Huckabee's Disgraceful, Cowardly Press Release

Huckabee is such a scheming coward, he didn't even put out his own statement on the clemency he granted Maurice Clemmons. It was released by his "Press Team". And no where is there an apology given, they don't even mention Clemmons by name. This is truly pathetic for a man who once fashioned himself as a leader.

Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, this commutation made him parole eligible and he was then paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state.

Huck-ajerk is quick to point a finger at any adversary and display his spiteful side at every turn. But don't look for the buck to stop with the Huckster. Nah, it was the system, it was the parole board, it was two whole states.

No Huckabee, you were the executive in charge, the lone elected decision-maker, as it were, when this man was put away and unable to gain release. YOU made it possible, not the system, the state, or even two. Own it, you hypocrite. You said recently you weren't leaning toward running for office in 2012. It gives me great satisfaction to tell you, fahgit about it, Huck-abubba. You ain't got a Mormon's prayer in your personal Southern Baptist church of a chance. You've been exposed as the un-wholesome individual and quasi-liberal politician you always were. Thank God we don't have you to worry about in 2012. You didn't have the integrity to go away when you should have in 2008. God does work in mysterious ways, doesn't he Huck? feh

See Michelle Malkin for a comprehensive up-to-date run down on the case. 

Scroll for updates…SWAT team reportedly surrounded a Clemmons family home late Sunday…KIRO TV in Seattle has details…Reward for information leading to arrest now up to $120,000…4:15am Eastern 11/30…hostage negotiator on loudspeaker attempting to communicate with Clemmons…Twitter hashtag for latest breaking developments: #lakeshoot…Live Seattle police scanner stream via KOMO here…4:37am Eastern…residents reporting hearing flashbangs…Officer’s message to Clemmons: “I can tell you this, we are not going away.”

Comments

[KillTruck]

I know. I never supported him, but it was more for marketing reasons than anything. Of course the pardons were a deal breaker. When I heard about the Huck-connection last night I was livid, but ironically had compassion for Huckabee. I assumed he would be guilt-ridden and contrite. I was wrong.

To hell w/Huck. I'm a law enforcement wife, and we live in Washington state. This is a family matter as well as a political one.

[x11b1p]

Huck just got shucked and is headed for the compost bin. I don't even think his endorsement will count for much in 2012. He's probably playing some "struming my pain with his fingers" about now thinking how his dumbazz horton momnet blew up in his face. I hope he is on a plane now going to those funerals to ask the family members for forgiveness for his mistake. Chances are he is not. I'll give his Fox show 3 more months after this gets around.

[SarahW]

Huckabee is culpable for commuting Clemmon's sentence with so little reason to do so; however self-serving his remarks, though, he's right.

But for a continued string of failures of the criminal justice system to keep a dangerous man away from the public, failures that are not HBees own, Clemmons would not have been free to murder.

My pet name for HB is usually some version of Huckabeen or Huckabye, I don't care for him and I don't think much of his leadership potential for the Republican party. But while his actions led to the release of this man, intervening alternative events would have made his continued incarceration possible without his help and despite his interference.

[Elmo]

Yesterday afternoon was indeed brutal. Switching on the tube, and gasping. I know a lot of Thanksgiving family gatherings, were a lot more somber.

Every single time someone gets up in the morn. Puts on the uniform, and shows up. They are heroes to me.

[mike2cents]

Well...yes.
And his previous commutations due to the his rational that the subject's 'turning to Christ' should be a factor long ago pointed to Huckabee's lack of qualification and judgment for such a responsibility.
But could this new-found distaste by Dan and others have anything to due w/ Huckabee being a potential object in the way of 'Sarah 2012'?
Duh.
But I guess I should be pleased, regardless of the true motives, that you are in this instance able to see through the BS of a religiously motivated conservative...

[Dan Riehl]

Keep on with the stoopid, Mike. I was against Huck as much in the 08 primary as I am now. But we already know you're a moron, so no harm done, buddy.

[smitty]

So, under all of that spin and whitewash, Dan, what is your take on Mike Huckabee?

[mike2cents]

Dan, I guess you're the only who's unaware that any present analysis of Palin's future doesn't go far without mentioning Huckabee...so my point remains.
But I'll grant you a momentary assumption of purity...Palin doesn't factor in at all for you here...right?('Buddy'? Wow...touching...thanks.)

[KillTruck]

Sarah W. You're right. Huckabee's culpability shouldn't overshadow that of clemmons.

Mike2Cents, No.

[hrh]

mike2cents, as governor Palin signed a bill to make pardons harder to get:

http://pardonpower.com/2008/08/alaska-palin-and-pardon-power.html

[Allen G]

Sarah W. (And KillTruck): You're right and wrong.

Yes, everyone else is culpable, too, but der-huckster-meister cannot avoid the fact that he had sole power (at the time) to make sure this monster stayed safely in jail. It's no good saying "it's not _all_ his fault" when, regardless of that statement, a single decission he made could have prevented the whole mess.

For that matter, the real bad-guy here is... well, the bad guy. Whatever anyone down the line did or did not do, the one who truly bears responsiblity for this attrocity is Mr. Clemmons. But, of those who didn't pull the trigger, Mike Huckabee holds more responsibility than any other single person- and even more now IMO, since he released this non-appology.

[templar knight]

Well, Dan, you certainly can claim from Day 1 that you were against Mike Huckabee, as were the vast majority who comment on this blog. I didn't really dislike the guy that much until the Wayne Dumond incident. Huckabee claimed to feel sorry for the fact that the guy was castrated by the family of a rape victim with connections to Bill Clinton, but the truth is that Huckabee probably took a parting shot at Clinton through this pardon.

Huckabee's judgment, many times based on false premises and idealism, is just not good. Certainly not good enough to be POTUS, or good enough to be in a position to release violent offenders from prison.

Of course, the laws in both Arkansas and Washington State need to be changed, and prisoners convicted of violent crimes need to be incarcerated to the full extent of their sentence. I'm amazed, not surprised, at the number of people who are killed and raped and robbed by people who should be in prison. It is truly a scandal of national proportion, and one hopes and prays that more will be done to prevent the violent from existing prisons prematurely.

[mike2cents]

HRH...exactly what I'm talking about
As it compares to Palin...

[very angry]

@SarahW and @KillTruck: The 35-year sentence given Clemmons by at least one judge and jury of twelve was undone by the stroke of the pen of one man, Hucktard. Why shouldn't his culpability be viewed at least as equivalent to that of Clemmons? Were it not for Hucktard's commutation and parole of the "young" offender, Clemmons most likely would've still been rotting in an Arkansas pentitentiary yesterday instead of ambushing cops in a Washington coffee joint.

Hucktard is quite contemptible because he was the first one to let this "young" offender off the hook. Rather than taking responsibility, he's only sought to diminish it by spreading the blame as far as he can. That's not leadership or some demonstration of integrity, it's f***ing cowardice.

[BadIdeaGuy]

I'm just relieved that I won't have to hear any more about Huckabee 2012. He's done.

[RogerCfromSD]

mikec, you make it sound like a religiously-motivated Conservative is a bad thing.

[x11b1p]

mike i hope dan is not correct when he called you a moron and you have some links to show where you are at least fair in your critique of religion especially when it comes to dems who also work the political angle from the pulpit (wright, sharpton, jackson)?

"But I guess I should be pleased, regardless of the true motives, that you are in this instance able to see through the BS of a religiously motivated conservative..."

[Bruce, NV]

Seems to me that Dan is at least as sceptical of Palin as he is of Huckster. To frame this as a "Sarah vs. Mike" issue is disingenous at best mike2troller.

[Pasadena Phil]

The good thing about this episode is that we are finally rid of arguably the biggest fly in the ointment from last year's fly-rich GOP primaries. Maybe now we can have a primary without the faux-religion vitriole that was directed at Romney specifically and Mormons in general. America has no patience for medieval brawls over whose god is the "real" god and how our founding fathers intended a theocracy based on a protestant god.

I have my own problems with Romney as a candidate but that isn't one of them. I just can't support a southern Billy Sunday bible-thumping phony. We've had enough of that kind of "love" from the evangelicals thank you.

[seekeronos]

Speaking as someone who might be seen as a far-right theocrat/social conservative/Bible-thumper...

... there was a point to the purposeful divorcing of church and state, especially in political discourse. But it does bear thinking about exactly how much one's religiosity will impact their decision-making processes once elected.

And Huck-a-Buck would be more in the mold of a Pat Robertson or a Jerry Falwell, another hypocrite (similarly named, but sadly and often mistaken for Mr. Sunday)... Billy Graham.

Billy Sunday on the other hand, appears to have much less distracted by the baubles of this world and to the best of my understanding, was relatively free of hypocrisy and scandal, which is a testament to the sheer number of souls saved under his ministry (by God's grace, as always).

I'd much rather have a man who was of a closer mind to a Billy Sunday in the White House, than say, a total godless atheist, a worshipper of idols or false moon demons (Muslims) or a Mormon, or a man whose allegiance was first to the See of Rome, or worst of all, a hypocrite whose latter-day Phariseeism was as plain as the nose on his face.

[thirteen28]

"You ain't got a Mormon's prayer in your personal Southern Baptist church of a chance."

Good one - wish Huckabigot would read that personally.

[mike2cents]

x11b1p -
Not too clear what you're saying here- but I wasn't criticizing religion (in this case) -
I was criticizing Huckabee's arrogance mixed with gullibility is commuting a sentence in part based ON religion. And to be clear, on HIS religion.
I suppose I could link to the Constitution...

[very angry]

@seekeronos: Why would you object to having a "godless atheist" as president without knowing his (or her) positions on various secular issues over which he has some control? Why do you find loyalty to any particular denomination objectionable? How would you detect hypocrisy when it's not always readily apparent even to those around them -- such as Ted Haggard or search for Reverend Gary Aldrich's autopsy report at smokinggun.com for another sad (and disturbing) example.

[joyMc]

I'm pretty sure this will end Huck's presidential ambitions. Can't say I am overly sorry for that.

[joyMc]

My distaste for Huck is not newfound. I always found him way too soft on illegal immigration.

[seekeronos]

@very angry:

I've no inclination to see us lead by a man (or woman, for that matter) who harbours a bitter hatred of God (and by extension, the many people who believe in and worship Him).

Nor would I really want to see person such as Dr. Shelton Smith of "Sword of the Lord" ministries (a very fundamentally Independent Baptist preacher) quit from God's calling in his life to pursue politics: most people in the USA are unsaved, that is, non-Christians who would bridle under true Biblical teaching without the counsel of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

In most cases, this sort of contest will not likely come to be, leaving us unfortunates to choose between one lukewarm so-called "christian", and another.

While there are certainly numerous people who quietly disbelieve in diety, they seem to be quite offset by the noxiousness and noise of the "militant atheists", who are every bit as disagreeable as the televangelists or the likes of the Jim Dobsons or Pat Robertsons.

The people who tend to make the loudest stink about a particular thing, I have found also to be either hypocrites or otherwise so set on their particular horse as to make them of little value to any other good deed.

Not that tiresome mediocrity should be our goal... but the conclusion I've come to of late is that it is better for me to pursue the humbler goal of winning souls for Christ one at a time, letting God's word do its work - rather than trying to force society to bend to my whims.

The Jim Dobsons and in opposite manner, the Richard Dawkinses of the world have their works, but I also think a better effect may come of all of us "focusing on our own families", and perhaps calling our own "delusions" under the scrutiny of God's word, before attempting to steer what is in the very long run, a failing humanity back on course.