Big Nannies of the Year
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

It was a nefarious year for nettlesome nosy-bodies employed by the Nanny State. Here are the top power-grabbers of 2010 who just can’t leave us alone:

– New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Two feet of snow paralyzed trains, buses, plows and emergency vehicles in the Big Apple this week. Perhaps if Bloomberg — the nation’s top self-appointed municipal food cop — spent more of his time on core government duties instead of waging incessant war on taxpayers’ salt, soda, trans-fat and sugar intakes, his battered bailiwick would have been better equipped to weather the storm.

– Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He proposed meddling mileage taxes, mused about a system to track drivers’ routes, lobbied for high-speed rail boondoggles and promoted a “livability initiative” to limit suburban growth and force dwellers into public transportation. Then America’s driving czar floated a plan earlier this fall to disable cell phones through some kind of centralized government mechanism. LaHood backed off that creepy crusade, but he is still intent on waging war against drivers who choose to use cell phones, entertainment systems and GPS devices on the road. Just last week, the unstoppable control freak proposed a new rule banning truck and bus drivers from any use of cell phones while driving — including emergency calls on hands-free devices. His anti-car agenda is stuck in overdrive.

– The city of Cleveland. The green police in this Midwestern metropolis made headlines in February with an intrusive plan to roll out electronic snooping trash cans — “smart” rubbish bins bugged with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes to monitor residents’ recycling habits. Violators can be fined $100. Federal stimulus money has gone to fund similar programs in Dayton, Ohio. The technology originated in Germany, was adopted by eco-authoritarians in England (where at least 500,000 trash cans are now embedded with snitch chips) and has spread across Europe. Welcome to the age of Bin Brother.

– The city of San Francisco. The city board of supervisors recently took the “Happy” out of McDonald’s Happy Meals by banning all restaurants from serving toys with children’s meals that exceed arbitrary limits on calories, fat, salt and sugar. Even the mayor of the People’s Republic of San Francisco opposes the latest food-control scheme. But the bossy City by the Bay continues to assault consumer freedom with bans on everything from plastic bags to pet sales and soda pop. By executive order this summer, Mayor Gavin Newsom outlawed Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange drinks from vending machines on city property. The decree dictates that “ample choices” of water, “soy milk, rice milk and other similar dairy or non dairy milk” must instead be offered. It’s not clear how vendors will be able to circumvent the city’s hostility toward plastic bottles. Maybe beverages will be served straight out of those noxiously trendy reusable cloth bags?

– The architects of Obamacare. After ramming a trillion-dollar package of unconstitutional federal health mandates down our throats, they said children and seniors would be saved, we could keep our doctors, costs would go down, and the economy would be boosted. Reality: Premiums have continued to skyrocket. Insurers nationwide have dropped child-only plans in the individual market. Obamacare taxes forced the AARP to raise its members’ rates. Hospitals have stepped up layoffs and shutdowns. And millions of Americans have only been able to keep their doctors and coverage after their employers, unions or health providers begged the feds for special waivers. Heckuva job, health bureaucrats.

– First lady Michelle Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee. Mrs. Obama first played the anti-childhood obesity card in September 2009, as a rationale for using her office to crusade for taxpayer subsidies supporting her hometown Chicago’s failed Olympics bid. Her argument: Kids would stay fat, lazy and uninspired if the Daley machine didn’t get its share of massive sports corporate welfare.

Next came Mrs. O’s push for the $5 billion expansion of federal child nutrition programs. As I first reported in February 2010, the legislation was a pet project of the Service Employees International Union, which seeks to swell the ranks of dawn-to-dusk year-round public school food service workers who organize under the progressive activist slogan “serving justice, and serving lunch.” In addition to school breakfast and lunch, the kiddie food patrol is now pushing subsidized dinner plans and summer food service to create a “stronger nutrition safety net.”

Nanny State Republican Mike Huckabee, who used his bully pulpit position as Arkansas governor to campaign for Big Government-endorsed “healthier living” in public schools and private life, naturally sided with Mrs. Obama — and took a swipe at Sarah Palin last week for criticizing the White House usurpation of parental responsibility and rights. Huckabee scoffed at the idea that the feds are “trying to force the government’s desires on people.” But school bake sales are already under siege, and Mrs. Obama’s childhood obesity task force has already called for new and dramatic controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods. Did Huckabee miss (or does he agree with) Mrs. Obama’s officious rallying cry on child nutrition: “We can’t just leave it up to parents”?

God save us from more busybody bipartisanship in 2011.

***

The war on cops
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

Faces of the fallen: Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; Gregory Richards, 42.

The Left’s police-hating chickens are coming home to roost. While partisan liberals have gone out of their way to blame conservative media and the Tea Party movement for creating a “climate of hate,” they are silent on the cultural and literal war on cops that has raged for decades – and escalated tragically this year.

The total number of law enforcement officers shot and killed this year is up 19 percent over last year, according to the Christian Science Monitor. More officers have died in ambush incidents this year than any other since 2000. The Lakewood, Washington massacre on Thanksgiving weekend claimed the lives of four dedicated officers getting ready for work at a coffee shop Sunday morning. Maurice Clemmons – the violent career thug who received clemency from former Arkansas GOP governor Mike Huckabee and benefited from fatal systemic lapses in the criminal justice system – had many other enablers.

Clemmons had told numerous friends and family members to “watch the TV” before the massacre because he was going to “kill a bunch of cops.” The witnesses did worse than nothing. Several have been arrested for actively aiding and abetting Clemmons – with shelter, food, money, and medical aid — before he was discovered in Seattle early Tuesday morning and shot after threatening a patrol officer investigating Clemmons’ stolen vehicle.

A militant online group called the National Black Foot Soldier Network celebrated Clemmons as a “Crowned BOW (Black on White) Martyr” and dubbed the Lakewood ambush a “preemptive strike on terrorists.” It wasn’t the only chilling propaganda cheering black-on-white police murders in the Pacific Northwest this year.

Just three weeks before the Lakewood, Wa., massacre, the region endured another police attack. Suspect Christopher Monfort was arrested last month in the targeted shooting death of Seattle Police Department Officer Timothy Brenton and the wounding of his partner Britt Sweeney. Monfort had written diatribes against law enforcement harping against white policemen.

The leader of a Seattle hip-hop/punk band commemorated the assassination with a t-shirt depicting Monfort’s face splattered with blood and overlaid with a Seattle Police Department badge under the slogan “Deliver Us From Evil.” The other side of the shirt read “most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamp.”

From where does the deadened and deadly callousness toward the thin blue line come?

How about years of cop-bashing rap from NWA’s “F**k tha Police” and Ice-T’s “Cop Killa” to Dead Prez’s “Police State” (“I throw Molotov cocktails at the precinct”) and The Game’s “911 is a Joke” (I ought to shoot fifty one officers for the fifty one times that boy was shot in New York”)?

Try the glamorization of poisonous anti-police domestic terrorist groups like the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. Add in the mainstreaming of anti-police demagogues Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (whose ex-wife and daughter were arrested last week after verbally abusing a Harlem cop and resisting arrest after running a red light). And toss in the global glorification of Death Row cop-killers Stanley “Tookie” Williams and Mumia abu Jamal by the Hollywood elite.

It is, in my mind, no coincidence that another of 2009’s bloodiest multiple-police shootings took place in Oakland – a hotbed of black nationalism/Free Mumia radicalism that gave us the likes of Angela Davis, Huey Newton, and Obama green jobs czar-turned-liberal think tank fellow Van Jones (whose “creative” activism and “energy” in the Bay Area won senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett’s heart). Four Oakland officers went down and one was injured when a convicted felon ambushed them during a routine traffic stop. Nearly 20,000 law enforcement officers and supporters from around the country filled a memorial event for the fallen.

President Obama — Chicago pal of police-targeting Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and the convener of the national beer summit to indulge his race-baiting, police-bashing Harvard professor friend Henry Louis Gates — did not attend the service.

Scroll for updates…SWAT team reportedly surrounded a Clemmons family home late Sunday…KIRO TV in Seattle has details…Reward for information leading to arrest now up to $120,000…4:15am Eastern 11/30…hostage negotiator on loudspeaker attempting to communicate with Clemmons…Twitter hashtag for latest breaking developments: #lakeshoot…Live Seattle police scanner stream via KOMO here…4:37am Eastern…residents reporting hearing flashbangs…Officer’s message to Clemmons: “I can tell you this, we are not going away”…11:20am Eastern…Clemmons NOT found in home surrounded by police; area college students, workers warned…12:51pm Eastern. Latest report says Clemmons was seen getting off a metro bus on the UW campus…Beacon Hill park now being searched…Lakewood PD chief scheduled to hold news conference…livestream here…Chief Brett Farrar near tears, says talking to victims’ families was “hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and I hope I never have to do it again”…says he and his fellow police officers “will be there to do our jobs for the citizens of Lakewood”…On police scanner, SPD still searching for fugitive Clemmons…

Huckabee’s Willie Horton II?

A deadly ambush at a coffee shop near Tacoma, Washington on Sunday morning left four police officers dead. A vigil attended by an estimated 700 mourners and well-wishers was held Sunday night for the fallen at Champion’s Center church in Tacoma. Read about the lives, loves, and dedication to service of the fallen officers here.

The Lakewood Police Independent Guild profiles their fallen colleagues here Officer Griswold was a passionate Tea Party activist. Officer Richards was a drummer. They were parents working hard for their kids’ future and dedicated officers protecting and serving:

Tina was our conservative friend. She was excited to be a part of the Olympia Tea Parties and proudly stated why she got involved in politics over the past year. Tina was sharp too, only a couple mornings ago we had a great discussion on the future of our Republic and how we felt true limited government conservatives should take back out political party. If you wanted any details over the massive government spending she would have them for you. If anyone thinks these comments are off color then you did not know Tina well. She would tell you where you could go and like Mark you always knew where you stood with her. She was the toughest little cop I have ever known. Tina has two children and a husband who loves her deeply. My gut hurts that I missed your Halloween party this year. Your memory and strength will help guide our movement to retake our party, this I promise you.

Greg Richards was the drummer in a rock band you would never know was a drummer in a rock band. Greg was a great cop who cared about one thing above all else, his family. He was a proud dad to three kids and wanted nothing more than to spend all of his time off with his wife and kids. Greg and I spent some one on one time together recently at an overtime assignment where he talked mostly about his family, he was obviously so proud. I will always remember this summer when you and your band rocked the house for our member with all proceeds going to charity when he was in the hospital. Yantzerpaloza will take on new meaning for us in the coming years. For someone who does not have much hair, you helped me put it down for a night.

As our Department weeps we know our brothers and sisters are in a place where people don’t come in a calm place and take your life because of the shield you wear or the basic oath we took. This will never make sense to us, it can’t. There will never be an explanation that works that will heal us. We can simply hope to take this senseless act of evil and turn it around to motivate our other officers, elected officials, and our entire community to keep make sure these parolees stay in prison and our communities stay safe.

Officer Tina Griswold’s sister pays tribute.

The man being sought by police was granted clemency by former GOP Arkansas Mike Huckabee despite his violent history and vehement protestations from prosecutors and victims’ family members.

He was most recently in jail for alleged second-degree rape of a child.

This isn’t Huckabee’s first Horton moment, as I’ll remind you in a moment.

Keep the officers and their loved ones in your prayers tonight. The monstrous details, via the Seattle Times.

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.

“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.

Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.

Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

He was released from custody just six days ago, even though he was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and was staring at eight felony charges in all out of Washington state.

Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons’ release on the pending child-rape charge.

Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he has run a landscaping and power-washing business out of his house, according to a police interview with his wife earlier this year.

He was married, but the relationship was tumultuous, with accounts of his unpredictable behavior leading to at least two confrontations with police earlier this year.

During the confrontation in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff’s deputy in the face, according to court records. As part of that incident, he was charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.

In another instance, Clemmons was accused of gathering his wife and young relatives around at 3 or 4 in the morning and having them all undress.

A chilling flashback to 2004 from the Arkansas Leader:

Several prosecutors around the state are upset with Gov. Huckabee for grant- ing clemency to violent criminals, but he is blaming the prosecutors for often not seeking the maximum penalty and keeping felons locked up longer.

Until now, Huckabee has refused to comment on his controversial policy of making violent prisoners eligible for parole– they include murderers, armed robbers and rapists, who often return to a life of crime after they’re freed – but in a statement to The Leader this week, he lashed out at prosecutors for not doing more to keep prisoners behind bars – to which Pulaski County Prosecuting Attor-ney

Larry Jegley had this response: “That’s a load of baloney.”

“I’m offended as a prosecutor and as a citizen. He can blame the prosecutors, but ultimately he’s the man responsible,” Jegley says. “He’s the only one who can sign on the dotted line.

…_ In addition, Jegley, Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Herzfeld and others have accused Huckabee of violating the state Constitution when he commutes sentences without explanation. The Constitution requires the governor to give reasons why he grants clemency to criminals.

“He doesn’t do it,” insists Herzfeld, who recently had a clemency overturned because Huckabee did not explain why he commuted a murderer’s life sentence.

…

Jegley cites numerous examples of Huckabee’s freeing felons who go on committing more crimes and wind up back in prison.

Maurice Clemmons received a 35-year sentence in the early 1990s for armed robbery and theft. His sentence was commuted in May 2000, and he was let out three months later.

The following March, Clemmons committed two armed robberies and other crimes and was sentenced to 10 years. You’d think they’d keep him locked up after that, but no: He was paroled last March and is now wanted for aggravated robbery.

If Huckabee decides to set these criminals free, Jegley says, at least “he ought to give an accounting. I can’t imagine why in the world they’d want them released from jail. There’s a good reason we’re afraid of them. The sad truth is that a significant number of people re-offend.”

The victims’ families, Jegley says, “deserve an explanation. I look into people’s eyes who’ve suffered the unspeakable. I believe they deserve justice.

Via the Arkansas Times blog, here’s a 1998 court document from Arkansas detailing some of Clemmons’ criminal history and courtroom threats — including hiding a hinge in his sock that he intended to use as a weapon against a judge and extracting a lock from a jail cell that he threw at his mother during court proceedings:

The circuit court made its foregoing findings and decision to grant postconviction relief based on pretrial events that occurred at Clemmons’s burglary and theft trial held before Judge Floyd Lofton. Clemmons’s defense counsel, Llewellyn J. Marczuk, testifying at the postconviction hearing, related that, at the earlier trial, a security guard had reported to Judge Lofton that Clemmons had taken a hinge from one of the courtroom doors, hid it in his sock, and intended to use it as a weapon. The hinge was found and taken from him before he harmed anyone. In another incident, Clemmons extracted a lock from a holding cell, and he later threw the lock which hit his mother. During this second episode, Clemmons purportedly threatened Judge Lofton. In a third incident, Clemmons reportedly reached for a guard’s pistol during his transportation to the courtroom. Based on these occurrences, Judge Lofton placed Clemmons in leg irons and seated a uniformed officer near him during trial. This court upheld Judge Lofton’s remedial actions in Clemmons. 303 Ark. at 267-269, 795 S.W.2d at 928-929.

This disaster is just one of Huckabee’s ill-considered clemency legacies.

Remember Wayne Dumond?

Again, via the Arkansas Times circa 2005 — a closer look at how Huckabee tried to evade responsibility for setting a convicted rapist free…only to rape again:

Editor’s note, Sept. 1, 2005: Wayne Dumond, convicted of rape in Arkansas and murder in Missouri, died of apparent natural causes in prison Tuesday.

The occasion prompts us to republish Murray Waas’ prize-winning article for the Arkansas Times in 2002 about the extraordinary steps Gov. Mike Huckabee took to help win Dumond’s freedom. He has since blamed others for Dumond’s release to kill again, but his actions over many years demonstrated his support for Dumond and, ultimately, the instrumental role he played in the parole board’s decision to free him.

…New sources, including an advisor to Gov. Mike Huckabee, have told the Arkansas Times that Huckabee and a senior member of his staff exerted behind-the-scenes influence to bring about the parole of rapist Wayne Dumond, who Missouri authorities say raped and killed a woman there shortly after his parole.

Huckabee has denied a role in Dumond’s release, which has become an issue in his race for re-election against Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher. Fisher says Huckabee’s advocacy of Dumond’s freedom, plus other acts of executive clemency, exhibit poor judgment. In response, Huckabee has shifted responsibility for Dumond’s release to others, claiming former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker made Dumond eligible for parole and saying the Post Prison Transfer Board made the decision on its own to free Dumond.

But the Times’ new reporting shows the extent to which Huckabee and a key aide were involved in the process to win Dumond’s release. It was a process marked by deviation from accepted parole practice and direct personal lobbying by the governor, in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board (the informal name by which the Post Prison Transfer Board is known).

After Huckabee told the board, in executive session, that he believed Dumond got a “raw deal,” according to a board member who was there, and supported his release, board chairman Leroy Brownlee personally paved the way for Dumond’s release, according to board records and former members. During that time — from December 1996 to January 1997 — Brownlee regularly consulted with Butch Reeves, the governor’s prison liaison, on the status of his efforts, two state officials have told the Times.

…• Dumond was transferred to the Tucker unit in December 1996, after his request for rehearing. Had he stayed at Varner, he could not have been scheduled for a new hearing before Jan. 20, 1997, Huckabee’s deadline to act on his announcement that he was considering commuting Dumond’s sentence. His transfer — which the Department of Corrections has explained in conflicting ways — allowed him to get on the Tucker hearing schedule, which let the board parole Dumond before Huckabee’s deadline — and thus take the heat for his release.

When the board paroled Dumond in January 1997, he had been in prison since 1985 for the rape of Ashley Stevens, a Forrest City high school student. The board made Dumond’s parole conditional upon his moving out of state, but initially authorities in Florida, Texas, and other states declined to allow him to move there. Dumond was finally released in October 1999, when he moved to DeWitt to live with his stepmother.

In August 2000, Dumond moved to Smithville, Mo., a rural community outside Kansas City. He had married a woman from the community who was active in a church group that had visited Dumond in prison and believed him to be innocent.

Only six weeks after Dumond moved to Missouri, Carol Sue Shields, of Parkville, Mo., was found murdered in a friend’s home. She had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.

In late June 2001, Missouri authorities charged Dumond with the first-degree murder of Shields. The Clay County, Mo., prosecutor’s office asserted that skin found under Shield’s fingernails, the result of an apparent struggle with her murderer, contained DNA that matched Dumond’s.

Missouri authorities also say that Dumond is the leading suspect in the rape and murder of a second woman, Sara Andrasek, of Platte County, Mo., though he has not yet been charged with that crime.

Andrasek was 23. Like Shields, Andrasek had her brassiere cut from her body; Dumond cut Stevens’ bra off before he raped her.

“It’s as if he wanted to leave us his calling card,” a Missouri law enforcement officer said.

***

The Other McCain has details on how to contribute to the slain officers’ memorial fund.

The Lakewood massacre comes on the heels of another fatal police officer shooting in the Pacific Northwest:

The shock, anger and heartbreak unleashed by the shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers on Sunday came less than a month after the execution of a Seattle police officer.

Police say the suspect in the previous shooting wanted to kill as many members of law enforcement as possible.

It was a Halloween night ambush. Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton and Officer Britt Sweeney were sitting in a patrol car following a traffic stop when a car pulled up next to the cruiser and opened fire.

Brenton died instantly. Sweeney was injured, but survived.

The key clue came from a dashboard camera, which yielded a grainy photo of a Datsun 210.

The crime scene became a place for people to grieve, comfort each other and remember a man known as a dedicated police officer, a husband and a father of two children.

On Nov. 6, as thousands gathered at Key Arena for an emotional tribute to Brenton, police converged on a Tukwila apartment complex where the sought Datsun was found under a tarp in the parking lot.

Police confronted suspected gunman, 41-year-old Christopher Monfort. When he tried to open fire, police said they shot and wounded him.

Inside Monfort’s apartment, police found guns, bombs, booby traps and ammunition.

“His arsenal of weapons suggested both that he was ready to continue his attacks, and that he was preparing to make a final armed stand should he be discovered,” said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

***

Huck PAC posts a statement on the Lakewood PD massacre (h/t Allahpundit). Note the passive language and blame-shifting to prosecutors with no explicit mention of Huckabee’s role in granting clemency over the objections of prosecutors:

…Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, making him parole eligible and was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state.

Update: Seattle Times reported late Sunday night that a home tied to the Clemmons’ family had been surrounded by SWAT and law enforcement.

Update: 11:20am Eastern. Dear Lord. Clemmons is NOT in the home. Area college students and workers, residents, have been warned.

Update 2:00pm Eastern. The Seattle Times has Clemmons’ clemency docs, which detail how he played the Christian card to win his commutation.

Update 3:56pm Eastern.New thread on police search here.

Make sure you watch the video flashback on Huckabee and clemency via Allahpundit. Devastating.

And a few more background links to brush up on before Huckabee’s Fox News appearance tonight:

December 2007…

Prosecutors say Huckabee was more inclined to release or reduce the sentences of prisoners if he had direct contact with them or was lobbied by those close to him.

Some inmates who benefited from some sort of personal connection:

—James Maxwell, who killed a pastor of the Church of God in Arkansas. Maxwell worked at the Governor’s Mansion when Huckabee announced his intent to reduce his prison sentence.

—Samuel W. Taylor, convicted on a drug charge. A prosecutor said the man had told him Taylor’s sister had gone to school with Huckabee. Huckabee said the sister didn’t influence the decision. Taylor subsequently was arrested on another drug charge.

—Donald W. Clark, convicted of theft. Huckabee’s pastor recommended leniency for Clark, whose stepmother worked on Huckabee’s gubernatorial staff.

—Robert A. Arnold Jr., who was convicted of killing his father-in-law. Arnold’s father, a former mayor of Hope, Huckabee’s hometown, said he was a casual friend of the governor.

—A pastor who promoted Huckabee among blacks urged the governor to grant clemency to John Henry Claiborne, who was sentenced to 100 years for a 1994 armed robbery, according to a 2004 report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Huckabee made Claiborne eligible for parole after receiving a letter from the Rev. Charles Williams, who told the newspaper he had helped win “many, many” clemencies from Huckabee.

—Denver Witham, convicted of beating a man to death with a lead pipe at bar, had his sentence commuted by Huckabee. The action drew the ire of prosecutors who speculated that Huckabee’s act of clemency was related to Witham, who was lead singer in a prison band, being a fellow musician.

Huckabee has repeatedly faced criticism from prosecutors over his clemency policies. And in 2002, Ashley Stevens, the 1984 rape victim, joined Angela McCoy, the daughter of the Rev. Billy Price Bennett who was shot to death in 1979 by James Maxwell, to campaign against Huckabee’s re-election.

“I just thought that the power of executive clemency was being exercised on the wrong folks,” said Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley, a Democrat who also campaigned against Huckabee.

As for DuMond, the convicted rapist initially was sentenced to life plus 20 years for his conviction in the 1984 rape of Stevens when she was a teenager, but Tucker reduced the sentence to 39 1/2 years, making DuMond eligible for parole.

While Huckabee told reporters last week that DuMond’s file was waiting for him when he took office, his interest in the case started two years earlier after he met with DuMond’s wife, Dusty. When he took office, she contacted Huckabee again. “He said if he was ever in a position to look into it he would try to remember it,” said Dusty DuMond in a 1996 interview with The Associated Press.

Stevens met with Huckabee and his staff in 1996 to discuss his intent to grant clemency.

“I could tell he had already made up his mind,” Stevens told the AP last week.

Huckabee argues that it was Tucker’s decision to reduce DuMond’s sentence that made him eligible for parole, and he maintains he had little — if any — role in his release. Still, Huckabee had publicly questioned DuMond’s guilt and met privately with the state parole board.

And from the invaluable Arkansas Leader circa 2004:

If you’re wondering how Gov. Huckabee’s hundreds of clemencies compare with neighboring states, get ready for a shocker. Huckabee leads the pack. He has issued more commutations and pardons than all of the six neighboring states combined.

Governors seldom reduce sentences in other states – and almost never for murderers serving life without parole or for rapists or for habitual drunk drivers, while in Arkansas it’s a regular habit with Huckabee.

Other governors use their clemency power only rarely, while Huckabee has made it routine. As we’ve told you before, he has issued more than 700 pardons and commutations during his eight years in office – more than 137 this year alone – and more than his three predecessors combined.

Here are the figures for neighboring states since 1996, when Huckabee took office (and keep in mind the population of these states is nearly 20 times ours):

___ >> Louisiana – 213.
___ >> Mississippi – 24.
___ >> Missouri – 79.
___ >> Oklahoma – 178.
___ >> Tennessee – 32.
___ >> Texas – 98 (in-cludes 36 inmates released because they were convicted on drug charges with planted evidence).

Total: 624 vs. Huckabee’s 703.

Governors in neighboring states almost never grant killers clemency, while Huckabee has commuted the sentences of a dozen murderers.

***

Update 11/30 8:42pm Eastern. Huckabee got softball treatment on O’Reilly. He blamed other prosecutors and judges while downplaying his ill-considered judgment. There was no discussion of Huck’s long, controversial record on mass clemencies that resulted in more innocent victims of brutal crimes. And O’Reilly unbelievably praised Huckabee for his openness in explaning clemency decisions — which should cause the entire state of Arkansas to shake in derisive laughter and revulsion given the former GOP governor’s stubborn refusal to explain his decisions until forced to so by a massive public backlash.

You can watch the brief interview here.

Missing: Any mention of the blood-boiling Wayne Dumond clemency, the statistics cited above on Huck’s reckless clemency mania, and Huck’s direct role in granting clemencies when lobbied by pastor friends who knew which buttons to push.

Update 12/1 8am Eastern. Clemmons is dead. Family members who aided and abetted him may likely be charged. His enablers, as we have seen, are many.

Bye-bye, VP slot.

Huckabee for VP? That’s the buzz.

It’s the GOP immigration drag queen ticket!

La Raza/The Race gives it two thumbs up.

Read and weep:

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and defeated contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is currently at the top of John McCain’s short list for a running mate. At least that’s the word from a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain’s inner circle.

All they need is sanctuary-friendly Rudy Giuliani as DHS Secretary, and the open-borders dream nightmare team will be complete.

Can someone please fast-forward to 2012? Please.

Ladies and gentlemen, I called John McCain several minutes ago…he’s achieved the 1,191 delegates for the nomination. I extended my commitment to him…Sen. McCain has run an honorable campaign because he is an honorable man.

Pats himself on the back (again) for running his honorable campaign….turn to a united party. Thanks his wife. She’s very emotional. Thanks his staff. “Fought the good fight and kept the faith.” That for me has been the most important of all. I’d rather lose the election than lose the principles that got me here in the first place.” Quotes prophet Isaiah:

“Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were dug.”

…It’s time to hit the reset button. We’re not going away completely…

Now, he’s going to go home and work on that VP slot.

And one more thing: DLTDHYOTWO.

***

10:06pm Eastern. Rove on Huck as VP– thumbs down. “It doubles your trouble.”

Next stop: Senate? Allah’s got the speech vid.

The polls have just closed in Va. It’s “too close to call” in the GOP race in Va. Here’s the official Va.results page.

Black turnout in Md. may be at a record high today despite bad weather. Early exit poll data here. Take it with a sizable grain of salt, of course.

FYI, Fox just called Va. for Obama.

In D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty–an overly fervent Obama supporter, flirts with electioneering violations.

Maybe someone should tell him to, you know, “calm down.”

***

Fox is touting early exit polls results showing conservatives–particularly talk radio listeners–rejecting McCain.

If that holds, how will all the talk radio-bashers explain it away? Talk radio is supposed to be dead and talk hosts are supposed to be powerless. Right?

Update 7:32pm Eastern. CNN says it’s currently 49-44 Huckabee over McCain in Va.

AP’s prelim exit poll data:

Nearly seven in 10 voters in Virginia’s Republican primary called themselves conservatives. Mike Huckabee won half of their votes, including two-thirds of those who called themselves “very conservative.” Four in 10 Virginia Republican voters were born-again evangelical Christians, and they strongly supported Huckabee over John McCain. Huckabee won the votes of two-thirds of those who said they were looking for a candidate who shared their values. McCain won the votes of two-thirds of moderates and almost half of those who called themselves “somewhat conservative.”

Voters who said they listened to conservative talk radio were more likely to vote for Huckabee, while non-listeners tended to support McCain. The more often people listened to conservative talk radio, the less likely they were to vote for McCain.

Update 8:21pm Eastern.

Update 8:33pm Eastern. Fox and then CNN both call the Va. race for McCain.

Love the subliminal message here from this Reuters photo…

Update 9:15pm Eastern. Hillary’s speaking in El Paso, lambasting greedy mortgage companies, as usual.

Not that the, uh, GOP nominee would be saying anything different about the subprime debacle…now bashing oil companies…”Let’s create our own energy! We have the sun! We have the wind!”

Jeff Quinton continues to blog the Md. primary.

Update 9:44pm Eastern. Obama exults in his Potomac primary. It’s all about, yep, CHANGE.

“Tonight, we’re on our way…It takes more than one night, or even one election, to overcome money and the influence, bitter partisanship, petty bickering, that shut you out…the cynics can no longer say that are hope is false…we’ve won north and south, east and west, across the country…we have given young people a reason to believe and we have brought the young at heart back to the polls who wanna believe again…”

Obama thanks Republicans who support him and says thank you.

Obama honors McCain’s service, but not his agenda. Says Bush won’t be the ballot (loudest applause). Says “his cousin Dick Cheney” won’t be on the ballot (laughter). “I opposed this war from the start.” (Huge applause.) Mentions McCain’s comment that we might be in Iraq for 100 years (boos).

Some people will say I have my head in the clouds…that I have false hope…that I’m a ‘hope-monger’…I should not be here today. I was not born into money or status. I was born to a teenage mom in Hawaii. My father left us when I was 2. But my family gave me love, education, and most of all, hope…Hope is not blind optimism. Hope is not ignorance of the barriers and challenges that stand between you and your dreams. I know how hard it will be to change America…if it was easy, it would have already been done…Obama bashes Exxon Mobil…

Update 10:07pm Eastern. McCain’s reading from the teleprompter. It’s a new speech and he is not very comfortable reading it. He’s got this weird, sing-song-y delivery that doesn’t match the seriousness of his scripted message.

“The American people don’t send us to Washington to serve our self-interest, but to serve theirs.”

It’s a variation on the “patriotism not profit” theme.

“We’re the makers of history, not its victims.” (Loud applause and chants.)

Stealing Obama’s thunder: “Hope is a powerful thing.” References his days in captivity. “My hope for my country resides in my faith in America’s character.” Assails empty rhetoric of hope as a “platitude.”

He’s right, of course.

But if he plans on beating Obama in the general election, he better work on his delivery.

Sidenote: Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist is up on stage with the other McCainiacs. He is still very, very orange. Oompa-loompa orange.

Update 10:24pm Eastern. Huck refuses to go.

Fox News has learned that the Huckabee campaign has called for a “full investigation” into the Washington State Caucus results, and are sending campaign lawyers to the state to help in that pursuit. Ed Rollins, Huckabee campaign chairman, directly challenged Washington State GOP Chairman Luke Essers move in anounncing that John McCain had won the tight race with only 87.2 percent of the votes counted.

“The chairman showed very bad judgment in stopping the voting last night when announcing John McCain had won, when there was less that a 200 vote margin between the two candidates,” Rollins told Fox in an exclusive interview.” You never announce a vote, in my 40 years of politics I have never know anybody to announce a vote count before the vote is counted.”

McCain led with 26 percent of the delegates to Huck’s 24 percent.

If something fishy happened, it should be exposed.

I will add this, though: Imagine if it were Romney challenging the Wash. results and continuing to press on with his campaign instead of Huck.

Can you imagine the recriminations and ad hominem attacks that would come his way for refusing to step down and fall in line and “close ranks?”

Yet, none of that has been directed at McCain’s good friend, Huckabee, who’s playing hardball and amassing his power base for the future.

Interesting dynamics at play here, no?

Update 11:25pm Eastern. In response to my Huckabee-McCain PDA Alerts, commenter BlameAmericaLast renames the Huckster: Suckupabee.

It fits.

Update 10:37pm Eastern. This debate is over. It never began. I give it a D for dull. Dud. Dumb. Droning. Devoid.

No, wait. A D is too generous.

I give it a Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Romney scored in his answers on Iraq and defense of his campaign spending. And his quip on Billary: “I frankly can’t wait because the idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can’t imagine.”

Rudy lost because he failed to demonstrate the magnetic, head-turning charisma of a front-runner. He had the hang-dog, laid-back presence of a guy on his way out.

McCain managed not to snarl or curse at anyone. He won because he got away without having to answer a single question about immigration.

Huck left a puddle of drool at McCain’s feet.

Paul squeezed in his Down With Empire talking points.

Conservative voters in Florida are the big losers. This debate gave them nothing.

Video highlights, what little there were, are up at Hot Air.

Michael Graham wants his 90 minutes back. Seriously. I could have been crocheting.

Update 10:36pm Eastern. Ron Paul: “The Republican Party has a problem because we don’t act like Republicans.” I agree with what he’s saying…until he starts foaming at the mouth about empire.

Update 10:29pm Eastern. Williams quotes NYTimes attacks on Giuliani. Rudy attacks NYT credibility.

Rudy, 1. Williams, 0.

Audience applause.

I still don’t think he’s got enough mojo.

Williams brings up the NYT (again!) and its hit piece on Romney. Romney smiles: “I’m not going to Washington to make friends with politicians. I’m going to Wasington to change things.”

Romney defends himself against flip-flopping.

Williams cites LATimes saying McCain’s temper is an issue. “Do you see that as a problem?”

“I don’t.”

Laughter.

McCain stops answering the question to say nice things about Rudy.

It’s like a Swan Song for Rudy.

ALERT: MCCAIN/RUDY PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION.

Huck gets question on religion: “It doesn’t give me a queasy feeling, it gives me a solid core.”
Update 10:27pm Eastern. Question for Huck about Chuck Norris attacking McCain’s age. I didn’t disagree with him because I was standing next to him (laughter).

RED ALERT: SECOND HUCK/MCCAIN PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION.

Ick. Needs a PG-13 rating.

McCain: Now that Sylvester Stallone and Norman Schwarzkopf have endorsed me, I’ll send them to Chuck Norris.

Ho-ho-ho. Ha-ha-ha.

Blech.

Update 10:23pm Eastern. FINALLY. A St. Pete reader asks why Rudy is airing Spanish language ads when he says he supports English as an official language? Laughter. Yeah. Ditto that.

He says it’s “outreach” and changes subject to his immigration plan.

Grade for that answer: F.

Russert follows up with wet-foot/dry-foot Cuba policy. Why a special policy for Cuba? Rudy reviews history. Weird. He just made a grimace-y, weird face.

Update 10:19pm Eastern. We’re an hour and nineteen minutes into this debate and not a single immigration question.

Russert asks an entitlement question. Huck squeezes in an inheritance tax reform pitch directed at Romney’s sons. Whatever.

Update 10:11pm Eastern. Romney asked about how he would run against Billary. “I can’t wait. I think the idea of Bill Clinton in the White House with nothing to do” is something people won’t want. (Audience laughter.) “She is exactly what’s wrong with Washington. She’s been there too long. The last thing people need is sending the Clintons back to Washington.”

Easy question. Red meat.

Russert asks Romney how much of his own money he’s spent. We’ll report on Jan. 31 and not a minute earlier. Why not tell people how much own wealth? It’s competitive information. I’ve raised more than any other Republican in this race…not as much as Corzine, Forbes, Bloomberg. But I’ve made a substantial contribution. Couldn’t ask friends to contribute without contributing myself. Not beholden to special interests. Doesn’t owe anyone.

Effectively bats down accusation of “buying Florida.” He cares about the country, wants strong and vibrant nation.

Getting a lot of time to defend himself. “I’m giving it my all.”

Williams gets in a Mormon question. “I don’t think for a minute that people will say they won’t vote for a secular position based on candidate’s church.”

Romney’s being treated like the front-runner and he’s acting like it. Regained his confidence after that shaky Second Amendment answer. Extols individual freedom in America.

Update 10:09pm Eastern. Williams goes to McCain. Refers to statements his mom made on C-SPAN that the base will have to “hold its nose” and vote for McCain. I got the transcript on this earlier today and alerted Hot Air. Allah blogs the exchange with Roberta McCain here. Her exact quote: “Yes, I think holding their nose they’re going to have to take him.”

McCain refers to supporting conservative judges, says he’s proud to be conservative.

No mention of border security.

Update 10:07pm Eastern. Back from another commercial break. Brian Williams goes to Rudy on his abysmal campaign crack-up. Ouch. “This has always been a competitive race. I have the faith the Giants had last week. We’re going to come from behind, win from Florida, lull people into a false sense of security…” Notes Romney asking him a nice question.

Boy, what a dud. He doesn’t believe his own spin. How will anyone else?

Update 10:01pm Eastern. New topic – environment. Rudy is talking biofuels. McCain is talking cap and trade. See my prior comments about the enviro-nitwit-ization of the GOP.

You know what I said a few minutes ago about grabbing the popcorn? Never mind. That segment was a d-u-d. How could Romney not question McCain about immigration?

Update 9:53pm Eastern. Huck asks Romney about the Second Amendment and ban on assault weapons/Brady. The first frontal attack question. Was wondering if there would be one. Huck: “That’s not consistent…Do you support Brady? Do you support the assault weapons ban and restrictions you support?”

Romney: Says he would have signed it like the president said he would. Says he supports individual right to bear arms. Says he doesn’t support any new legislation.

Romney seemed tentative and nervous.

Rudy directs his question to Romney, too. But it’s really an attack on McCain. Romney mentions that McCain doesn’t support national catastrophic insurance fund as a backstop. Big parochial issue in Florida. McCain cracks: “Who’s answering this question?” Romney supports it. Looks like a Rudy-Romney pander tag team. States in high-risk areas should organize on national basis actuarially. So, I guess he does and he doesn’t support national catastrophic government fund. He’s talking about a “free-market solution.” Rudy wants to know if he supports a mandate. I’m not sure what he’s saying.

McCain gets to answer. “We have to address the issue. Regionally. Increase the risk pool. Reform insurance. The bill in the House was $200 billion, no way to pay for it.”

Update 9:40pm Eastern. Commercial break. Next portion will feature candidates asking each other questions. Get out the popcorn.

Here we go. Romney goes first. He raises the specter of China. “How will we have trade with China that protects America, on a level playing field?” Question goes to Rudy, though it’s really more of a question and answer session with himself. Sorry, I didn’t really pay attention to Rudy’s answer.

I was thinking about how Romney’s question/statement may have been a way to defend himself from a Huck attack on his ties to Bain Capital.(which Duncan Hunter alluded to and is the primary reason he opposes Romney)

Anyway…

McCain asks Huck about Fair Tax. How do you answer criticism that flat tax would cause more pain to low-income Americans…how do you account for resonance? Softball for sweethearts. “And when you’re done, Governor, could you also comment on how many Republicans would like to see you as my vice president…”

Kissy-kissy.

Huck: “We’re penalized for productivity in this country. Republicans ought to embrace the fair tax…”

Russert follows up: 93 percent sales tax. How does this help those paying 15 percent?

Update 9:34pm Eastern. Excellent Romney answer on Iraq. Strong, tough, focused on the surrendercrats. He takes on Dems for their withdrawalmania…cites debate in SC when Hillary refused to say she wanted to win and recycled Code Pink line.

Romney excoriates Dems and says “how dare they” take credit for surge.

Applause.

Romney just out-McCained McCain on the war.

Russert: Was the war a good idea and worth the blood and treasure?

McCain: It was worth it. Our men will return and return with honor, having fought al Qaeda over there.

Rudy: I’m for it when 6 out of 10 were for it and when 6 out of 10 were against it. Also very strong objecting to conducting war by polls.

Paul: It was a very bad idea and it wasn’t worth it. Falsely claims that al Qaeda wasn’t there and is now. Blames America for starting the war.

Huck: I supported the president when he went into this. He deserves our thanks, not scorn.

Update 9:27pm Eastern. We’re not breaking any new ground here. Romney’s repeating his “Washington is broken” line for the thousandth time. “Change has to begin with us. We are the party of change.”

Really? The Republicans are the Party of Change? When did that happen?

St Pete Times editor reads some question. First for McCain: How can we sustain Iraq with bad economy? McCain: If we do what Hillary wants, the expenses of surrender will be paid in blood and treasure. McCain repeats his pride for advocating surge first. Proud of our troops for not waving the White Flag of Surrender.

Update 9:20pm Eastern. Hey, did ya know that Rudy rejected Saudi prince’s money? If you missed it the last 1,000 times he mentioned in past debates and TV appearance, he just told the whole story again.

Russert talks deficits. “Why should Republicans be re-elected?” McCain says Democrats would spend more, make entitlement crisis worse, increase taxes. McCain lambastes Bush-aspproved earmarks/pork/Bridge to Nowhere projects. “I’ll veto them…we will clean up our act, fix this problem of having to borrow money from China, balance our budget.”

Huck gets a question. I forgot he was there. “I wasn’t in Washington messing things up. That’s why I should get a chance.” Refuses to blame Bush. Huck pats himself on the back for saying the economy was bad before any of his GOP challengers recognized it.

Update 9:14pm Eastern. Romney defends his Mass. tax record. Criticizes McCain for not supporting Bush tax cuts the first time around.

Russert invites McCain to attack Romney’s fee hikes. He defends his opposition to Bush tax cuts and asserts his fiscal conservative bona fides.

Ron Paul objects to appropriating more money for stimulus…immediately segues to war spending on Empire. Natch.

Update 9:04pm Eastern. Ok, here we go. Stimulus-palooza is the first topic. Romney supports the Bush plan, but wish it went further…more tax cuts, “grow jobs.”
“We have a housing crisis…that has spilled out into the economy…helping to reverse the crisis…is crucial.”

No words at all about fiscal responsibility, thrift, prudence, or the need for borrowers who made bad decisions to suck it up, let the market correct, and let housing prices fall.

No beef.

McCain worries about pork barrel projects. Likes expense write-offs. “The rate cuts by Bernanke are a good beginning, but we need to continue to cut tax rates.” We need to encourage saving (YES!) and cut spending.

Giuliani: The package is ok, but doesn’t go far enough. Make the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Good.) We need a permanent package. Regulatory reform. Comprehensive tax reform. (All good.)

Russert to McCain: You said you weren’t well-versed on economy. Is it a problem for your campaign? Maverick says he doesn’t know where the quote came from. Drops names of economic advisers – Martin Feldstein, Jack Kemp, etc., etc. “I have been a consistent fighter to restrain spending and cut taxes.” (See: “I’ve always been for tax cuts, except for the ones I vote against.”)

Huckabee attacks stimulus for putting money into people’s pockets so consumers can buy Chinese products. Ok. Wants infrastructure spending for highways from Bangor to Florida. Sounds like he’s on board with the Schumer plan.

6:42 PM. The GOP presidential candidates meet again for a Florida debate on MSNBC. The show begins at 9pm Eastern. I’ll be here. No bull–red or otherwise–tonight. Just me, you, and a batch of White House contenders who will be appealing for the first time to Republican primary voters first and foremost. Not independents. Not Democrats.

So: Show us the beef.

Sanctuary Rudy’s slipping. Big Nanny Huck’s fading. McCain’s still channeling Geraldo. And Romney’s running Spanish language ads.

Yes, this is the Republican field.

***

AP:

The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.

The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.

Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.

I need an Advil:

California Rep. Duncan Hunter, a former presidential candidate, announced Wednesday he is endorsing Mike Huckabee’s White House bid.

“I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Huckabee said in a statement. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base.

“Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy that compels my endorsement,” he added. “Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well.”

Maybe Huck promised him a Cabinet position. Nothing else makes sense.

Disbelief at the Free Republic. This reaction sums it up: “Is this from the Onion?”

***

Let’s review:

Duncan Hunter – Keep Guantanamo Bay open
Mike Huckabee – Close Gitmo

Duncan Hunter – Staunch border security advocate
Mike Huckabee – Open-borders ethno-panderer

***

Allah: “Mr. Border Fence is backing a guy who accused opponents of Bush’s immigration plan of nativism? Two days after Fred drops out because he can’t pull enough conservatives to beat John McCain? Dude?”

Byron York: “The endorsement of Huckabee just doesn’t seem to fit, given Hunter’s national-security orientation, concern about China, all that. I thought it seemed so odd that, when I got the email a few minutes ago, I called Hunter’s spokesman to make sure it was right. It’s not huge news – Hunter got all of 1,048 votes in the South Carolina – but a number of conservatives who paid close attention to the race liked Hunter, and they usually weren’t the sort to support Huckabee.”

He’s taking the stage at his Columbia HQ. Huckabee says he just called McCain to congratulate him and thank him for a “civil,” “decent” campaign.

Huckabee slyly attacks Romney by praising himself and McCain for campaigning with “honor” instead of attacking someone else.

Oookay. The sanctimony is oozing like a popped zit. Ick.

The guys at Hot Air are on my same wavelength.

Huck tries to encourage his troops to feel “sheer joy.” Unconvincingly.

Maybe I heard it wrong, but I think he just referred to his campaign in the past tense: “What we had…”

Pep talk: “We didn’t lose tonight. The game ended a little early tonight. The path to the White House is not ending here tonight. We’re resetting the clock…I still believe a year from now…all of you will be in Washington for my inauguration…We’ve got a lot of miles ahead of us…”

Unconvincing. He’s trying to mask his disappointment. It’s not working.

He’s an open borders drag queen, and he’s piling on the make-up and jewels again to disguise his pro-illegal immigration record in time for the South Carolina primary. The Washington Times reports that he has signed a NumbersUSA pledge to oppose any new shamnesty measures and reduce illegal immigration through attrition. I don’t believe Mike Huckabee:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday continued to move to the right on immigration during this year’s presidential campaign, signing a pledge to enforce immigration laws and to make all illegal aliens go home.

The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement — something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan.

Here’s a reminder of Huckabee’s dodge on illegal alien ID cards on the Laura Ingraham show (YouTube vid via Tim Sumner, who has more):

Partial transcript:

LG: You didn’t come out against [the Mexican] consulate issuing consular ID cards though, did you?

MH: I actually signed a bill in 2005 that prohibited people from getting a driver’s license who were illegal–

LI: –that’s not answering the question, governor. I understand that. But that’s not answering the question. Because I’m staying on this consulate issue. On the issue of the Mexican consulate, did you or did you not oppose the Mexican consulates issuing ID cards that are then used by illegal aliens to open bank accounts and get a number of other social services beyond health care and beyond education in the United States.

MH: Well, what I want to do is fix this entire problem by having sealed borders.

As I’ve noted before, it’s not much of a “fix” if he’s inviting foreign consulates to rent out space for $1 a year to hand out bogus illegal alien ID cards so more immigration laws can be broken.

Past actions speak louder than election-year words.

***
Ick.

Mike Huckabee went on Morning Joe today and toyed with suggesting a “conspiracy” composed of the “Washington power circles” was out to get him.

…

Huckabee: There’s a bunch of Washington special interest groups that are coming into town today [the Club for Growth and Freedom Works are holding a joint presser on the Huckabee record] to attack me. It’s amazing. I’m the only guy who’s just getting hammered from some of these special interest groups, and I think that’ll really turn for me and against some of these folks. Because it’s pretty obvious that, there’s gotta be, almost this, I don’t want to use the word conspiracy, but there’s just an anxiety that exists in the Washington power circles about our candidacy.

I don’t want to use the word “idiot,” but…

Supposedly positive campaigner Mike Huckabee takes a jab at Fred Thompson by joking on Joe Scarborough’s show that Thompson “needs some Metamucil.”

Thompson responds on Mark Levin’s radio show.

Huck follows up by cuddling with the press.

So, which do you prefer: Fred’s political constipation or Huckabee’s diarrhea of the mouth?

So, the ACLU is busy mobilizing sympathy for Guantanamo Bay detainees. They’ve declared tomorrow–the sixth anniversary of the arrival of Gitmo detainees–a “Wear Orange” day in their continued bid to shut down the enemy combatant facility and show solidarity with suspected terrorists:

JANUARY 11, 2008, is the six-year anniversary of the first arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

On January 11, we are calling on everyone opposed to torture and indefinite detention to WEAR ORANGE to symbolize their sadness and disgust with the national shame that is Guantánamo Bay.

Look for waterboard wannabes to stage mock torture theater around the country and the Arab government-funded anti-Gitmo legal machine to crank up the noise.

Here’s a reminder from a recent report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point of the threats the Gitmo detainees pose:

Based on 291 unclassified summaries of detainee records that contained evidence that the detainee directly participated in or supported hostile acts, the researchers found:

• 56 individuals admitted to fighting the U.S. or Coalition forces
• 104 individuals were found to have manned the front lines
• 9 individuals were found to have participated in a bombing operation, improvised explosives device (IED) attack or other explosives-involved operation
• 98 individuals were found to have directly participated in, or supported the planning or plotting of, a combat operation.
• 3 individuals were found to have purchased weapons for the furtherance of committing hostile acts.
• 21 individuals were found to have engaged in ‘other’ hostile activities.

As I pointed out last summer, the Bush administration unwisely presided over a mass release of Saudi Gitmos detainees that non-moonbat Democrats should have lambasted. But they’re all too busy lobbying to release the entire Gitmo population faster.

Will any Dems wear orange tomorrow?

How about Mike Huckabee, who shares the ACLU’s position (and al Qaeda’s, for that matter) on shutting down the facility because of its “symbolism?”

This would be another good issue to raise at tonight’s GOP debate in South Carolina.

Flashback:

***

One blogger suggests wearing green as a counter-protest.