Mike Huckabee’s comments this week stating that libertarianism is un-American signals the final Republican repudiation of Ronald Reagan, who said: “I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
Huckabee is right in stating that libertarianism is more of a threat to the GOP than liberalism, given that the GOP has become even more liberal in their use of government power to control our lives than the Democrats. Consider this: George Bush and his GOP Congress have presided over the fastest growth in federal spending since LBJ's Great Society. They created the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history (No Child Left Behind), the most expensive public-works program ever (the 2005 highway bill), and the largest new entitlement program (the prescription-drug benefit) since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. They launched an alleged “war on terror” that spent upwards of $3 trillion, killed 4,000 Americans, and brought us $4 a gallon gasoline. They trampled on states’ rights over issues such as assisted suicide and medical marijuana. They expanded the government's power to spy on Americans.
Huckabee fits right in with this crowd. According to the Club for Growth, while he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee increased state spending by 65%, increased the government workforce by 20%, raised taxes by 47%, and increased the state debt by $1 billion. He also had a strange penchant for releasing convicted murders and rapists from prison. During his tenure as governor, Huckabee issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined. Those states include Texas, which has more than 8 times the population of Arkansas.
If this is what passes for "conservatism" today, please count me out.
Showing posts with label Mike Huckabee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Huckabee. Show all posts
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Mike Huckabee, Savior and Chief?
We all know the story about Mike Huckabee pushing for the parole of Wayne Dumond, who was convicted of raping a teenager. Huckabee asked for a meeting with the Arkansas parole board, where he pressured them for Dumond's release. After Dumond was paroled, he raped and murdered two women. Of course, Huckabee denies any involvement in Dumond's release, but members of the parole board tell a different story.
What you might not know is that Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 years as governor of Arkansas. That's more than twice as many as his three predecessors, Bill Clinton, Frank White, and Jim Guy Tucker, did in the 17 years they served as governor. During his tenure as governor, Huckabee issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined. Those states include Texas, which has more than 8 times the population of Arkansas.
Several of the criminals Huckabee wanted to set free were convicted murderers. Glen Green is one such murderer that Huckabee wanted back on the streets.
In 1974 Glen Green kidnapped Helen Lynette Spencer on Little Rock Air Force Base, where he beat and kicked her as he tried to rape her. She managed to break loose, but he caught her and beat her with a pair of nunchucks. Then he then stuffed her into the trunk of his car. Green told investigators that he did rape her several hours later because when he found that her body was still warm. Then he put her in front of his car and ran over her several times. Finally, he dumped her body in the Twin Prairie Bayou.
In 2004, the Arkansas Board of Parole reviewed Green's clemency case and found it to be without merit. Huckabee rejected the parole board's findings and decided that he would grant clemency to Green. Fortunately, a huge public outcry forced Huckabee to backtrack on his decision.
If this was an isolated case, then maybe it could have been considered nothing more than a grave oversight. Unfortunately, this is just one of many incidences where Huckabee used dubious judgment when deciding whether to set violent criminals free.
Huckabee claims that his belief in Christian redemption was the motivating factor in his decisions to release brutal rapists and murderers from prison. If Christian compassion was really the motivating factor for Huckabee, perhaps he should have saved some of it for the victims and their families. Yet, Huckabee's office often didn't bother to contact them about his pardons, even though Arkansas law requires such notifications.
How does Christian redemption explain Huckabee's pardon of Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards for a traffic violation, after he met Richards at a concert? Who would even think about doing something as ridiculous as wasting time on a pardon for a traffic ticket that resulted in a $162 fine?
Perhaps a better explanation for Huckabee's orgy of pardons is that he was drunk with power. Huckabee was the potentate of a tiny, backwards state -- the same state that gave us the narcissistic Bill Clinton. The power to overturn the state's justice system with the stroke of a pen may have caused Huckabee's ego blow up larger than the Ron Paul blimp.
Just imagine how much power Mike Huckabee would have as President of the United States and what he might do with it.
What you might not know is that Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 years as governor of Arkansas. That's more than twice as many as his three predecessors, Bill Clinton, Frank White, and Jim Guy Tucker, did in the 17 years they served as governor. During his tenure as governor, Huckabee issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined. Those states include Texas, which has more than 8 times the population of Arkansas.
Several of the criminals Huckabee wanted to set free were convicted murderers. Glen Green is one such murderer that Huckabee wanted back on the streets.
In 1974 Glen Green kidnapped Helen Lynette Spencer on Little Rock Air Force Base, where he beat and kicked her as he tried to rape her. She managed to break loose, but he caught her and beat her with a pair of nunchucks. Then he then stuffed her into the trunk of his car. Green told investigators that he did rape her several hours later because when he found that her body was still warm. Then he put her in front of his car and ran over her several times. Finally, he dumped her body in the Twin Prairie Bayou.
In 2004, the Arkansas Board of Parole reviewed Green's clemency case and found it to be without merit. Huckabee rejected the parole board's findings and decided that he would grant clemency to Green. Fortunately, a huge public outcry forced Huckabee to backtrack on his decision.
If this was an isolated case, then maybe it could have been considered nothing more than a grave oversight. Unfortunately, this is just one of many incidences where Huckabee used dubious judgment when deciding whether to set violent criminals free.
Huckabee claims that his belief in Christian redemption was the motivating factor in his decisions to release brutal rapists and murderers from prison. If Christian compassion was really the motivating factor for Huckabee, perhaps he should have saved some of it for the victims and their families. Yet, Huckabee's office often didn't bother to contact them about his pardons, even though Arkansas law requires such notifications.
How does Christian redemption explain Huckabee's pardon of Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards for a traffic violation, after he met Richards at a concert? Who would even think about doing something as ridiculous as wasting time on a pardon for a traffic ticket that resulted in a $162 fine?
Perhaps a better explanation for Huckabee's orgy of pardons is that he was drunk with power. Huckabee was the potentate of a tiny, backwards state -- the same state that gave us the narcissistic Bill Clinton. The power to overturn the state's justice system with the stroke of a pen may have caused Huckabee's ego blow up larger than the Ron Paul blimp.
Just imagine how much power Mike Huckabee would have as President of the United States and what he might do with it.
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