Huckabee Reacts to Palin’s Comments on Clemmon’s Case

A class act………..

Conservatives are Worse than Liberals on the FACTS

It is amazing how members of my own party use a tragic event involving four deaths to further their own political agenda by burying a guy they have hated all along using anything but the facts.

This is Governor Mike Huckabee’s Human Events article in which he lays out the facts:

Washington State Tragedy

by Mike Huckabee

12/01/2009

The senseless and savage slaying of 4 police officers in Lakewood, Washington has raised many questions as to why the alleged murderer was even on the streets. My name has figured prominently in many of the stories because I commuted his 108 year sentence to a term of 47 years back in 2000. I take full responsibility for my decision then. Unfortunately, many of my fellow conservatives don’t seem to want to take responsibility for the facts surrounding the case.

The Maurice Clemmons presented in a commutation request in the year 2000 was much different than the one who is being sought for the killings of the police officers.

The case before me was of a 16 year old who received a disproportionate sentence of 108 years for burglary and robbery charges. He had already served 11 years in Arkansas prison by that time, which is more time actually served than most similar cases would have netted in sentencing alone. Under Arkansas law, governors don’t parole anyone. The Post Prison Transfer Board does. That board can recommend clemency, and in this case recommended by a 5-0 vote that his sentence be reduced. This was one of 1000-1200 cases I reviewed each of the 10 and a half years as governor. Ninety-two percent of the time, any request for clemency was denied. Most of the ones granted were for clearing a person’s record for a minor offense from 20 years previous. The trial judge in the case supported the commutation. During the legally required 30 day public comment period before action on the case was complete, there were no objections registered by my office by any authorities, despite claims of the local prosecutor that he “was afraid something like this would happen.” Interestingly, if he was so afraid, then he has failed to explain why in 2004 when Clemmons was back in prison for a parole violation, his office failed to pursue charges and in fact dropped them, allowing Clemmons to go free, move to Washington, and for reasons beyond me, continue to avoid extradition back to Arkansas or be kept by Washington authorities as he displayed signs of psychotic behavior. I am responsible for the commutation in 2000. I would not have commuted his sentence in 2004 after the re-arrest or in any of the years following. I can explain my decision in 2000. I cannot explain the decision of the very vocal prosecutor in Little Rock who seems to avoid answering the questions as to why he didn’t keep Clemmons in prison in 2004 or get him brought back to Arkansas for his repeated parole violations.

There are some glaring facts that some conservative talkers seem to miss:

1. He was never pardoned. Amazingly, that word has been used to describe my actions 9 years ago. He was never even considered for a pardon.

2. The commutation didn’t release him. It made him parole eligible. He had to meet the conditions of parole for the parole board, who in fact paroled him. He had been in prison for 11 years at the time of his release.

3. Despite news reports, there are no records that the prosecutor, law enforcement, the Attorney General, or victims objected to the commutation. The only responses my office had record of during the public comment period were support letters from the trial judge, and members of the community.

4. He was back in prison by 2004 and would have remained there until 2015 due to his parole violations had the prosecutor chosen to properly file the paperwork.

5. The Clemmons of 2000 did not exhibit traits of psychosis and the kind of behavior that he would later express during several arrests in Washington state during the past year.

6. Religion had nothing to do with the commutation. It’s been erroneously expressed that my own personal faith or the claims of faith of the inmate factored into my decision. That is simply not true and nothing in the record even suggests it. The reasons were straightforward — a unanimous recommendation from the board, support from a trial judge and no objections from officials in a case that involved a 16 year old sentenced to a term that was exponentially longer than similar cases and certainly longer than had he been white, upper middle class, and represented by effective counsel who would have clearly objected to the sentencing. (His race, economic status, or education level are not excuses for his behavior because many people of color who are uneducated and living in abject poverty are civil, trustworthy, and honest to a fault and many well-educated, wealthy, white people are dirtbags — think Bernie Madoff). But sadly, Arkansas has had numerous instances of disproportionate sentencing in which a probation and fine would be meted out to white upper class kids whose parents were able to obtain the services of excellent defense attorneys, while young black males committing the same crimes and represented by public defenders would end up with inexplicably long prison terms. Blacks comprise 15% of the state’s population, but 50% of the inmate population, some of which is due to the fact that their sentences are often longer and they are less likely to be paroled.

The two professions I value most in our society are soldiers and police officers, with fireman and schoolteachers right behind. Soldiers and police officers are the line between us and anarchy. The death of the four officers in Lakewood should never have happened. I regret that I ever saw the name of Maurice Clemmons and that I commuted his sentence and made him eligible for parole. That is my responsibility and it was based on the evidence before me in 2000. If presented the same facts today, I would have acted in the same manner. But once he violated that parole and his second chance in 2004, he should not have received the treatment he appeared to have received from the Arkansas prosecutor or the officials in Washington, who failed to send him back to prison and who let him go free on bail even after repeated violent outbursts and a rape charge from this past year. I can take responsibility for my actions, but not for the actions of others nor the misinformed words of commentators.

Gov. Huckabee Takes Full Responsibility

From Huck PAC:

Mike Huckabee: I Take Full Responsibility

The nation was stunned by the senseless and savage cold-blooded murders of 4 young police officers in Lakewood, Washington. Whenever a police officer or soldier is killed, I feel the loss is even more profound for they are the ones who stand between our freedom and anarchy.

At the time I write these words, police are still searching for Maurice Clemmons who is believed to be the one committing these unspeakable acts. Nine years ago, that name crossed my desk. I commuted his sentence from 108 years to 47 years. Many news reports, talk show hosts, and bloggers have erroneously said that he was granted a “pardon.” Others speak of me “setting him free.” As one who now hosts a talk show and who does daily radio commentaries, I can attest to how easy commentary is compared to actually governing. I am not seeking to justify or defend my actions of nine years ago, but it’s important that I answer for my actions and give some explanation as to how and why his sentence was commuted.

I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision.

Each state is different, but in Arkansas, a governor doesn’t initiate a parole—the Post Prison Transfer Board does after it conducts a thorough review of an inmate’s file and request. The board then makes a recommendation to the governor, who decides to grant or deny.

If the decision is made to grant any form of clemency (the broad term for a commutation or a full pardon), the governor gives notice of intent and the file is sent to the prosecutor, judge, law enforcement officials, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of State as well as to the news media. A period of 30 days is then started for there to be public input as well as response from the above named officials. At the end of the public response period, the final decision is rendered.

Between 1,000 and 1,200 requests for some form of clemency came to my desk each and every one of the 10 ½ years I was governor. Ninety-two percent of the time, I denied the requests. When I did grant them, it was usually based on the recommendation of at least five of the members of the PPTB, with consideration given to the input from public officials.

Maurice Clemmons was 16 years old when he was charged with burglary and robbery. He was sentenced to a total of 108 years based on the way in which the sentences were stacked. For the crimes he committed and the age at which he committed the crimes, it was dramatically outside the norm for sentencing. The PPTB recommended in 2000 by a 5-0 vote for his sentence to be commuted.

He had served 11 years of his sentence. A pardon would have set him free and cleared his record. A commutation to “time served” would have set him free and released him from any parole reporting. As per the recommendation, I commuted his sentence to the term of 47 years, still a long sentence for the type of crime he had committed, but it would make him parole eligible. It would not parole him, as governors do not have that power in Arkansas. He would have to separately apply for parole and meet the criteria for that.

Despite news reports to the contrary, the only record of public response to the notice to commute was from the trial judge, who recommended the commendation in concert with the board. There were letters of support, but no record of letters of opposition.

Following the commutation, he met the criteria for parole and was paroled to supervision in late 2000. When he violated terms of his parole by participating in additional crimes, he was returned to prison and should have stayed there. For reasons only the prosecutor can explain, charges were not brought forth in a timely way and the prosecutor ended up dropping the charges, allowing him to leave prison and return to supervised parole.

He moved to Washington state and had intermittent criminal activity that increased in violence and frequency. He was allowed to post bail in Washington state and while on bail from there committed the unspeakable acts of murdering four valiant police officers. I can’t explain why he wasn’t prosecuted properly for the parole violations or why he was allowed to make bail in Washington state and not incarcerated earlier for crimes committed there.

I wish his file had never crossed my desk, but it did. The decision I made is one that I now wish were different, but I could only look backwards at his case, not forward. None of this is of any comfort to the families of these police officers nor should it be. Their loss is senseless. No words or deeds by anyone will bring them back to their loved ones. Our system is not perfect and neither are those responsible for administering it.

The system and those of us who are supposed to make sure it works sometimes fail. In this case, we clearly did.

How a Katie Couric Interview is Supposed to Be Done

Yesterday Mike Huckabee was interviewed by Katie Couric and he talked about a broad range of topics.  Everything from economic and foreign policy, the bailouts and TARP, his view of President Obama, his support of traditional marriage, how to bring the GOP back, to the rising stars in the party and his thoughts on 2012.

Sure beats some other Republican interviews by Katie Couric.  The full interview is here.

Huckabee’s Fox News show last week was once again number one and his opening comments were right on target about how Political Correctness Killed Americans in Fort Hood.

Let the universities provide the ideological playground for academics to put forth the high-minded plans of people management to give us all a “feel-good” for being so tolerant, but our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines deserve to be surrounded by the best of their peers, not misfits who are protected because of their religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or their cereal preference for that matter.

Huckabee Topping the Polls

A couple of new polls are out that reflect Sarah Palin’s book bounce but Governor Huckabee remains the consistent frontrunner.  In the Fox News poll Huckabee is once again the GOP candidate with the highest favorables across the board.  As GOP 12 states, “Maybe he’s not the front-runner on paper, but he’s the front-runner with people.”  There was also a new Public Policy Polling released today in which for the eighth month in a row Huckabee fares best against a possible match-up with President Obama.

In book news, Huckabee’s A Simple Christmas is now up to #3 on the Wall Street Journal’s Best Seller list.

UPDATE:  A Simple Christmas is also #3 on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Also, Huckabee spoke to the Hudson Union Society earlier this month and said this:

When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say “Aw, that’s just a cheap photo-op.” No, I think it was the Commander-in-Chief of our military paying respect to a dead soldier, and I’m grateful that he did that, and I was proud of him for doing that. And I think we all — as Americans — should give him credit for doing that.

He continued:

When he and Michele hosted the tricker-treaters on Halloween, quit finding something wrong with that. Say “Good, I’m glad that he and the First Lady are treating children to an experience at the White House.” And I just find it deplorable that some people on my end of the aisle want to find everything wrong and nothing right about the man as a man.

The underlying point, Huckabee concluded, was that knee-jerk criticism to the president was counter-productive to civil debate. “I hated it when people did that to George Bush,” he said. “They couldn’t even laugh at the man’s jokes they found something wrong with everything and if we do that to Barack Obama, then shame on us, shame on us. No wonder our country is so divided when that happens.”

I agree 100% with this statement.  It seems that conservatives have a short-term memory on how the left treated Pres. Bush and how much it outraged them.  The “you did it to us first” mentality is best left to first graders.

Huckabee: Another Book?

Right now Governor Mike Huckabee is on a 64 city and 22 state book tour for A Simple Christmas and so far it has reached #18 on the New York Times Best Seller list.  His best seller from last year Do the Right Thing has come out in paperback during the release of the new book.  What I didn’t realize, however, is that a new chapter was added to Do the Right Thing that deals with the 2008 election.  (It was published even before the Republican Convention.)

Adam Graham at race42012 gave a summary of what this new chapter is about.  Huckabee uses this chapter to praise the pick of Sarah Palin as Vice President, to hammer on those who supported TARP and the stimulus and to make a point how some of those people were the very ones who criticized him for not being a fiscal conservative, and to make a statement of what he would have done if Joe Lieberman was the VP pick:

Huckabee planned to not appear at the Republican Convention “quietly” and to focus his attention exclusively on House, Governor, and Senate candidates.

At one of the book signings Huckabee admitted that he was already working on his eighth book which will be a policy book due out the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011.  Hmmmm………..

Huckabee Touring the Country and Rising to the Top

Governor Huckabee’s recent visit to Iowa to promote his new book A Simple Christmas:  Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit demonstrated that Iowans still like Mike.  He was met with great crowds at all of his three stops (which is similar to the enthusiastic response he is getting in other states as well) and at his last event of the evening he shared why he’s in the state and why he will be back in Iowa again.

A lot has changed since Huckabee first stepped foot in Iowa.   He began as a blip in the polls and now he is considered the front runner for the Republican nomination in 2012.  He has recently had a clean sweep in the polls; Rasmussen, CNN, PPP, and most recently Gallup have all proved him to be the number one choice for 2012.

The question that remains is will he leave his number one weekend cable show on Fox which dominates the ratings across the board and his in demand radio show that is up to 450 affiliates to pursue the nomination?  We sure hope so.

Abby Johnson Exclusive Interview with Huckabee

I have always been pro-life.  I can’t imagine what a conversion would feel like once you witness a defenseless human being destroyed in front of your eyes.  Abby Johnson tells her story to Gov. Mike Huckabee of quitting her Executive Director position at Planned Parenthood and how it all came about.

Huckabee Hits 450 Affiliates and Launches New Book

The Huckabee Report which is heard three times daily on ABC Radio has hit the milestone 450 affiliates.

“Governor Huckabee continues to win over affiliates and advertisers as he delivers an audience eager to hear his compelling views on our nation’s most serious topics,” Citadel Media SVP/Programming & Distribution Carl Anderson said. “In the 10 months since we first aired ‘The Huckabee Report,’ it has become one of the fastest-growing shows in our network’s history. It’s a strong testimony to Governor Huckabee’s ability to connect with his listeners and earn their trust.”

Today Governor Huckabee’s seventh book goes on sale A Simple Christmas:  Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.  (His political hard-hitting New York Times Best Seller from last year, Do the Right Thing, will be released on paper back also.)  Time magazine conducted an interview with Huckabee on the release of his new book and the upcoming grueling sixty stop book tour.

As if the radio airwaves and his book are not enough, Huckabee also had a very pointed opening monologue on his Fox TV show this past weekend about Americans who are offended by the American flag, which fits well with one of my favorite sayings………America, like it or leave it.

If the American flag offends people in America, then I suggest that those people find a flag they like better and take the next flight one way to where that flag flies. I’d actually be in favor of taking the bailout and stimulus money the government wants to spend and use it to stimulate people who hate our flag to bail out in the country of their choice.

Huckabee Explains Stance on NY-23 Race (UPDATE)

Governor Mike Huckabee, the winner of yet another poll for the GOP nomination in 2012, explains his stance on the New York 23rd Congressional District race involving Republican Party candidate, Dede Scozzafava, and the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman.

UPDATE:  Huck PAC has just announced their endorsement of Doug Hoffman for the NY-23 Congressional race on November 3rd.

We commend Dede Scozzafava for stepping aside and in light of her very unselfish announcement, we join the RNC and other Republicans in urging support for Doug Hoffman.