I agree about the bad judgement. Of course the next headline on the news will be “ Huckabee lets convict out of Prison on the Promise that he will kill at least 4 Police Officers within Ten Years” He did make a mistake. I wish I knew all the details, though, like why did the parole board recommend Clemmon’s release? How much pressure was put on Huckabee to grant clemency by the parole board? Why has no one kept Clemmons locked up the numerous times he’s been arrested since Huck granted him clemency.? Of course Huckabee is going to get all of the blame because he has the highest profile, and is a Christian, and his mistake probably bothers more than a lot of folks suspect. Probably the other people that are as responsible for this guys release as Huck ,or moreso, don’t give a rats ass.
Being a Christian has nothing to do with it. As governor, the buck stopped at his desk. Dukakis took a drubbing over Horton, and all Horton did was rape two women after his release before being arrested. Huck is a repeat offender. He paroled Wayne Dumond, who killed two women after his release. Identity politics allowed Huck to remain a serious candidate despite the Dumond blunder:
The video's impact is not certain; Huckabee was already a long-shot candidate before the video was released, and continued to be very popular among social conservatives and southern Republicans generally, despite the fact that the South has most of the states with conservative criminal justice systems.Fortunately, unlike the Democrats, who made Dukakis their nominee, the GOP rejected Huck, who seems to have made a career of releasing people who murder after getting out of the joint.
Excellent points.
It’s worth adding something I heard on the Michael Medved Show yesterday.
Before Clemmons obtained his clemency, he was something less than a model prisoner. He was involved in acts of violence while in prison. Let’s place a heavy emphasis on the word “acts”.
Huckabee claimed to have read Clemmons’ entire record. I’d have to assume that record included his record while in prison. Maybe it didn’t.
But it stands to reason that huckabee should have taken a look at Clemmons’ conduct while in prison. At that point, he probably (or at least hopefully) would have said “This guy looks like a real POS. There won’t be any clemency order coming from me”.
And I’d also include the parole board as well. It was up to them to look at every aspect of Clemmons’ record BEFORE they considered clemency.