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Memo to Snyder: Don’t stop the radical reforms now!With cop-killing, Mike Huckabee’s political career is over . . . as it should be
November 30th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Dan Calabrese
Why do people say, “I hate to say I told you so”?
People love to say that. And I did tell you so where Mike Huckabee was concerned. Now that Maurice Clemmons, one of the many criminals whose sentences he commuted as Arkansas governor, has apparently gone on to murder four police officers in Washington State, Huckabee’s political career is finished.
Yep. Music. Great. Anything but politics.
He will never be president. He will never be elected to anything. He can keep hosting his show on Fox News – and he’d better – because it’s the closest to politics he’s ever going to come.
This is a good thing. Huckabee is a good man but not a person who knows how to responsibily handle the authority of public office.
And some of us saw this when he first came upon the scene.
Back in January 2008, when Huckabee was at the height of his presidential bid, I angered a lot of my fellow evangelicals by coming down pretty hard on The Huck for lacking either the depth or the preparation necessary for the presidency.
I also took evangelicals to task for supporting him just because he is a Christian, with no apparent regard for poor credentials for the actual job of being president.
One of the biggest concerns I had about Huckabee at the time was his apparent belief that, as a Christian holding the office of Arkansas governor, he should use the power of clemency to somehow extend Christian mercy to dangerous criminals who might take advantage of his generosity to harm others. Here’s what I said about that:
Worse, he seems to see his position of authority as a mechanism to impulsively apply his evangelical agenda. As governor, he pardoned or otherwise advocate (sic) the earlier release of more than 1,000 criminals, with beneficiaries including 13 murderers (one of whom went on to kill again), Huckabee acts as though his seat in the state house is license to bestow a Christ-like gift of grace to anyone he chooses.
Even Jesus didn’t cut the thieves down from their crosses. He just offered them a place in Heaven.
I suppose I should have said God’s Kingdom instead of Heaven, but you get the idea. Huckabee was very fast and loose with his power to grant pardons and commute sentences, apparently because he felt like, as a merciful Christian, he should forgive like Jesus did.
But Jesus didn’t go around urging civil authorities to turn loose violent criminals who would prey upon the people if given the chance. Nowhere does God command Christians to undermine civil order – indeed, he tells us the opposite – and underming civil order is exactly what Huckabee did by going nuts handing out the get-out-of-jail-free cards.
All indications are that Huckabee used this power impulsively and irresponsibly, ignoring the warnings of prosecutors who told him Clemmons was dangerous and too big a risk to release. Now four police officers are dead because Huckabee didn’t listen.
Public servants make mistakes. We all understand that. But some mistakes tell us all we need to know about a public servant’s fitness for higher office. Mike Huckabee has disqualified himself. If he ever runs for president or any other office, his opponents will excoriate him for his decision to release Maurice Clemmons – as they should.
Evangelicals are going to need to pick another horse, and they might start with someone who is actually qualified for the job. Then, if that person also turns out to be a faithful Christian (see Bush, George W.), it will be a bonus.
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Posted in Dan Calabrese
27 Responses to “With cop-killing, Mike Huckabee’s political career is over . . . as it should be”
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i totaly agree with this author.
hope huckabee leaves fox as well. can’t stand the site of him after this.
I think the author may be going a little hard on the Huck. Huck would wrap rings around the silver-tongued Annointed One in a one-on-one debate. Not even a contest! He is on the right side of the issues and can communicate those positions in an articulate fashion. Do I understand that Maurice Clemmons was incarcerated in between Huck’s commutation/clemency and the Sunday murders of the police officers? What state was that in and what were the circumstances of his release in that situation? It seems to me that that incerceration should rightfully provide a little insulation for the Huck in this matter.
What would you do in the following case:
1) A 16 year old commits 1 burglary, and 1 robbery. He was not armed with a weapon for either crime.
2) He is sentenced to 107 years. Over a 100 years for these 2 crimes. Neither committed with a fire arm, and not resulting in murder.
3) 11 years later, the parole board recommends, 5-0, that the sentence be commuted to 47 years. The trial judge even approves of it. After reviewing the file, Huckabee approves it. There are NO DOCUMENTED complaints against doing this in the governors file.
What is your decision? Because that’s all you know. He’s not showing delusional, or violent behavior, according to the actual record (AFAIK.)
Are you really going to say that, at the time, given the facts known then, you would have said tough.
It’s to easy to judge in hindsight. You have to make decisions based on the facts as you know them. That means the facts have to be present.
I don’t think this particular incident is going to “end his political career.”
How many review boards have released criminals early and they went out to commit heinous crimes? Also, was Huckabee any less prepared than Obama? I am not a Huck fan but I think your disqualifications based on this particular incident may be a little hasty and somewhat unfair. I am not a Palin for President either but she, from my point of view was more qualified for the oval office than Obama.
There’s an interesting discussion over at View from the Right about the squishy Christianity that is now evangelism.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/014897.html
Have to agree. Sometimes Christians in public office want to be too compassionate. Often that means stealing other people’s money (ie. higher taxes)rather than letting churches, non-profits, and the free market work things out more effectively and efficiently in the long term. In this case, it was the Huckster being overly lenient on criminals, as well as being for higher taxes. Christians are to have both a soft heart and a strong hard head. One without the other is bad.
Is uck is a “good man”?
He may be a compassionate man, but a good man does not endanger others. It is not charity when others pay the bill. It is Christian to turn one’s own cheek, but it is just evil to turn another person’s cheek against their will.
No. I am sure Huck considers himself a good man, but his disregard of others–let alone his base attempts to deflect the blame to all others but himself are the true window to his character.
Huckabee is a bleeding heart liberal who now has the blood of multiple people on his hands. If ever there was a time for Huckabee to own up or shut up, this is it. The only thing Huckabee should be doing now is apologizing.
What did it for me was his speech before the AR house mentioning all the taxes he would go for. He almost sounded gleeful about it. Should have at least sounded somber.
YEAH, ding dong the RINO is dead, the RINO is dead, ding dong the mentally challenged RINO is finally dead.
Never did like the guy.
I’ve got to go along with Keith. Huck isn’t my favorite, but I believe what he told O’Reilly about the circumstances at the time. Don’t know if I’d have done the same as I’m a super SOB, but I might.
In the primaries, Mike Huckabee made a statement that the United States needs to get back to governing by the Bible. My jaw dropped to the floor on that one. And that’s when I knew he was entirely inappropriate to even be up on the podium. As much as Dan and the rest of the fundamentalists want to implement a theocracy in this country, there’s a reason why the Founders were so brilliantly profound in their care to ensure that religion stayed SEPARATE from politics.
Huckabee appears to be a genuine follower of Christ. Showing mercy towards one’s enemies and loving thy neighbor unconditionally is true Christianity. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it) politics and governing in a global universe demands an un-Christian-like approach.
There’s a place for Huckabee (primarily, in church ministry, not at Faux News which is a mercenary industry at best). He can help others become better Christians. Correction: more genuine Christians. Including Dan Calabrese.
[...] [...]
I don’t know how Kelly can read what I’ve written on the subject and say I want to “implement a theocracy in this country,” but I get the impression that Kelly simply lumps people in categories and ascribes to them everything he/she believes fits the category.
So even though I chastised other evangelicals for supporting Huckabee just because he is a Christian, and even though I wrote that promoting Christianity is not the job of the president of the United States, it doesn’t matter.
In the category where Kelly has placed me, everyone wants to institute a theocracy, so that must be what I want as well, regardless of what I’ve actually had to say on the subject.
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