Was Huckabee right to grant clemency to Maurice Clemmons, a young offender who grew up inside the criminal justice system, who really only needed someone to give him a second chance? Or was Huckabee too eager to release a violent man because that violent man said he had turned his life around and returned to his good Christian roots?
The facts make it clear: Clemmons, who was shot after killing four officers, didn't need a second chance--he needed to stay in jail. But is that enough to destroy Huckabee's political ambitions? After all, Huckabee had to make a tough decision here, and at the risk of endangering the community, he decided to see the potential good in Maurice Clemmons and give him that second chance.
Which would have been the case if not for these two letters. Without these two letters, the
attack by Conservatives would have seemed like yet another Litmus Test attack Conservatives have been in the habit of launching recently. But seeing these two letters,
one by an Arkansas Prosecutor asking Huckabee to re-evaluate his clemency procedures, and
the other back to the Prosecutor from Huckabee's office, I have to agree with the Free Republic crowd. This is not simply an attack on a Governor who now seems not Conservative enough. This is an attack on someone who should stick to what he knows: bass guitar.
