It would be different if he was caught, tried, sentenced to prison or given probation on some of the crimes and he continued to offend.

Blake on November 30, 2009 at 7:32 PM

Please read the articles again. At the time of conviction, he was already serving a 45 year sentence for previous convictions relating to the same 7-month crime spree. The math adds up when you consider that the 100+ years he was sentenced to came from multiple convictions. Add into that his violent behavior during the trials and it shows a much different picture than the one some are trying to paint. This guy wasn’t convicted of just one bad thing at age 16 or 17. He was convicted of many bad things; and even after being caught and imprisoned, he continued this violent behavior.

All of this, coupled with the vehement protests of the prosecutors, should have indicated to any thinking person that this man was not fit for release.

Huckabee has always disgusted me. Clemency? Pardons for rapists? Mike can get all rapped up in his religious, feel-good nonsense, but his duty as governor was to protect people.

What is it with these guys? Do they ‘kinda-sorta-understand-see-why-they-did-it’? Ask the women who were raped. There is never, and I mean NEVER any reason to pardon someone who preys on those who cannot defend themselves. Rapists and pedophiles need to be locked away forever. They cannot be redeemed. Pardoning these animals may make guys like Huck feel better about himself, but it does society no good at all.

If a man cannot commit himself to protecting the women (and children) of our society, what kind of man is he? Not much of one in my estimation.

Huck for POTUS? NEVER. Absolutely disgusting.

Any man that may put his religious faith (or lack therof) before the protection of his fellow man should stick to being a scheming dreaming little man and off of ANY ballot WHATSOEVER!

Additionally he or she should slowly & carefully think PRIOR to voting on said ballot.

I have been more than a little annoyed at the claims of some Rockefeller Republicans and neocons that Sarah isn’t quite yet ready for prime time or, worse, not smart enough for the Presidency.

Watching Newt, Huck and Mitt crumble (Mitt hasn’t technically crumbled yet, but his proponents are going to have to explain his support for state health care to a health care savvy electorate (at least moreso than in 2008)) makes me wonder about who is not smart enough for the job.

Motto of the Nixon campaign. In 1960. In case 2008 didn’t prove it, I can name about a dozen contests where experience, intelligence and expertise just gave the candidate something boring to say.

We have Palin, DeMint, Bachmann, any of the Cheneys, Petraeus (I hope he changes his mind), and Perry. We’re fine.

Anyway, the sick thing about this ordeal is Huck’s judgement. He just pardons anyone who claims he or she converted to Christianity and has seen the light?

cubachi on November 30, 2009 at 5:24 PM

I have to disagree wholeheartedly.

We have Sarah Palin.

Jim DeMint is a Senator, ZERO executive experience. We don’t elect Senators as POTUS generally, for a reason that Barack Obama makes perfectly clear. It was 50 years between Obama and the last Senator. It will be another 50, with any luck. Besides, we need every patriot we have in Congress.

Michelle Bachmann has the same problem as DeMint. Like DeMint, she is awesome, but…..

Cheney ain’t happening, either one. Dick won’t run, and Liz has less experience than either Bachmann or DeMint.

And what is this obsession with General Petraeus? We don’t even know his politics. hell, he might be Barack Obama or more to the point, Collin Powell!

Rick Perry will most likely be Sarah’s pick for Vice President. I don’t have any inside info on this, just gut feeling, but they are close.

With that said, DeMint, Bachmann, or Liz Cheney could make decent picks as Veep.

In fact, a Palin/Bachmann ticket would be incredible. The base wouldn’t walk to the polls, they’d run!

So that leaves us with Sarah Palin and T-Paw, who is exciting as watching grass grow, and a RINO.

Actually, I hope more get in, as a good primary fight will be good for Sarah. Limber her ass up for the whoopin’ she is gonna put on Obama! It’ll give her a chance to show what she is made of.

O’Reilly better not go wet noodle on this interview.

My God, four police officers were slaughtered. Why.?

This is beyond disgusting. And there are over 1000 of them… more ticking bombs, for sure.

stenwin77 on November 30, 2009 at 6:11 PM

O’Reilly risks his own credibility here on his crusade against lenient judges, legislatures and state leaders in child sex cases if he softballs Huckabee here. This story is right up Bill’s alley — attacking the Washington State judge who released Clemmons on bond after the child rape charge before he murdered the officers.

But he really can’t do it unless he deals with why Clemmons was already on the street to rape the child in the first place, and that falls back on Huck’s original clemency decision nine years ago. Target one and not the other and it will just come across as playing favorites both with a Fox News co-worker and a high-profile Republican politician.

Blake on November 30, 2009 at 7:32 PM

Would you like him let loose in your neighborhood?

mrflibbleisvryx on November 30, 2009 at 6:15 PM

Thank you. What is relevant to the commutation is what he was charged, convicted, and sentenced on and his behavior in prison – not crimes he was alleged to have committed but never charged with.

From the Seattle Times: News accounts out of Arkansas offer a confusing — and, at times, conflicting — description of Clemmons’ criminal history and prison time.

Yes, he committed a number of crimes before he was caught. This is not unusual for juveniles. It would be different if he was caught, tried, sentenced to prison or given probation on some of the crimes and he continued to offend.

Juveniles also tend to commit the more serious crimes, i.e., burglaries because they are idiots. The aggravated robbery was based on him stating he had a gun even though the victim was aware that he didn’t have a gun. It’s a quirk in Arkansas law.

The sites you linked to all give conflicting information: He was sentenced to 108 years, it was reduced to 47 years which made him parole eligible, he was sentenced to 95 years, he would have served far less than the 95 years, etc.

Under Arkansas law, he would have had to serve 70% before he was parole eligible which is about 67 years which is not a lot less. On one of the cases he was sentenced to 35 years for a robbery and theft. On another 60 years. All I can verify is a couple of robberies, a series of burglaries, and possession of a gun. Regardless, at age 17 years, with no prior probation or term in prison, sentencing him to 95 years state prison is pretty damn harsh. I base this on the sentencing of other defendants for similar crimes. In other states and under the feds, they put a cap on it or limit it. You just don’t keep racking up the years because you can.

As far as him changing in prison, well, what else are they going to say? The issue is whether his prison record backed up his assertion.

Again, I a commutation after 10 years or 11 years (they haven’t gotten that straight either) is not outrageous while a 95 year or 108 year sentence is.

This would have been better handled if they had not screwed up when he violated parole and convicted him on the new offenses. It also would have been better handled if bail would have been set at a million or more, instead of a paltry sum like $150k and an ankle bracelet.

With all respect, I don’t see Beck, Hannity, et. al. supplying maneuver or candidates for 2010. The conservative base of Glen Beck, Governor Palin and the whole the tea party movement are not the best force with which to loosen the left’s chokehold in 2010. The tea partiers now have no candidates, are small in number and willingly run down the Republicans. And their very nature makes them easy for the media to ignore or slander. And former Governor Palin is a real asset but should concentrate on polishing her own image in prep for any action in 2012.

Then,on the other hand, we have a lack of fire. Again, with respect, I don’t think that the mantra of “We are better than those guys!” is enough for mainline Republicans at this time and they need to do more than march candidtes forward in 2010.

I have been looking for another Republican to (throw to the wolves for the 2010 elections) add to the list of frontrunners and I have been very impressed with Perino. To the remark that she is too closely tied to President Bush, I say: “So what?” The GOP better do some rehab of the “last eight years” or they are going to give the merry band of miscreants now in power a nice refuge from the mayhem going on today. Fight the Bush fight now and wear out the topic, I say. Staying on the military assault analogy, the term ‘isolate’ comes to mind. Make the Bush years hostile ground for the liberals. Limit the left to the period between 2008 and 2010.

To position another woman as a leading conservative would likely elicit the mad dog attacks of the media and may make a few more people think about the questionable objectivity, if not misogyny, of the elite left. She would also draw fire away from Governor Palin.

Moreover, she knows how the executive branch works. Even with no elected office experience, she showed the ability to read out The One on his handling the various players and issues in the Afghan conflict. She gave a good account of herself on Fox this last weekend and her commonsense approach was wonderful and bright among the spin generalities and talking points coming from Kirsten Powers and the rest. Hearing her recall the stoic and simple approach of her administration (in working with Karzai) was like a breath of fresh air and a shock back to reality for those of us who had become accustomed to the destructive self-flaggelation and the critical and nearly despotic treatment of allies which are the Modus Operandi of the present administration.

There is some urgency in the fact that the elections of 2010 are coming fast. The Dems will continue to run against Bush/Cheney to excuse any and all problems the nation may have in 2010. An attempt to defend that administration has to make some sense. Assuming it is defensible.

“Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler all of this might have been avoided.”

Sen Borah 1939

Yep!

I will never forget my best friends Dad was an FBI agent back in 69 when 2 agents were killed in DC. When he came home that night he just wanted a snack and then headed back out to search. He didnt want the DC cops to get the guy first. They might bring him in alive.

faol on November 30, 2009 at 6:59 PM

Your friend’s dad was right.

The reality is that there are some who serve society best by their absence. There. Did I say it politely enough?

They cannot be redeemed. No matter what anyone believes there are few, if any, who have gone down this path who will ever change. Pray as much as you want, but they won’t.

We have a situation in this country, thanks to liberal Dems, where we have a couple of generations of people who cannot conform to normal societal standards. It’s far more than just a few freaks.

So who will be protected? The everyday people? Or shall we just be like HUCK, the Liberal, and feel sorry for people who rape and murder the regular folks.

Yeah…. let’s follow precha brotha Huck. If ever there was a stupid, screwed up liberal masquerading as a conservative, it’s Huck. Hell, he doesn’t even qualify as a RINO.

My THANKS goes out to the Prosecutors who put the SOB in prison (where he belonged) in the first place.

My SCORN, OPPROBRIUM, CONTEMPT, and DISGUST goes out to anyone remotely involved in releasing this Bast@rd and ESPECIALLY to the GOVERNOR who signed the commutation!

To think there are, potentially, a thousand other ticking bombs he commuted or pardoned SICKENS ME!

portlandon on November 30, 2009 at 5:45 PM

I will never forget my best friends Dad was an FBI agent back in 69 when 2 agents were killed in DC. When he came home that night he just wanted a snack and then headed back out to search. He didnt want the DC cops to get the guy first. They might bring him in alive.

Huckabee has always disgusted me. Clemency? Pardons for rapists? Mike can get all rapped up in his religious, feel-good nonsense, but his duty as governor was to protect people.

What is it with these guys? Do they ‘kinda-sorta-understand-see-why-they-did-it’? Ask the women who were raped. There is never, and I mean NEVER any reason to pardon someone who preys on those who cannot defend themselves. Rapists and pedophiles need to be locked away forever. They cannot be redeemed. Pardoning these animals may make guys like Huck feel better about himself, but it does society no good at all.

If a man cannot commit himself to protecting the women (and children) of our society, what kind of man is he? Not much of one in my estimation.

Huck for POTUS? NEVER. Absolutely disgusting.

Cody1991 on November 30, 2009 at 5:56 PM

Right on.

This is beyond disgusting. And there are over 1000 of them… more ticking bombs, for sure.

stenwin77 on November 30, 2009 at 6:11 PM

I’m not sure what is worse, these people let out or Islamic cells in the USA plotting.

even for Huckabee who put his Christian VANITY above the lives of innocent people.

Sapwolf on November 30, 2009 at 6:36 PM

That’s precisely what it is about Huck that disgusts me. Can’t think of another word for it. He’s a puke. And he wraps it up with his happy face of being such a good, Christian guy. My a$$. He’s a phony.

I hope Kevin McCollough is reading this thread, because, Kevin, you are a fool for buying into the Huckaphony BS.

HornetSting on November 30, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Agreed, I don’t watch either. Although sometimes they show a repeat of Red Eye at midnight which as late as an old person like me can stay awake.

Cindy Munford on November 30, 2009 at 6:17 PM

Red Eye…always enjoyed with warm brownies and hot chocolate. :)