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News & ArtsFriday, December 4, 2009
Politics Santorum Rises as Huckabee Falls
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 7:33 AM
First, I got this t-shirt at a Huckabee campaign rally in South Carolina in 2008...
...and it's regular t-shirt rotation, and was at the top of the pile this morning. But I don't think I can wear it in Seattle, or anywhere else, right now. It may be time to cut off the sleeves and add it to the nightshirt pile. In other Clemmons-related political/sartorial fallout...
Mike Huckabee's chances of winning the 2012 GOP presidential sweepstakes died in a coffee shop in Seattle, Wash., on Nov. 29. That day, Maurice Clemmons—a felon sentenced to 108 years in prison in Arkansas, who was released nine years ago courtesy of a clemency order signed by then-Arkansas Gov. Huckabee—allegedly shot and killed four police officers. Huckabee is many things, but stupid is not one of them. He knows that were he to attempt to run for the GOP nomination again, his opponents would use the name "Maurice Clemmons" the way a previous GOP presidential contender once used the name "Willie Horton," to undercut Huckabee's support among the evangelical Christians who dominate his route to the nomination — the Iowa caucuses....With no Huckabee in the field in 2012, the religious conservatives who dominate the Iowa caucuses will be looking for a candidate with similar qualities. That could be Sarah Palin, but I'm betting she won't be running in 2012. And that provides a possible point of entry for Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who has been a leader among family-oriented conservative Christians for the better part of two decades.
The coffee shop was in Lakewood, Washington, not Seattle. And I think we can stop referring to Clemmons as the "alleged" shooter now, huh?
1
I'd add it to the nightshirt pile. And, I believe Huckabee feels really bad about his part of this tragedy. So, I'm hoping for a Palin/Beck team.
2
"And I think we can stop referring to Clemmons as the "alleged" shooter now, huh?"
Did shooting him prove beyond a doubt that he was guilty?
Is gunning a suspect down in the street the same as a jury trial now?
Did shooting him prove beyond a doubt that he was guilty?
Is gunning a suspect down in the street the same as a jury trial now?
6
Washington State's inept judicial system has given the GOP a nice holiday gift by torpedoing Huck.
7
I'm with the unregistered commenter @2. Unfortunately, because he's dead and can't have a trial, he'll always be the "alleged" shooter, even if we all know he did it.
9
What I'd like to know is, since when do evangelicals hold one of their own responsible for anything? Honestly, Huckabee talks the talk, so it seems like it shouldn't matter one way or the other to most evangelicals what he's actually done. I think it's his economic policies more than who he's pardoned that actually sink him.
10
"cut off the sleeves and add it to the nightshirt pile"? Eww. Dan, you're lucky you're allowed in bed at all dressed like that, unless the boyfriend has a secret NASCAR fan fetish or something.
11
I'm actually getting a little sick of all of the criticism of Huckabee's commutation of Clemmons's sentence. I am DEFINITELY not a fan of Huckabee and I agree with Dominic Holden’s earlier comments that O'Reilly would have been WAAAAAY harder on a Democrat who made the same mistake, but give me a break. I think that Huckabee did the right thing, based on the knowledge he had at the time. Clemmons was convicted at the age of 17 of a non-violent crime and given 108 years in prison for it. That is unreasonable, I believe, by anyone's standards. Any Democratic governor would have done the same thing. There's no way Huckabee could have known, based on Clemmons's criminal history, that he would become a cop-killer.
12
Uhhh... he had one of the cops' gun ON HIS PERSON. I'm no lawyer but that's pretty damning evidence.
13
9
evangelicals may not but huck always gave mainstream republicans the creeps and this episode provides a handy painless way to make that problem go away...
evangelicals may not but huck always gave mainstream republicans the creeps and this episode provides a handy painless way to make that problem go away...
14
12
not saying it happened here at all but it is not unheard of for cops to plant a gun on someone they shot.
not saying it happened here at all but it is not unheard of for cops to plant a gun on someone they shot.
15
@ 11 - You're absolutely right, but only intelligent people who aren't scared of every black man can see that.
16
Santorum rising made me think of vomit rising. And then that made me think of santorum rising from your stomach into your mouth, which is just a disgusting thought.
An important missing point from that blog post is whether the GOP can expect to win with a candidate whose name means "frothy feces." Will they even be allowed to say his name on TV, or is it too obscene?
An important missing point from that blog post is whether the GOP can expect to win with a candidate whose name means "frothy feces." Will they even be allowed to say his name on TV, or is it too obscene?
17
@2, 7: The point of "alleged," in practice, is to avoid libel lawsuits. Since the only person with standing to sue is dead, it's a moot point.
18
the point of 'alleged' in journalism is factual accuracy. the truth never dies, it just gets ignored.
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16
if santorum gets any momentum the whole 'frothy shit' cuteness could bite you girls on the ass. most adults are unaware of the term
and if they become aware of it will find it repulsively juvenile and beyond the pale of reasoned civic discourse, and it's author the same. sorry, the real world isn't peopled by 'Welcome Back Kotter' sweathogs like slog... oh no! what if it means an end to the tv appearances?!
if santorum gets any momentum the whole 'frothy shit' cuteness could bite you girls on the ass. most adults are unaware of the term
and if they become aware of it will find it repulsively juvenile and beyond the pale of reasoned civic discourse, and it's author the same. sorry, the real world isn't peopled by 'Welcome Back Kotter' sweathogs like slog... oh no! what if it means an end to the tv appearances?!
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