The suspect in the slaying of four Washington state police officers, Maurice Clemmons, 37, was holed up, surrounded by police, and has apparently been wounded, and may be dead; we don’t have all of the details. Mr Clemmons has a long and violent criminal record, but he had a lengthy prison sentence commuted by then-Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) nearly a decade ago. It may be that Mr Clemmons is not the man who did the shooting — I prefer to wait for confirmation on that — but Mr Huckabee said something that absolutely frosts me:
On Sunday, Huckabee deflected blame with a statement on his Web site.
“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 wrote.
No, it will be a result of you, Mr Huckabee, letting him out of prison early.
In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Huckabee commuted a 95-year prison sentence. Huckabee, who was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for granting many clemencies and commutations, cited Clemmons’ youth. Clemmons later violated his parole, was returned to prison and released in 2004.
In plain language, if Mr Huckabee hadn’t commuted this man’s sentence, he’d still be in prison today; if he was the killer, those four police officers would be alive today.
Time to man up, Mr Huckabee, and admit that, if Mr Clemmons was the murderer, those fine officers are dead today because of a decision you took.
As for Fox News Channel, I hope they fire Mr Huckabee, if he doesn’t have the decency to simply resign first.
I’d say that yes, it is a result of “a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State”– and that series started with Huck.
I didn’t think very highly of him after the “for your own good” governing re: being fat came out, now I think even less of him. How slimy!
I am not and never have been a political supporter of Mike Huckabee. Whatever his personal virtues, I think that he is a bit “soft” politically.
And, if the original 60 year sentence were fully served or even the early release date of 2015 met, then your point stands unchallenged.
Yet, while Huckabee’s clemency [conditional upon parole terms] action may have been among the first of an astonishing series of undeserved breaks the felon received from government, it wasn’t the only one.
After being re-jailed in Arkansas in 2001 due to a parole violation he was then parolled again by the parole board in 2004 despite objections from the prosecutor’s office.
He is currently out on bond in Washington State on a child rape charge. Somehow – as if it is any mystery when dealing with the mindset of the client class and its social engineer managers – he was also able to get out of jail despite punching a police officer in the face.
It just goes on and on …
Why Washington State authorities granted him bond given his past record, defies rational explanation.
Thing is, without Governor Huckabee’s mistake, the criminal justice people in Arkansas and Washington wouldn’t have been left with his mess to clean up.
We were very hard on Michael Dukakis for the same kind of stupidity, and Governor Dukakis didn’t even offer Willie Horton the furlough personally; he was simply responsible for a fouled up program. This was a decision that Mr Huckabee took personally. If it turns out that Mr Clemmons is indeed the killer, Mr Huckabee should man up, accept the responsibility, apologize to the victims’ families and the entire state of Washington, and then quietly slink away, and never show his pasty face on camera again.
what exactly is the standard by which someone should be fired at fox these day?
As for Fox News Channel, I hope they fire Mr Huckabee, if he doesn’t have the decency to simply resign first.”
I don’t know whether Fox is obligated to fire Huckabee, but I happen to catch him on Fox tonight, and he was quite nicely let off the hook by O’Reilly who tut-tutted about the state being responsible, not Huckabee. It wasn’t his burden to shoulder. I’ve never cared for either one of them, tonight even less so.
Indeed. Huckabee’s political future is toast and absolutely should be. Good riddance.
I think Huckabee should keep his TV show. I don’t fault him particularly for this, no one had any way to know he’d move on to murder. Aggravated robbery isn’t murder, and a 95 year sentence sounded a little extreme.