Maurice Clemmons' sentence was commuted by Gov. Huckabee. AP Photo
In politics there are stories from which candidates can recover and those they can not. Many politicians have been able to surive stories of affairs but as the Willie Horton ad proved being perceived as "soft on crime" is a sin no politician can overcome. Mike Huckabee has recently been talked about as a possible candidate for President in 2012 but his political fate may now rest on the story of man named Maurice Clemmons.
Clemmons has been named as a "person of interest" by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department over the execution-style killing of four police officers yesterday. The shooting occured in Tacoma, Washington and has drawn national attention. So how is Clemmons connected to Huckabee?
Nine years ago Huckabee (who was at that time Governor of Arkansas) commuted the lengthy prison sentence of Clemmons over the objections of prosecutors. Clemmons had been sentenced to sixty years in prison in Arkansas for burglary and theft of property. At the time of the sentence he had already been serving a forty-eight year sentence for five more felony counts. In addition Clemmons had at various times attempted to assault those holding in him custody even reaching for the gun of one guard while being transported to the courtroom. Despite this violent past Huckabee still commuted Clemmons sentence citing his young age (17) at the time of the crime.
It is hard to imagine Huckabee surviving this story if Clemmons does turn out to be the shooter in the Tacoma killings. Huckabee has already released a statement calling the killings "horrible and tragic" and blaming any errors dealing with Clemmons on the entire criminal justice system of Arkansas and Washington. Huckabee may be correct in saying that more than one person is responsible for Clemmons being a free man but that will not keep his Republican primary opponents from blaming Huckabee for his role. In the end the Clemmons story may have ended Huckabee 2012 campaign before it even began.
Comments
conservatives are going to eat him alive if he runs
This puts the nail of un electability on the Huck.
Have you seen Huckabee lately? Dude has put on a ton of weight. He wasn't running for President anyway.
Joe says:
"Have you seen Huckabee lately? Dude has put on a ton of weight. He wasn't running for President anyway."
I think he's running for White House Pastry Chef.
The only chance he has now is to switch parties.
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