An Apology Now, Mike Huckabee?

November 29th is a tragic anniversary in American history. It was exactly one year ago today that four police officers in Lakewood, Washington were murdered in cold blood while they ate at a local coffee shop.

The killer, Maurice Clemmons should have been locked up for 108 years. Instead, then Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence after Clemmons served only 11 years in prison.

It seems Huckabee, a former Baptist Preacher, is a very forgiving man. He did this with at least 1,032 other prisoners. Apparently if you accepted Christ in your life, it was like a get out of jail free card in Arkansas when Huckabee was Governor.

I reread Huckabee's statement released the day after the slayings. I thought I might see an ounce of remorse, but there was none. This was the best he could come up with in an interview two days after the slayings with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, "I'm responsible for that, and it's not something I'm happy about at this particular moment."

Four family's lives were forever tragically changed, when they lost their husband, mother, father, brother, sister, son and daughter.

The Lakewood police department lost four of its family when Officers Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold, Gregory Richards, and Ronnie Owens were gunned down. The best that Governor Huckabee could come up with was that he was "not happy about it."

I wrote on this subject back in April also in the Huffington Post.

Governor Huckabee, as you consider running for President of the United States, I would hope that you would take this opportunity one year after these brutal murders to apologize to all the victims of this tragedy.

It takes a man of strong character to take responsibility for his actions.

 

Follow Fred Karger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fredkarger

Comments

[PennyCandy]

04:42 PM on 12/01/2010

You aren't being totally honest in your post. Yes, Clemmons was pardoned by Huckabee and after he was pardoned he appeared in court several more times - each the judges released Clemmons. So, the judges are responsible for letting this guy back on the street. Huckabee is already gaining momentum for 2012, its obvious, why else would you bother writing about him? Huckabe defeats Obama in every poll....

[Texanvoter]

03:29 PM on 11/29/2010

I thought it would be interesting to watch which 2012 political candidates would use this against Huckabee in their own quest for the Republican nomination. What a sad way to gain attention for your own candidacy Karger. Perhaps you missed all this:

The Maurice Clemmons Case: We Blamed the Wrong Arkansas Governor
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/10/the_maurice_clemmons_case_we_b.php

Four Errors in the War Against Huckabee
Huck's enemies ganged up on him for granting a killer clemency while ignoring the facts of the case.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/four-errors-in-the-war-against-huckabee/

Here is Huckabee talking about it with Jon Stewart:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-december-8-2009/exclusive---mike-huckabee-extended-interview-pt--2

Poor Form Karger!

[Hollywooddeed]

11:01 AM on 12/01/2010

The referenced opinion blogs and damage control by Mr. Huckabee don't count as much as facts.

[jaws810]

10:12 AM on 11/29/2010

There is no way for anyone to know the future, out of 1000+ commuted sentences, if 100 were sent back to jail, i believe that would be a decent record. With Huckabee's 1000+ he had 1 person that fit the requirements to be released but failed at living a productive life and eventually drastically escalated his criminal activity, and probably several more that were returned to jail for less publicized offenses, but overall he didn't do that bad.

Nobody's perfect, he did the best he could with what he knew at the time. Just like President Bush did with Katrina and President Obama did with gulf oil leak. They all made decisions that were what they thought were the best at the time, but if they look back after time has past they realize that it might have been better to do something differently but being in the same situation knowing what they knew at the time, they would have made the same decisions.

Huckabee is definitely sorry for what happened, but he has no reason to be sorry for his actions because at the time there was no reason to deny Clemmons' release.

[aznurse]

03:07 AM on 11/29/2010

My error, this is another fellow he released earlier.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html

[Tony Rothert]

01:55 AM on 11/29/2010

i don't think he should apologize for someone else's bad choices. if you do your best to figure out a 1,000 people who should be released early, some are going to fail to live up to the opportunity. this does not mean it was wrong to release early those who appeared to have been rehabilitated. trying to blame huckabee (for whom i have no love) feeds into the fear that causes presidents and governors to refrain from using the tools of mercy and forgiveness that are given to them constitutionally and had, until recently, been an important check on the system.

[aznurse]

02:58 AM on 11/29/2010

oh and I believe I read that many said he wouldn't be a good candidate for early release.

[IRatiocinate]

10:41 PM on 11/29/2010

"oh and I believe I read that many said" is hardly the kind of research that should back up an attack as serious as this.

[Akindra]

01:14 AM on 11/29/2010

wow the teabaggers and repubs would be going nuts if it was Obama who had pardoned this guy. But of course they will keep their mouths shut because none of them can ever accept the truth and fault.

[jaws810]

12:25 PM on 11/29/2010

No, personally I'd be glad if Obama pardoned Clemmens because that would mean he had some executive experience before becoming president, and I'd give him a pass as well. At least Huckabee made some tough decisions when he was in office, when Obama was in the Senate and a controversial bill came up for a vote he'd vote present so he didn't have to make a tough decision that might be unpopular, and he's been doing the same thing as president. He never shows any leadership ability, instead of letting congress fight over health care for a year he should have said here is what I want, make it happen, instead all he did was try to sell us whatever crap that came out of congress.

[mountaingal]

10:08 PM on 11/28/2010

It is puzzling how people who believe they are saved attain a degree of smugness and arrogance about their actions. I guess Huckabee's communication with God was faulty in this case and make him reconsider his ability to know God's will.

[customgreen]

09:35 PM on 11/28/2010

Politicians never say they are sorry, neither do cops.