Huckabee Talking Points or Remarkable Coincidence?
The statement has been made that if you put enough monkeys in a room full of typewriters for long enough, they'll produce Shakespeare. That being said, I suppose it's possible that this is a remarkable coincidence. I say remarkable because two completely different commenters on two different blogs had the exact, word for word comments in defense of Mike Huckabee's proclivity to set criminals free.
In this post, Clemency, I published on Sunday I came across this remarkable coincidence. I read the following comment and realized that I'd seen it somewhere else. It was too familiar so I had to retrace my trail to find where I'd seen it before.
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Michael said...
This is a rather clever video. The author has some good musical talent, but the message is a dishonest one. It is easy to represent anyone as having poor motives by excluding certain portions of information.
Obviously Clemencies have a valid and proper purpose when used responsibly. A film like this that bares no information about any of the individual cases attempts to unjustly represent the person who granted them as if they were wrong.
Simply quoting a number that sounds high, or comparing it to other numbers that are lower, does not have any relevance to whether any of the actually Clemencies were poor decisions.
The picture of Wayne DuMond in this video is not accurate information. He was not granted clemency at all, he was paroled. In Arkansas, "Clemency" is a pardon granted by the Governor and "parole" is done by a board of appointed officials that the Governor has no control over. In fact, Governor Huckabee DENIED DuMond's request for "Clemency" four times. Just the opposite of what this film implies.
January 14, 2008 12:27 PM
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So, after a brief search, I came back to this link, HA! Huckabee and clemency video, from the Fred Thompson News blog, where I had already commented in direct response to this exact same comment. I had also followed a link to the pro-Huckabee blog of the origianl author who left this verbatim iteration of the comment. The only difference was that on my blog the commenter's name is listed as "Michael" and on the other it's listed as "Andrew." I actually exchanged emails with "Andrew" who was unwilling or unable to explain why he supports a dishonest liberal like Mike Huckabee. He also did not return an email requesting an answer to the question of whether this is a Huckabee talking point or just a remarkable coincidence.
So, for now, the mystery remains whether Huckabee's campaign is sending out talking points for blog comments or whether this is one of the most remarkable coincidences in history. I'm leaning toward the former.
As for the comment itself, I will reprint some of what I wrote about it in response to "Andrew".
"...to your assertion that DuMond shouldn't be lumped in with these others, Huckabee's actions belie this. While he did not technically grant DuMond clemency, this is only because when he originally attempted to do so there was so much public outcry that he decided to pressure the parole board into letting him go, instead, which he was successful at accomplishing. So, while you are technically correct, it is more than fair to include DuMond in that list because Huckabee took an active role in having him released."
As for the numbers Huckabee released, the 6 surrounding states have a combined population of 16.41 times higher than that of Arkansas, yet, Huckabee saw fit to grant clemency to more criminals than all of them combined. That is a remarkable figure. With Huckabee supporters acting like Wayne DuMond is the only bad egg in the lot, their argument sinks further with more and more revelations about the number of repeat offenders to whom Huckabee granted clemency, as in the case Victims Voice released, today.
In this post, Clemency, I published on Sunday I came across this remarkable coincidence. I read the following comment and realized that I'd seen it somewhere else. It was too familiar so I had to retrace my trail to find where I'd seen it before.
---
Michael said...
This is a rather clever video. The author has some good musical talent, but the message is a dishonest one. It is easy to represent anyone as having poor motives by excluding certain portions of information.
Obviously Clemencies have a valid and proper purpose when used responsibly. A film like this that bares no information about any of the individual cases attempts to unjustly represent the person who granted them as if they were wrong.
Simply quoting a number that sounds high, or comparing it to other numbers that are lower, does not have any relevance to whether any of the actually Clemencies were poor decisions.
The picture of Wayne DuMond in this video is not accurate information. He was not granted clemency at all, he was paroled. In Arkansas, "Clemency" is a pardon granted by the Governor and "parole" is done by a board of appointed officials that the Governor has no control over. In fact, Governor Huckabee DENIED DuMond's request for "Clemency" four times. Just the opposite of what this film implies.
January 14, 2008 12:27 PM
---
So, after a brief search, I came back to this link, HA! Huckabee and clemency video, from the Fred Thompson News blog, where I had already commented in direct response to this exact same comment. I had also followed a link to the pro-Huckabee blog of the origianl author who left this verbatim iteration of the comment. The only difference was that on my blog the commenter's name is listed as "Michael" and on the other it's listed as "Andrew." I actually exchanged emails with "Andrew" who was unwilling or unable to explain why he supports a dishonest liberal like Mike Huckabee. He also did not return an email requesting an answer to the question of whether this is a Huckabee talking point or just a remarkable coincidence.
So, for now, the mystery remains whether Huckabee's campaign is sending out talking points for blog comments or whether this is one of the most remarkable coincidences in history. I'm leaning toward the former.
As for the comment itself, I will reprint some of what I wrote about it in response to "Andrew".
"...to your assertion that DuMond shouldn't be lumped in with these others, Huckabee's actions belie this. While he did not technically grant DuMond clemency, this is only because when he originally attempted to do so there was so much public outcry that he decided to pressure the parole board into letting him go, instead, which he was successful at accomplishing. So, while you are technically correct, it is more than fair to include DuMond in that list because Huckabee took an active role in having him released."
As for the numbers Huckabee released, the 6 surrounding states have a combined population of 16.41 times higher than that of Arkansas, yet, Huckabee saw fit to grant clemency to more criminals than all of them combined. That is a remarkable figure. With Huckabee supporters acting like Wayne DuMond is the only bad egg in the lot, their argument sinks further with more and more revelations about the number of repeat offenders to whom Huckabee granted clemency, as in the case Victims Voice released, today.
posted by Henry Rearden at
12:39 PM
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