Huckabee Was Correct and America Needs Such Principled Leadership

American Daily Review ^ | 12/06/2009 | Yomin Postelnik

[Yomin Postelnik]

There is currently a move underway to discredit Mike Huckabee over the rightful pardoning of a then 16 year old who had been sentenced to 108 years on robbery charges. I make this statement as someone who fully supports the death penalty for murderers and for child rapists, but also as someone who recognizes that getting tough on crime means fostering sensible rehabilitation, not turning first time offenders into violent career criminals.

Yes, Governor Huckabee pardoned more people than most governors do. That’s because Gov. Huckabee isn’t thoughtless, callous or cruel and recognizes that public service actually entails service to the public. Sentencing a 16 year old to months of hard labor generally serves as the greatest deterrent (except in cases of murder and the like). By contrast, sentencing a teen to years in prison has almost inevitably bred nothing more than a violent menaces to society.

[Politicalmom]

Yeah, hitting numerous people in the head is just a boyish prank.

[Yomin Postelnik]

I don’t see it as a boyish prank. I see it as being very serious. But a 17 year old facing a life sentence for burglary likely goes mad at the prospect. A relatively short term of harsh labor may have straightened him out.

The trial judge who saw the outburst wasn’t opposed to his release 11 years later.

[Nickname]

That’s one of the things that galls me most—the lying through omission. It’s made to sound as if Clemmons was merely breaking into vending machines to steal Skittles.

[dforest]

The more Huck spins, the worse it gets. Apparently he cannot take NO for an answer. Wrong headed compassion has its consequences and as a result people are dead.

Now it is time for Huckabee to face his consequences.

He is over for 2012.

By the way, him as top of the ticket would not have united the party.

[TigersEye]

Then you can't read or you're a liar. For starters he was 17 when he committed his second offense of the five incidents that got him eight felony convictions. So the BS about him being 16 when he committed his "crime" is just that.

The account I just posted shows numerous incidents of violence. He punches a 7th grader, a woman, a guy on the street, makes a threat on the judge in court, throws a padlock at a bailiff and tries to take a guard's gun. So don't give me your crapola about "I see burglary, theft and firearm possession before..."

Grow up and stop lying to me.

[Rastus]

Do you even know this guy's history? He got the 108 year sentence because he was convicted of eight separate felonies--including breaking into a state trooper's home and stealing something like $6,500 worth of stuff and a gun. During his trial, he fashioned weapons and tried to grab a guard's gun. So, he was violent before he was sentenced. This lie that Huckabee simply wanted to rectify the mistake of sentencing a poor, remorseful 16-year-old to an abominable prison sentence is outrageous. By the way, he had been in prison for almost ten years at that point, so the damage would have already been done if we're going to buy into that ridiculous notion.

[TigersEye]

The trial judge who saw the outburst wasn’t opposed to his release 11 years later.

He apparently wasn't opposed to the sentence 11 years earlier either. If Huckabee had passed him over he would have been up for parole in 2015. That would have been 26 years so throwing around the 108 year sentence is disingenuous.

[dixjea]

HUCKABY BABY GAVE US MCCAIN AS OUR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, WHICH GAVE US OBAMA. Glad to see him go.

[Yomin Postelnik]

Since you ask - I would blame the long, boring prison sentences surrounded by hardened criminals and seek to replace that with short intense labor sentences so that it didn’t happen to others. That’s what I’d do.

[Yomin Postelnik]

It’s clear that he went maniacal only after he faced the prospect of a life sentence (which was almost assured). The crimes before are far different than the crimes after. Not rectifying the situation can have repeat severe consequences, which should/must be avoided.

[skipper18]

jim demint is fighting people like you in washington!

[TigersEye]

Huckabee also threw the race card on Geraldo tonight to make excuses for himself and that really burns me. He did it in the same self-serving and dishonest way Sharpton does.

He would have done far better for himself if he had just offered his condolences to the families of the slain officers and his regret that a decision he had made many years ago had let this guy go. That and then refuse to discuss it further.

[Yomin Postelnik]

I agree with you on that. I think he’s trying to get a point across though, about prison sentences (which many see as harmful/aggravating of crime) and just did it the wrong way. I don’t like bringing race into it and don’t believe that has much merit.

[Nickname]

He doesn’t want to protect society and keep criminals behind bars?

[TigersEye]

His behavior was clearly violent and disturbed from the start. You’re lying when you try to spin it differently.

[TigersEye]

I think he’s trying to get a point across though, about prison sentences (which many see as harmful/aggravating of crime) and just did it the wrong way.

That is par for the course with Huckabee. He has called those who want to close the borders bigots.

[rae4palin]

Doofus.

[shibumi]

"Since you ask - I would blame the long, boring prison sentences surrounded by hardened criminals and seek to replace that with short intense labor sentences so that it didn’t happen to others. That’s what I’d do."

Are there scissors on your desk?

Are they the pointy ones, or (I hope) the little blunt kind?

[Nephi]

The Huckster is toast, and he did it all by himself - freerepublic didn’t even embed a campaign against him in every thread.