemption.

or try this since I am not even sure this qualifies as an apology;

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie, sir. This above all else was a terrible, tragic error in judgment irrespective of any nuance.

In my opinion, the use of the word “tragedy” in this instance almost connotes an “unintended” event… not unlike an “act of nature”.

In looking at the background facts of this vicious human and of this case… this heinous and deliberately-committed cold-blooded crime was as predictable as the Terrorist Act down in Ft. Hood, Texas… or the Sun coming up tomorrow.

If the truth be known, I bet a closer look at the 1,000 or more Arkansas cases would reveal even more subsequent sorrow… albeit not on a scale such as this.

Thank you, Governor Huckabee, for your contribution to this fine forum… I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Ned Reck

As a firm believer in the First Amendment, I am thankful that you have this opportunity to tell your side of the story.

This is the most profoundly sad topic. There are no winners. Every single American with any sense of compassion is mourning the deaths of those four police officers bitterly. Any American with any sense of justice is angry that Mr. Clemmons was given the opportunity to commit this horrific crime. Many will look for someone to blame. There were enough failures along the way in Mr. Clemmons’ criminal career to ensure that nobody needs to look far.

It is very hard to see how anything good could result from this.

You have made your case as to why this specific pardon was not an egregious offense against reasoned judgment, if the facts around the commutation request are as you’ve stated. However, I must take issue on several matters.

1) I must take issue with your too facile assumption that Clemmons received his severe sentence because he was not “white, upper middle class, and represented by effective counsel who would have clearly objected to the sentencing”. Perhaps he was sentenced as he was because the jury and judge perceived something from their interactions with him that detached observers relying on a court record and interviews years later couldn’t hope to discern.

If you’re going to second guess, then you bear the consequence of that decision. And the others involved in forming the recommendation also bear responsibility. This needs to be a cautionary tale for all reviewers after the fact.

2) You still haven’t addressed the “exponentially” higher number of pardons/communations etc. that you issued during your governorship compared with your counterpart at this time. Plus that some of these other actions didn’t turn out so well either. Unless you can prove that Arkansas was an outlier in terms of unjust sentencing, your record as an issuer of abnormally high numbers of pardons/commutations/etc. still stands - and voters have the right to draw conclusions from this record and the results thereof.

3) As others have astutely noted, your phrase “some conservative talkers” is very revealing as to your true political identity - that you view conservatives as outsiders,

This reminds me of the “wicked son” in the Haggadah story:

The wicked son inquires in a mocking spirit: “What mean YE by this service? As he says YE and not WE, he excludes himself from the household of Israel…

And this, in turn, in light of your past behavior, confirms our suspicions that you are pandering to conservatives and trying to coopt us rather than viewing us as your base of support.

So thanks for coming and addressing us, but you haven’t changed my non-support for your as President, which preceded this Washington State tragedy.

I am sure all the contributors appreciate your picking RedState as the forum to air your side of this tragic story. And I am equally sure that all of the contributors would support you should you decide to run for Senate against either Blanche Lincoln or Mike Pryor.

That said, I think that the presidency is out of the question now in the wake of this horrific incident. Fair or not, your candidacy would be indelibly stained by this and other incidents surrounding criminals whose sentences were reduced under your watch, however justified the circumstances may have been.

There is a future for Mike Huckabee in politics, but not in the White House. If you desire a return to elective politics, I for one hope that you put your considerable talents to work bringing conservative Republican representation to Arkansas in the U.S. Senate.

Sincerely,

Mark Impomeni

rest with us. The decision was yours. Focusing on your fellow conservatives as somehow being at fault in not supporting you, doesn’t help anything. I’m tired of the bad guys being portrayed as victims. As governor, you could have worked to improve the system vs leaving society to fall prey to misplaced Liberal policies.

I do thank you for coming though and stating your case.

This was an awful tragedy and I think Governor Huckabee will be grappling with his role in it for some time, no matter how minor or major it may have been. No need to rub it in his face. He was not my choice for president and I think his economic policies leave something to be desired, but he seems like a likable guy and someone who should be treated with respect.

But you are the one who started the process of putting this animal back on the streets, and you started the process that put the public in danger. You say that he should have gone back to jain in 2004 for a parole violation. Guess what? You are also partly responsible for the crime he committed there as well.

One thing i would like to know… How many of the criminals that you granted clemency to, and thus made them eligible for parole, were not paroled?

I really can’t see myself supporting you in a presidential run. Why would i want you to have the ability to commute senteces or pardon prisoners throughout the entire country when you screwed it up when you could only do it in 1 state as opposed to 50.

The GOP had to build a huge extension of it’s tent to fit Mike Huckabee inside. He is so far from mainstream conservatism on almost everything except abortion that it boggles that mind as to why he has any supporters at all. Mike Huckabee’s poor judgment lead to the deaths of at least two people when he released Wayne Dumond over the objections of seemingly everyone and now this!

On top of it all, Huckabee loves to throw enough dirt on everyone so that people focus on cleaning themselves off instead of realizing how dirty this phony truly is.

Some comments:
“He was never PARDONED. Amazingly, that word has been used to describe my actions 9 years ago. He was never even considered for a pardon.”

Fine, but this is a straw man because….

“The commutation didn’t release him. It made him PAROLE ELIGIBLE. He had to meet the conditions of parole for the parole board, who in fact paroled him. He had been in prison for 11 years at the time of his release. ”

So in effect, the commutation was a pardon, or at the very leat the eleven years he served was a disproportionately SHORT sentence.

“Despite news reports, there are no records that the prosecutor, law enforcement, the Attorney General, or victims objected to the commutation. The only responses my office had record of during the public comment period were support letters from the trial judge, and members of the community.”

This is a bit of a hoot. I would imagine that all the groups mentioned above thought their job had been done properly when the sentence was handed down, and did not expect to have to retry the case when everyone got all politically correct. This “public comment” period that you speak of - how were all concerned notified? Or WERE they notified? Were the “members of the community” his family?

“He was back in prison by 2004 and would have remained there until 2015 due to his parole violations had the prosecutor chosen to properly file the paperwork.”

He was back in prison by 2004, proof that he was released too early and that you made a terrible mistake. Since you bring up the point that no one objected when you commuted his sentence, when and how did you register your concern when he landed back in prison? Obviously you knew about the case - what did YOU do to keep him in prison? Nothing, that’s what, yet you rail on about those who did nothing during the commutation hearing, even if they were notified of it.

“The Clemmons of 2000 did not exhibit traits of psychosis and the kind of behavior that he would later express during several arrests in Washington state during the past year.”

So what? Do you keep prisoners in prison only if they are psychotic? How about the fact that the Clemmons of 2000 was convicted of a crime that the Court felt warranted 108 years in prison?

“Religion had nothing to do with the commutation.”

Nor did anything resembling common sense. You made decisions that cost others their lives - simple as that. You set the precedent that others followed. You showed no further interest in justice after the commutation, even after Clemmons landed back in jail.

The lesson here is that you - not anyone else, you- overruled the court, and should not have. We have courts for a reason, and it should take a spectacular situation in order for it to be overuled. If Mr. Clemmons and others like him wanted to avoid an overly long prison sentence I would recommend that they start by not committing robbery, and if politicians want to avoid having to explain themselves after people lie dead then they should be one hell of a lot more careful about these types of decisions.

Huckabee, you are an embarrasment to the Republican party and consevative thought.

You record in Arkansas was that of a tax and spend liberal, who relentlessly pandered to minorities even including trying to set up a Mexican consulate in Arkansas.

You shook down your constituentcy like Clinton, looted the governors mansion and handed out pardons/clemency/commutations to violent fellons left and right like they were halloween candy.

I won’t even bother to provide links as all of this comes up in seconds with a search.

Please do Republicans and conservatives a favor:

Never claim to be a “conservative” again publicly. You do not understand what the word means.

Please resign from Fox. Your show is a pathetic mix of Andy Griffith and Bubba Clinton and is totally unwatchable.

Retire from public life completely.

You are what is wrong in politics and the Republican party and have damaged America and the GOP.

I am no fan of Governor Huckabee and would only vote for him if he were the Republican nominee.

However, the reality is that when you sit in a CEO’s chair you have to make decisions everyday. You make those decisions based upon you experience, expertise and taking into consideration the views of those you have chosen to advise you. Not all of those decisions work out for the best. When they do, it is what is expected of you. When they don’t it is what you have to be able to live with because, as Harry said, the buck stops here.

Now, I appreciate the Governor coming here and offering his explanation for the decision he made. I accept that he made the decision based upon the best information and advice that he had available at that moment. It did’nt work out to the good. Many others, I am sure, did. However, this isn’t baseball and batting averages don’t count.

Now all you natterers upthread who have never held a position of ultimate responsibility and ultimate blame don’t even know what it is to be in that position. You have always had the luxury of “blaming your stupid boss”. Consequently, what I see here is a bunch of Monday Morning Quarterbacks who have never even taken snap.

I believe that there are ample reasons not to support tyhe Governor for Rep Potus Nominee. To cherry pick this unfortunate situation and to try to use it as damning evidence as to his unsuitability is poor reasoning by those unqualified to even pass judgment.

If you don’t want to support a person with a body of executive decisions, some of which, in 20/20 hindsight, didn’t work out, then support someone without the baggage of decisions made…. like Barack Obama.

Let me start by making my biases obvious and saying that I find your record in AR to be singularly unredeemable and repugnant on most every issue that is important to me. That said, I think that I’m a fairly reasonable person, and I would really like to say that, although you are a Christian progressive and you hold beliefs antithetical to my own, you are clear of any charges on this issue. Unfortunately, your post did nothing to allay my concerns; indeed, they exacerbated them. After you viciously attacked a couple of strawmen arguments with a vengeance, you invoked a standard progressive argument against the efficacy of courts to insist, without proof, that the defendant’s legal counsel was poor as a result of his socio-economic background, and that as such, justice was perverted in a way that it presumably would not have been had the defendant been white. This raises three concerns, including those which prompted this post:

1) Why did pardons increase exponentially relative to the rest of the region and AR’s former leadership, and why did you choose to extend these pardons to violent felons, when neither Clinton nor his predecessors did so?

2) Assuming that you don’t have a problem with extending pardons to violent felons, why, in this particular case, did you see Clemmons as a viable candidate for a pardon, given his recent violent history?

3) Why do you characterize Clemmons as a victim of his socioeconomic background, and why, if you believed that blacks in general are being done a grave injustice in AR’s judicial system, did you do nothing to resolve the issue, or to even bring it to the attention of AR’s voters?

So far, neither you nor your supporters have been able to answer these questions to my (and apparently other conservatives’) satisfaction, and until you can, you should expect this to be the final resting place of your political aspirations.

Opening caveat: I proudly voted for Fred Thompson in the 2008 Missouri GOP primary, so I am not Huckabot.

That said, let me say that much of what I ashamed of the level of intellectual competence and substance posted here.

I live in SW Missouri and can tell you a lot of what people posted here about his term in ARK and his personality is patently false.

Sorta like the complaining about there being some sort of mystical “Cross” image during his Christmas commercial in 2007.

You dont like Huckabee - fine. At least try to stick to substance and flee from ad hominem attacks.

Elected officials and guest posters here deserve at very least a respectful (but not a reprieve) clashing of swords.

How are we expecting to explain to America our vision for a more free, prosperous America when we cannot even behave in such basic forums as this?

An alert, prepared Seattle police officer acted. Not even Gov Huck can commute it. (Don’t care if that’s not original. It feels right to say it again. Rest in peace brothers and sister).

Thank you for coming to us to try to explain your position. I am sure that the decision you made to commute this man’s sentence will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Having said that, I agree with Mark I wherein he said that there is a place for you in politics, just not as the President.

You see, in 2008, you applied for the job as Commander In Chief. Within that job is a certain structure that the CO is held accountable for any action that occurs on their watch. We have friends that had things happen while they were in charge (a running aground, etc.), the bottom line, even though they were not steering the ship, it was their responsibility. They understood the double edge sword of leadership. You can do great things but you can have great failures. They also accepted the outcome of the actions.

I have read and re-read your entry here and while I know this is painful, I feel that while saying you accept the responsibility, you are still trying to deflect the blame.

Sir, I wish you the best however, I do not feel that the position of President (or CinC) should be your quest.

…you sound like nonsensical windbags. “Oh, show him respect!” “Oh, his job was sooo tough, you don’t even know, wah wah wahhh!” First of all, respect is earned. Mike Huckabee has done absolutely nothing to earn my respect. Having a blog entry posted in his name, something he probably didn’t even write himself, certainly does not earn my respect. What is wrong with you? I’m supposed to fall all over myself and be gracious that he decided to waste his time communicating with proles like me through some patronizing, half-insulting BS internet statement? Get real!

Secondly, I’d take being governor of any state any day over my previous job of being an Army officer in combat. When one of your Soldiers dies, you search your soul for the rest of your life wondering if there was anything you could have possibly done to prevent it, even if you had nothing whatsoever to do with their deaths. A smarmy POS like Huckabee, on the other hand, DIRECTLY CAUSED THESE DEATHS!! And yet he sits there and has the gall to call REAL conservatives racists and chide us for not caring about the murdered victims’ families!? Oh yeah, the weight of the whole freaking world is on your shoulders, isn’t it, Huck? For the love of God, you all make it sound like he lost some money at the craps table. PEOPLE DIED because of his actions. I would not be able to get over that if it were because of something I did. Huck, though, it’s not gonna get him down.

Hey, Gov’na, why don’t you think about how the families of the murdered policemen will feel whenever your stupid show comes on Fox and you’re up there prancing around with your guitar and your cheesy grin, admonishing people for being too hard on Barack Obama between Chuck Norris interviews? I dunno, I’m guessing that won’t help them ease the pain very much. Your shtick is tired and you are a joke. You need to go away.

Sure, Huck should be allowed to speak his mind, and it’s great that Redstate is letting him do that. But don’t try and tell us regular folk to tone down the pure venom we feel for this loser. The worst possible thing for the GOP will be Huck running against Obama in 2012. I will take ANYone else. Let him know what you really think of him, Redstaters. Don’t hold back. Whose side are you on, Redstate? Is this a place for us or is this the place that pretends to be for us unless one of the bluebloods dirties themselves in our presence and we need to make the place look nice by keeping the rabble locked in the basement? If Huckabee can’t stand the heat, then he can stay out of the kitchen.

You Huckaphony apologists make my blood boil almost as bad as he does. He needs to be crying in his pillow in sorrow, pulling a “Braveheart” where he personally visits each family member, gets on his knees and just bows his head in silence and waits for the blows to fall because no apology will ever, EVER be enough to erase his idiotic lack of judgment. But will he? No, he’ll be back strummin’ the bass on Fox again this weekend, similing from ear to ear, swapping recipies with Paula Dean, not a care in the world. “Show him respect” my you-know-what.

…but you then tried to shift the blame to the prosecutors for filing late paperwork, a fact that later turned out to not be true.

4 of my fellow law enforcement officer brothers are dead (I haven’t been a teacher for some years, and now work for a sheriff’s dept), and this is because of a system that let’s people like this back out on the street.

Spin it any that you want; without your decision these four officers would be alive today. Your spin makes it that much more pathetic. You made a bad call, and you should stop trying to split hairs.

Your political career is over.

I’ll keep it short. I could overlook one mistaken release resulting in a murder committed. When a second mistake comes into my state and guns down four cops in cold blood, your through. You may make excuses about it here, but when the RedState folks learn the third mistake from Arkansas was driving the get-away car, your done. Yes, Clemmons cell mate was driving the get-away car.
I liked you as a candidate, respected your values and articulate manner. But as time went on I had a gnawing feeling that you were weak. This confirmed it. I also believe you were playing politics with the clemencies, trading them to curry favor from various demographics.

The management of Redstate has requested that the membership treat guest posters with respect. I’ve never needed restraint to follow that rule… until now.

So I’ll put this in the politest form I’m capable of:

Dear Governor Huckabee: Your political career is over, you just haven’t figured it out yet.

“The Clemmons of 2000 did not exhibit traits of psychosis and the kind of behavior that he would later express during several arrests in Washington state during the past year.”

Lets see, he assaulted multiple police officers, court officers and corrections officers prior to the Governor’s commutation. He made a death threat against a judge. He even hurt his own mother in court when he attempted to assault a court officer. He used violence anyways when robbery victims gave up the property he was after.

Given that track record to claim that the killing of police officers is an aberration from his previous behavior is daft.

I can’t find a short video clip with that scene from Braveheart but it damn sure fits this thread.

Not to mention some of which were just plain cringe inducing .

You are a piece of crap! You make me sick. But even though I despise you more than any other human on the planet - other than bin Laden, I never before imagined that you would add “cop killer” to your resume.

And I definitely didn’t think that you would blame everybody else for you being a cop killer. Thank you for being such a terrible human being. I hope that when you close your eyes to sleep at night, the ghosts of those 4 slain cops are all that you see in your mind. And if maybe you can get them out of your mind, maybe your can think of all of their children and widows. Or if that doesn’t work, maybe the ghost of the poor lady who you helped Wayne Dumond rape and murder will visit you.

I really wish there was some way for those families to file legal suits against you and take everything that you own or will ever own. But if you had any common decency, you would already spend 100% of your income from here on out supporting the widows and children of those slain police officers.

Obviously, you will never be elected to any position of influence ever again, but you also need to resign from your FOX News show in disgrace. It has been more than pathetic how you have used your network to get softball questions whenever asked about the Clemens’ case. You need to man-up and take REAL responsibility for once in your life.

Oh, I know. It’s always everybody else’s fault but your own. Of course it couldn’t be your fault. You never do anything wrong. How can you - since you are actually the Son of God? Or at least I am more and more convinced that you actually believe that you are the Son of God, the Savior of the World. And since you actually believe that you are Jesus the Christ Himself, of course you cannot admit to any faults. Am I being a bit over the top? Well, you did have an ad when you ran for President with big, bold letters touting Mike Huckabee as the “CHRISTIAN LEADER!” Before your ad, I had always thought that the “CHRISTIAN LEADER” was Jesus. So, either you think that you’re Deity or you don’t understand who the “CHRISTIAN LEADER” is.

Either way, go away. And here’s a little secret: You’re really not Jesus.

I appreciate it when anyone that’s faced the voters multiple times comes here to share their perspective. I say that as someone that’s disagreed with you a number of times– although, I do share with you an unbridled enthusiasm for the FairTax and the music of Boston (anyone that can learn and play Tom Scholz’s bass lines gets a kudos from me for that alone)– you wouldn’t happen to be a pinball fan as well? (-:

Don’t know if he’s reading these comments, but he certainly is acting like a drive-by poster. Something to remember the next time he wants to use RedState to play the spin game.

Honey, a conservative is not doing a jig about 108 years or a million years — what he wants to know is: “How long will we want to keep this particular criminal isolated from the rest of society?”

(One of the few things California continues to do right is keeping Manson behind bars).

Yeah, we mitigate; allow that maybe someone deserves a second or third chance. But at the end of the day, a responsible person makes a responsible decision.

As Governor, Mr. Huckleberry, you sometimes were required to make decisions regarding the length of criminal incarceration. If not always the go-to guy, you certainly had the wherewithal to serve and protect beyond the scope of underlings.

Your part in this is no different than that of Governor Dukakis and his trail-by-fire — certainly not in terms of cause-and-effect.

Don’t talk about “taking responsibility.” That is not what you are doing. Such apparatchik chatter is disturbing.

Disturbing too is the opinion that you may have taken Christian pity because of the Christian appeal that you received from this guy.

I certainly hope that this is not the case.

Know this, Governor, I am a man of faith, but I fully understand why many reject religious dogma — too easily it substitutes for critical thinking; too easily it is used to justify all manner of irresponsible behavior.

Know also that I am tired of listening to Christophobics equating religion with faith, as if dogma has something to do with the soul.

I fear, Governor, that you may have given the Godless another reason to judge the faithful as ignorant,, dangerous, superstitious fools.

1.How many did Clinton pardon if we are talking about statistics?
2. Gov. Huckabee said he had 1000-1200 requests come before him for a commutation not that he pardoned them. He only decided if they might be eligible go before the pardon boards and was one of 4 or 5 people involved in making that decision.

I commented in a different thread on this topic that it is not simply this particular incident that makes you guilty of recklessly endangering the public by your actions as governor. It is the totality of ALL of the pardons and commutations you issued.

When I watched your interview on O’Reilly the other night, you said you “carefully reviewed” the case before granting the commutation. That simply doesn’t pass the smell test. There is no possible way that you personally could be carefully reviewing a full court case once every 3 days while carrying out the rest of your responsibilities as governor. I seriously doubt you could “carefully review” one case every 3 days if it were your ONLY responsibility. Furthermore, a sentence so out of line with norm for the crimes committed should not only have raised red flags about the sentence per se, but also whether or not there were aggravating circumstances. And that means having the prosecutors input even if you have to send a staffer to him to personally get his input. Maybe he didn’t get the responses in because you were commuting sentences so quickly and he was busy trying to get violent criminals off the streets.

If it were this case alone I might cut you some slack. But it isn’t. You’ve had two Willie Horton’s now. Two convicted violent felons released because of your actions who subsequently MURDERED citizens. That is not acceptable. You’re right that this wasn’t just your failure, it was a series of critical failures. But the way you correct a series of critical failures is by holding EACH of those responsible for that failure accountable, not excusing them because somebody else should have stopped it. Welcome to a real “No Spin Zone.”

nt

I’ve followed RedState for a long time, reading most front-page articles and many comments. The reaction to this article stunned me, though, and forced me to finally sign up and respond.

I don’t particularly care for many things about Mike Huckabee, not least the way he - let’s face it - comes off as a used car salesman. And I’m a “throw away the key” type of law-and-order conservative, so I was primed and ready to respond to the horrors of Maurice Clemmons’ evil acts with nausea for both him and the Governor who let him out.

Assuming Gov. Huckabee’s facts are true as he’s stated them, though, I cannot see how he can be blamed. Our Founding Fathers expressly put the pardoning and commutation powers in the Constitution, modeled on the powers of state governors. In Federalist #74, Alexander Hamilton wrote:

“Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.”

From Gov. Huckabee’s description of the events, it sounds like his actions in 2000 were entirely in keeping with the intentions of our Founders, and the principles of justice. I’ve seen articles comparing Huckabee’s pardons with Dukakis’ furloughs of murderers like Willie Horton, but those were a systemic short-circuiting of proper criminal punishment. In contrast, every official who would be in a position to know about Mr. Clemmons advised the Gov. to show individual and particular mercy - which he quite properly did.

That Mr. Clemmons reverted to his criminal ways can’t have been foreseen on the evidence at hand, unless you believe that the pardoning power should be stripped entirely. Apparently there were plenty of opportunities for him to be returned to jail, which other officials negligently failed to do.

I began reading Gov. Huckabee’s post expecting the usual “It’s not my fault!” whining. I came away, to my shock, convinced that Huckabee made the wisest and most just choice humanly possible at the time, on the information then available.

It’s fair to disagree with that analysis. But I don’t see any justification for the harsh words and personal insults being leveled at him. We are not the DailyKOS; and while I’m all for purifying the Republican party’s conservatism, this isn’t an example of bleeding-heart liberalism to be attacked with all guns firing.

Governor, I still am not prepared to vote for you for Presidential nominee. But your well-thought-out response to this awful event has at least earned you a hearing from me if you run again. Best wishes in laying out the truth and the facts.