Jeff wrote:Huck's been here before:
l
One thousand thirty three times to be exact:
"A Minister’s job may be saving souls but a Governor’s responsibility is to protect lives and help make our mortal lives better. In the case of Huckabee’s commutations and paroles, he did neither and it takes a great deal of personal restraint for me to not state that the former Governor bears a certain amount of responsibility for the rapes and deaths of women and now the massacre of 4 policemen. To make such a claim may not be fair but life is not always fair. The fact is that had Mike Huckabee not been so quick to make clear that he hates the sins but loves the sinners, a few sinners may not have had the opportunity to kill and rape and continue in the life of crime that his inordinate number of commutations and parole recommendations afforded criminals."
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.actio ... 4697241980
Note: i make no claims for the above link--at first glanse, it looks RNC-frontish to me (the notice for the north-east young repub meet-up gave me a clue); it's the relevant one of only two things that came up on a google of "wayne dumond, huckabee, christian" and is offered at face-value, and FWIW. I was trying to track down a claim that Dumond's case was championed by a RW Christian talk-radio host for unknown reasons.
That said, i spent today entertaining the idea of a religious connection between Huck's pardon-happy days as Guv, and the psycho's his Christ-like personality/persona put back on the streets to such baleful effect. As a story, there may be as many as 1,031 more to tell. Yet, reading the accounts of Clemmon's behavior here (he was Jesus, the end was neigh) and elsewhere (letters to Huck from prison drolling with religious references while begging for a pardon) would seem to support the suspicion that once Huck's greater love for sinners than hatred of sin became known to the DoC population, a whole lot of inmates 'got right with Jesus' and intimate with the Lord--and (possibly) played the Huckster like a violin...1,033 times...
But then, it's not like magnaminous Mike needed inmates to be himself:
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000863.htm
"Here, then, are 10 More Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism:
11. Huckabee Vows to Take Nation Back for Christ
12. Huckabee Declares Culture War in 1998 Book
13. Huckabee Declares Women Should Graciously Submit to Their Husbands
14. Huckabee Predicts Victory over Islam at the End of Times
15. Huckabee Boasts About Theology Degree He Doesn't Have
16. Huckabee Destroys His State Computer Records - and Church Sermons
17. Huckabee Offers State Appointments in Exchange for Gifts
18. Huckabee Uses Wedding Registries to Furnish New Home
19. Huckabee Offers Clemency to Repeat DWI Offender (and GOP Donor)
20. Huckabee Intervenes to Save Dog-Killing Son from Legal Jeopardy"
on edit: more on Huck and his faith-based pardons:
"3. Huckabee Offers Faith-Based Pardons
As the AP reports, Governor Huckabee didn't merely intervene to help past and future felons for political purposes. Huckabee used his pardon power at an unprecedented rate (1,033 times over 10 ½ years, compared to 507 times over the 17 plus years of Bill Clinton, Frank White and Jim Guy Tucker). And as case after case shows, Huckabee was quick to offer clemency when his fellow ministers requested it.
The AP documented numerous cases of Huckabee's faith, friends and family plan for gubernatorial pardons:
Donald W. Clark, convicted of theft. Huckabee's pastor recommended leniency for Clark, whose stepmother worked on Huckabee's gubernatorial staff.
Robert A. Arnold Jr., who was convicted of killing his father-in-law. Arnold's father, a former mayor of Hope, Huckabee's hometown, said he was a casual friend of the governor.
A pastor who promoted Huckabee among blacks urged the governor to grant clemency to John Henry Claiborne, who was sentenced to 100 years for a 1994 armed robbery, according to a 2004 report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Huckabee made Claiborne eligible for parole after receiving a letter from the Rev. Charles Williams, who told the newspaper he had helped win "many, many" clemencies from Huckabee.
Whitewater figure David Hale, a government witness in the trial that forced Gov. Jim Guy Tucker's resignation and let Huckabee ascend to the office, was pardoned after being sentenced to 21 days in a state insurance case. Huckabee complained it would cost too much to hold him. The price tag: $1,200.
As prosecutor Robert Herzfeld said in 2004, "It seems to be true at least anecdotally that if a minister is involved, (Huckabee) seems likely to grant clemency."
