The manhunt continues in and around Seattle where police are searching for Maurice Clemmons, the man believed to have shot and killed four police officers in the nearby town of Lakewood.
Also well underway is the media and blogosphere beating of Mike Huckabee over his decision in 2000 to commute Clemmons' sentence. Is that fair? Is it accurate? The pile on was in full bore Monday morning:
(AP)
Interesting how the person who was least judgmental was also the most accurate, and also someone who's been caught in his own scandal, former New York Gov Eliot Spitzer, who is quoted in the above compilation as saying this is a nightmare for Mr. Huckabee.
And he's correct, when Politico writes a story with the headline, "A Huckabee clemency gone awry?"
And he's correct when you google the words, "Violent felon granted clemency by Huckabee." Do that and you get a long list of blog entries with that very headline. It's a lead that's not wholly accurate and is downright misleading.
To be accurate, the headline should read, "Violent felon granted clemency by Huckabee was charged five times with felony counts by authorities in Washington."
Why aren't we focusing on them to the same degree everyone is focusing on Huckabee? And clearly, some are focusing on Huckabee strictly for political reasons: They might be liberals just looking for a chance to take cheap shots at a conservative Republican, or they might be conservative Republicans who know he's the leading contender for the 2012 nomination and who would like to take him out of the race to open the door for Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin. You don't think that sort of thing is going on? Do they really care about Huckabee or the fallen police officers, or are they looking at this story and thinking, "How can I get something out of it?"
No, humans would never do something like that.
The Arkansas Parole Board recommended clemency --which is not the same thing as a pardon or even a release. Clemency is what Huckabee gave.
Shouldn't we also be asking where this fits into 10-year record? In the decade that Huckabee was governor, how many felons had their sentences commuted? One blogger at the Arkansas Press Democrat says more than a thousand felons received pardons, commutations or clemency from Governor Huckabee.
How many went on to live productive lives? How many did what Wayne DuMond did or what Maurice Clemmons is suspected of doing? When you can provide a full accounting --which no one has yet done, let alone considered-- then we can better assess Huckabee's judgment.
Please provide a single example of a sitting governor for over 3,650 days who hasn't made decisions worthy of second guessing.
This is not about defending Huckabee, supporting Huckabee or criticizing Huckabee. It's about jump too soon on a bandwagon without a complete historical record on which to draw thorough and reasoned conclusions. Once again, the internet, which can be a great tool for researching that historical record, gets used instead for snapshot judgments before all the facts are in.
Comments
Credibility is killed when you link any story line to Spitzer.
I think that was CNN that had him on, maybe because his governorship went down in flames for screwing up as badly as he did. In a larger context, I don't think that's a bad perspective to provide. He certainly knows what it's like to be destroyed by a scandal.
Did you really expect anything different from the Obama media corps.....
Huckabee definitely deserves to shoulder a good deal of the blame but even more so was a judge in Washington who released this piece of garbage on a 15,000 dollar bail for alledgedly raping a 12 year old girl. Given they had this guy's past record to look at in Arkansas and Washington, how in the hell does any judge allow a guy like that to walk on a rape charge against a 12 year old on a petty bail of 15 grand.
"Did you really expect anything different from the Obama media corps....."
Hey BONEhead... pay attention: Liberals AND conservatives are crucifying Huckabee.
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