I will admit that I have little use for past and possibly future presidential candidate Mike Huckabee - especially after hearing him tell Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe that Huckabee believed that the U.S. Constitution needed to be made to better track the Bible. The man is an avowed Christianist who has no regard for freedom of religion other than himself and like minded Christian theocrats. While not as pathologically insane as Sarah Palin, the thought of Huckabee in the White House makes me cringe and the boyfriend and I would likely leave the USA were Huckabee ever be elected. Fortunately, one of Huckabee's past actions appears potentially poised to bite him in the ass big time: his pardon of convicted felon, Maurice Clemmons, who is believed to have murdered four Washington State police officers. A column in the New York Times looks at the story:*
SEATTLE – They were shot execution-style: four police officers starting a shift on Sunday morning at a coffee shop in a suburb of Tacoma. They were parents, each of them, community leaders, veteran officers.
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Who to blame? The suspect, police say, is Maurice Clemmons, a man with a lengthy criminal record and a pattern of serious mental illness. . . . Trying to explain how such a man could be on the streets, despite five felony convictions in Arkansas that should have kept him locked up for life, Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said, “Some people have to answer to that.”
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At the top of that list is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and current host at Fox News. Huckabee granted Clemmons early release nine years ago, against the objections of prosecutors and victims. . . . this case also shows, as with an earlier episode in Arkansas, that Huckabee’s judgment is seriously flawed.
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If Huckabee were a liberal and a Democrat, he would be a punching bag for right wing blowhards an example of clueless, soft-on-crime politicians at their worst. Fox News would be stalking him, as they have others responsible for letting criminals out early.
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Instead, he’s been allowed to get away with issuing a passive, blame-shifting statement. In the release, issued Sunday night, Huckabee takes no personal responsibility for letting Clemmons out early. Instead, he cites “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington.” . . . Yes, a series of failures, resulting in the worst act of violence against law enforcement in the history of this state – four officers gunned down in “a targeted, selective ambush,” in Detective Troyer’s words.
A series of failures: starting at the top, with Gov. Huckabee. “This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Arkansas prosecutor Larry Jegley told the Seattle Times. Jegley had strenuously objected to Huckabee’s granting of clemency to Clemmons.
SEATTLE – They were shot execution-style: four police officers starting a shift on Sunday morning at a coffee shop in a suburb of Tacoma. They were parents, each of them, community leaders, veteran officers.
*
Who to blame? The suspect, police say, is Maurice Clemmons, a man with a lengthy criminal record and a pattern of serious mental illness. . . . Trying to explain how such a man could be on the streets, despite five felony convictions in Arkansas that should have kept him locked up for life, Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said, “Some people have to answer to that.”
*
At the top of that list is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and current host at Fox News. Huckabee granted Clemmons early release nine years ago, against the objections of prosecutors and victims. . . . this case also shows, as with an earlier episode in Arkansas, that Huckabee’s judgment is seriously flawed.
*
If Huckabee were a liberal and a Democrat, he would be a punching bag for right wing blowhards an example of clueless, soft-on-crime politicians at their worst. Fox News would be stalking him, as they have others responsible for letting criminals out early.
*
Instead, he’s been allowed to get away with issuing a passive, blame-shifting statement. In the release, issued Sunday night, Huckabee takes no personal responsibility for letting Clemmons out early. Instead, he cites “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington.” . . . Yes, a series of failures, resulting in the worst act of violence against law enforcement in the history of this state – four officers gunned down in “a targeted, selective ambush,” in Detective Troyer’s words.
A series of failures: starting at the top, with Gov. Huckabee. “This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Arkansas prosecutor Larry Jegley told the Seattle Times. Jegley had strenuously objected to Huckabee’s granting of clemency to Clemmons.
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