Another Republican Presidential Contender Bites The Dust
This time it’s Mike Huckabee, and it’s not a sex scandal. It’s a clemency scandal (another one). The man accused in the execution of 4 police officers in Washington state was granted clemency by Mike Huckabee.
You may have heard that four police officers were murdered in what under different circumstances would look like a mob assassination in Washington state coffeehouse this morning.
The man local police are seeking for questioning is Maurice Clemmons, 37, a man with a lifetime history of violence, burglary, aggravated robbery, theft and rape. Clemmons was serving what was essentially a life sentence in Arkansas before having his sentence commuted by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The reason for the clemency at the time was the accused’s young age at the time of the crime:
When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons’ sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.
Clemmons served 11 years before being released.
That’s tough news for Huckabee, considering he was the top presidential contender among Republicans:
Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential election, 71% of Republicans say they would seriously consider voting for Mike Huckabee. This gives Huckabee a slight edge over Mitt Romney (65%) and Sarah Palin (65%) in this early test of the strength of several potential Republican contenders. A majority of Republicans also say they would seriously consider voting for Newt Gingrich, but far fewer say they are currently ready to support the lesser-known Tim Pawlenty or Haley Barbour.
I think Huckabee possibly (maybe) could have survived one clemency scandal (see here for the Wayne Dumond case), but two? No way.
Tags: Mike Huckabee, Republcians
Of course, I think this story from this morning might be a more reliable indication that the Huckabee candidacy was not going to happen.
Speaking as one of the 29% who would have never considered voting for Huckabee in the primary under any circumstance (as well as one of the 35% who would never vote for Palin in the primary), I’m pleased by that story.
On the other hand, I’m not prepared to score cheap political points on still-warm bodies of dead police officers — not just because I think it is indecent to do so, but also because I have a brother who is a cop AND have family living in the area where this horrendous shooting happened.
I’d be with you on that were it not for Ashley Stevens.
His religiously and politically motivated bad judgement has hurt so many people… he made it part of all these stories.
But my prayers are certainly with that little town, tonight. š
As Brooke points out, Huckabee has shown bad judgment.
This story about Huckabee’s pardons ran in USA Today back in Dec. 2007 but apparently failed to pick up any serious traction in the 2008 primary. See:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-10-huckabee-pardons_N.htm
Done and done. He was one of the serious contenders too. David broder is headed towed his fainting couch.
Leave it to the repubs to out-“Willie Horton” Willie Horton.
The best part is, Dems don’t have to spend any money to exploit the situation with Horton-style ads. The Republican primary will do it for us.
I’m betting the first Republican attack on Huck over this will come from Sarah Palin. Somebody check her Facebook page.
I’m with you Rebecca. I’m not sure why the Wayne Dumond case didn’t hurt Huckabee more than it did. I think a second clemency/pardon problem will cause both of these cases to be become huge issues if he runs for president. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Huckabee decides to spend more time with his Fox show.
So any bets on who is the first one to play the Willy Horton card?
Hindsight’s always 20-20 on stories like this. No doubt the knee-jerk political reaction will be to craft a one size fits all policy making it even more impossible for people to be pardoned or granted parole
I was horrified at the ambush nature of this crime, and I feel terrible for the officers and their families and friends.
It seems clear that Huckabee will not be able to withstand this politically, but please spare me the second-guessing of some sheriff from Pulaski County. There’s a reason why he’s never risen beyond that post.
I understand that this story has political implications, but I fear we might be learning the wrong lesson from it.
Huckabee made a terrible mistake, but it appears to have been done with the best of intentions. There is no joy or satisfaction to be gleaned from this entire affair. Just sorrow for those families who will never be the same again.
seems there is only one question now… and i do apologize for it, but how did a convicted felon get his hands on a gun? was some kind soul protecting his second commandment rights?
I think you’re right ‘Bulo that the political reaction will be “clemency is risky.” That means governors with aspirations of higher office will probably not grant clemency in most cases. Huckabee’s problem is that this story amplifies the Dumond story. I just don’t think he can survive a presidential race with this over his campaign.
El Som, what have you read about EITHER of these guys? Are you actually aware of what they’ve done?
Huckabee pressured to release a serial rapist in an attempt to politically embarrass Bill Clinton. That man, in short order, raped and killed two women, one of them pregnant.
He ALSO set free another career criminal, whose family REPORTED him to police as deranged, and who seems to have gunned down four young police officers in a coffeeshop.
And you seem to think the problem is “This might make it harder to get criminals out of jail?” REALLY?
I don’t give a FLYING F*CK for Huckabee’s intentions and don’t know why you’d think they were good, anyway. I worry about a world full of people who go to work in the morning, and MIGHT be gunned down by a maniac. Or wake up to being raped in a bed next to their sleeping baby.
Is there no type of behavior that might make you think,”Gee, better to keep this guy off the street, maybe.”?
UNreal.
The killer in question was out on Bail for assualting a police officer and rape. The only reason we don’t (yet) know the name of that judge is because Huck has a higher profile.
The guy would have been in jail if Huckabee hadn’t granted clemency (he had a 95 year sentence). Huckabee apparently granted a lot of clemency requests:
Because unlike, say, Dubya, who had no moral compunctions about putting arguably-innocent people to death, Huckabee seems to have at least considered the possibility of redemption. I think he’s done so with a screwed-up set of touchstones to determine whether someone is worthy, but I’m making the baby with the bathwater argument here as opposed to defending what Huckabee did.
He was wrong, and appears to have lacked a strong immutable set of criteria in granting clemency, but it doesn’t mean that any Governor is wrong in looking at a certain set of facts and determining that someone is worthy of a second chance.
And that’s why I say that ‘hindsight is 20-20’. It’s easy to look back and say in hindsight that a subsequent criminal act is, in and of itself, PROOF that the person should never have been released.
But, unless you can demonstrate that Huckabee had reason to believe that this would happen, it doesn’t warrant making it more difficult for people who are legitimately deserving to even be considered for release. And, if it’s demonstrated that Huckabee was reckless, then his political career will deservedly be over.
From a policy standpoint, I’m less concerned with this particular case than I am with the inevitable overreaction. From a personal standpoint, I empathize with the victims and their families.
The stated reason for granting clemency was that Clemmons (the accused killer) had an extraordinarily long sentence for crimes committed as a juvenile (he was convicted at age 17).
OMG. Suddenly we in the world of Hello Kitty politics.
No. Not even close, ElSom. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html
Got it. And if that’s true, then Huckabee deserves to be consigned to that Special Hell along with Dumond, Clemmens and others. My point is about not having a one-size-fits-all overreaction to this news, an overreaction that will impact those genuinely deserving of a second chance.
Based on UI’s post above, Huckabee granted an extraordinary number of pardons during his terms as Gov. One would hope that someone in Arkansas’ Justice Department is trying to make sure that no more Clemmens’ or Dumonds’ are out there.
Huckabee granted an extraordinary number of pardons during his terms as Gov
I’m not sure if this is true, but you can see the outlines of Huckabee’s talking points on this from Brooke’s article — he was trying to exercise some Christian obligation to forgiveness. Which is fine as far as it goes, but this works out to be how far the extraordinary politicization of our politics works out. In an effort to embarrass Bill Clinton (by way of his distant cousin who was the victim), the VRWC worked at getting this guy out. While you can sit back and count the ways that this politicized environment is horrifically toxic, this instance begins to show how pols in search of more ways of counting coup just keep putting the rest of us in danger in ways that the players never think about. There are real reasons to grant clemency, but political points is not one of them.
Right, but the problem is, you can no more go around revoking people’s pardons than you can get the ones executed unjustly back. The family says Clemmons is crazy. The police think he’s crazy. The psychologist who examined him says, “Well, not TOO crazy” and he makes bail.
You can’t just say, “Well, Huckabee’s record sucks on this, so we’re reviewing everyone who’s out.” When they’re out, they’re out. If they’re not parole answerable (or on a sex offenders list š ) we don’t even know where they are.
Until they make the news again. š
You can’t redo history, but you can ask pols to look at this as a lesson in what happens when the politics are way more important than people’s safety. They won’t hear this, but when you are putting people in danger, you’ve gone well beyond the requirements for mercy.
When is politics not more important than people’s safety. Would we have a healthcare “debate” if that wasn’t true?
I hear you, but the manipulation of law enforcement or criminal justice activity to embarrass a political foe is what I’m talking about here.
I also think that the interesting thing to watch from this is how the Huckabee partisans (the christianists) respond to this. Frankly, I think that they’ll try to spin this to get Huckabee absolved via the “exceptional” requirements of his Christian beliefs. I won’t buy it, of course, but if they all are pretty much quiet, then I think you know that Huckabee has been quietly turned loose.
anon wrote:
Nahhh, it’s already come from us evil reich-wing bloggers. I haven’t seen aby conservative site cutting him any slack.
I’m just wondering how long it’ll take Fox to give his show the Huckaboot.
Did Huckabee grant clemency to Clemmons for religious reasons?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/maurice-clemmons-killed-s_n_374951.html
looks like a lot of questions will go unanswered now. anyone other than me jaded and skeptical enough to think that the fact there will be no trial may save huckabee?
Anon wrote:
“Iām betting the first Republican attack on Huck over this will come from Sarah Palin. Somebody check her Facebook page.”
Turns out that whoever had Tim Pawlenty in the pool wins the pot:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/69921-pawlenty-i-would-not-have-granted-clemency-to-clemmons
Pawlenty is pathetically desperate. I fully expect his next “I’m a real conservative, I just played a moderate on TV” stunt will be to attend gay weddings and object.
If he does, dibs on writing the cartoons of him kissing the groom(s). š
“I hate to think of all the people who will rot in prison because no governor wants to share the fate of a Dukakis or a Huckabee.”
http://www.samefacts.com/2009/12/uncategorized/the-quality-of-huckabees-mercy/