A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on December 10th, 2007 in Progressive Faith

Mike Huckabee’s history of gubernatorial mercy calls into question the degree to which his faith – which calls for mercy and forgiveness – influences his politics – which calls for upholding the laws of the land. It also gives cause to consider the implications of whether or not that practice might be a good thing or not. Or it might, if Huckabee gave any indication that it was actually his faith that led to his decisions to grant pardons and commutations.

The mercy problem:

During his years as governor, Huckabee granted clemency an average of about once every four days. Huckabee’s successor, Mike Beebe, has issued 40 so far this year, fewer than one a week. Bill Clinton, Frank White and Tucker granted 507 clemencies in the 17 1/2 years they served as governor.

This is an enormous problem for a Republican candidate. Can you imagine what would have been said about Bill Clinton if he had that record? That he hated the American jurisprudence system. That he put himself above the courts and the legislature that passed the people’s law. The mind boggles. Now Huckabee is trying to look at this record and say he is a “law and order” candidate. Good luck with that, bro. I mean, this guy granted clemency to more people than George W. Bush executed.

Huckabee could fall back on his Baptist minister credentials and say that a Christian leader is called to grant mercy with a generous hand. But to do that, he’d have to say that the American legal system is unfair. Given that his party is the one that opposes banning the death penalty because they don’t care if it is almost never used against white defendants, this is going to go over like a loud, greasy fart in the front pew.

The problem is that such an approach doesn’t explain how a personal experience with the Governor resulted in clemency so often:

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.

The only faith that seems to have guided Huckabee is faith in his own judgment to over-rule the regular legal system. To the extent that the purpose of having written law is to move away from the capricious rule of an erratic monarch, this defeats our judicial system completely. Well, not completely – there’s still only a one-in-four chance that someone you know might bump into the Governor.

So we can reject outright any claim that Huckabee has granted clemency due to any deep-seated belief in using his position to grant mercy based on his Christianity. I think Huckabee himself would likely reject that as well. Bereft of that explanation, though, his actions take on an almost bizarre character. He defends himself by saying that the prison system he inherited was larger than that faced by his predecessors – but the federal system is even larger still. Does this mean that a President Huckabee would exercise his clemency power at an even higher rate?

But Huckabee’s guide post, like Mitt Romney’s isn’t bad theology so much as it is the facade of theology over political opportunism.

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