Sorry, Mike…

[Richard Allan Jenni]

Yes, Governor Mike Huckabee has proven himself as a glib and glamorous gabber on FNC- but something in my gut tells me he’s just as phony as Barry Obama. And sure enough, Huck is pretty slick at talking his way out of a tight spot- but we’ve had enough “smoke and mirror” rhetoric from Zero.

According to Judicial Watch’s 2007 “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians,”  “Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press, his career has been colored by 14 ethics complaints, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office. Rather than cooperate with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.”

And from a Politico article updated 23 November 2007, “The ethics commission fined Huckabee $1,000 for failing to report that he paid himself $14,000 from his 1992 US Senate campaign and $43,000 from his 1994 lieutenant governor’s campaign.”

In 2000 Governor Huckabee granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons- commuting a 95 year prison sentence. Maurice later raped a child- and on 29 November 2009 murdered four police officers in Lakewood, Washington. In ten years of governing Arkansas, soft-hearted Mike granted 1023 pardons and commutations- even favoring vicious murderers whom the good reverend thought were worthy of Christian redemption.

The Seattle Times on 29 November 2009: “Maurice Clemmons, the 37 year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health. Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.”

Wrote Huckabee in the Washington Post on 7 December 2009, “The nation was stunned by the senseless and savage cold-blooded murders of four young police officers in Lakewood, Washington, over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend… I commuted his sentence from 108 years to 47 years. I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago… Three months after the commutation, Clemmons met the criteria for parole and was paroled to supervision in late 2000...” (Clemmons died 1 December 2009 after being shot by a Seattle police officer during a confrontation.)

The redemptive consideration Huckabee gave murderers James Maxwell and Wayne Dumond has also drawn sharp criticism.

A series of well-documented articles by the Huffington Post states that Huckabee “aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman. Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee. While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee’s intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond’s behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended.”

Lois Davidson, the mother of one of Dumond’s victims, stated, “If not for Mike Huckabee, Wayne Dumond would have been in prison and Carol Sue would’ve been with us this year for Christmas.”

There’s also the issue of Huckabee presenting himself as Christian- while unfavorably calling attention to Christian Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion. From “Huck’s Unholy Dance” of 7  December 2007 from the Washington Post Writers Group: “Huckabee has exploited Romney’s Mormonism with an egregious subtlety. Huckabee is running a very effective ad in Iowa about religion. ‘Faith doesn’t just influence me,’ he says on camera, ‘it really defines me.’ The ad then hails him as a ‘Christian leader.’ Forget the implications of the idea that being a ‘Christian leader’ is some special qualification for the presidency of a country whose Constitution (Article VI) explicitly rejects any religious test for office. Just imagine that Huckabee were running one-on-one in Iowa against Joe Lieberman… The subtext- who’s the Christian in this race?- would have been too obvious to ignore, the appeal to bigotry too clear.”

I happen to be a Mormon- and have great respect for Mitt Romney. However, Allen West currently tops my list for 2012. Way down at the bottom of that list, just below Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, is Mike Huckabee. Sorry, Mike…

[Rich P]

Agreed, I think it is good that we are questioning th substance of our potential candidates. We need the right  person to run or I fear we will have gone so far in the wrong direction that we cannot any longer restore America .For me the test of he candidate I will support is their opinions on immigration, national sovereignty, true adherence to the principles of the Constitution and calling out fundamental Islam. Huckabee gets a "F" score on illegal immigration. Bush likewise refused to enforce illegal immigration on moral grounds. We need someone with more nationalist and less globalist aspirations. We won't get fooled again!!!!

[Darlene Littlejohn]

Thanks, Allen... you are no doubt right-on.  Makes me sad because I have liked Mike Huckabee a lot.  But, I won't allow the smoke and mirrors, so I just posted this on Facebook.

[Sandra]

Good read as usual; I have to say we sure do not need his kind as a president. Seems he hasn't any common sense either! Like you I think Allan West could do it and beat zero too. Huckabee, may even be worse than Newt G... We need a Constitutional person that is strong and can get us back on tack and away from this march to communism. Figuring out the RINOS may be hard for some and the globalist like Newt and others, some even say Sara Palin is one?