In recent media coverage of the killings of four police officers in Washington, the tangential issue that has piqued my interest has been the oblique culpability of former presidential contender Mike Huckabee. Who knew that Southern Baptist preachers turned Republican governors of Arkansas were such soft-on-crime liberals? If there were any justice, Huckabee's political aspirations would have been the only casualty inside that coffee shop near Tacoma.
In this NYTimes story, this particular quote took my breath away:
Robert Herzfeld, then the prosecuting attorney of Saline County, wrote a letter to Governor Huckabee in January 2004, saying his policy on clemency was “fatally flawed” and suggesting that he should announce specific reasons for granting clemency. Mr. Huckabee’s chief aide on clemency wrote back: “The governor read your letter and laughed out loud. He wanted me to respond to you. I wish you success as you cut down on your caffeine consumption.”
Wait, what? I interpret this episode as evidence that Huckabee was an elected official who felt above explaining or justifying his official actions, which I find even more alarming than his poor judgment. The f*cking audacity! I realize that these were the words of an aide, rather than the clemency-happy governor himself, but a spokesperson cannot be so flippant without at least the tacit support of his or her boss. What I want now is for Nancy Grace to track down Gov. Huckabee's former chief aid on clemency, and bring him on her emotional rollercoaster of a show, along with the spouses and children of the four slain police officers, and ask the MF to read aloud from his old letter to the Saline County prosecutor. And then I want Nancy to book Mike Huckabee on her show for the next night, play a clip of that interaction between his former aide and the families of the victims, and follow up with questions about his plans for New Hampshire and Iowa in 2012.
Thus far, Gov. Suckabee's only public response (a statement from his PR team posted on his PAC's website) has been to characterize the situation as "the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State." If so, 50% of that failure happened on your watch. And clemency, more so than any executive power that I can think of, is a gubernatorial prerogative in which the buck stops right at your desk.
From such a believer in second chances and in the redemptive powers of repentance, still no signs of contrition. I, for one, am still awaiting a public apology. And at this point in time, I feel that nothing less than sackcloth, ashes, and self-flagellation will do.
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