Mike Huckabee Under Fire For Maurice Clemmons' Early Release

Conservatives hammer Mike Huckabee over shooting



The conservative blogosphere unleashed a torrent of criticism against Mike Huckabee Monday after a man whose sentence he commuted as Arkansas governor was suspected of gunning down four police officers in Washington state over the weekend.

Maurice Clemmons, whom Huckabee granted clemency to nine years ago, remained at large after local police in Lakewood, Wash. mistakenly thought they had him trapped in a house early Monday. Clemmons is reported to have shot the officers as they were sitting at a table in a local coffee shop.

While many details of the murders were still unclear Monday, leading online conservative voices were quick to pass judgment on Huckabee, whose 2008 presidential campaign was forced to respond to accusations that he was too lenient with violent criminals during his years as governor.

“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,” wrote conservative Michelle Malkin on her widely read blog. “This disaster is just one of Huckabee’s ill-considered clemency legacies.”

“This isn’t Huckabee’s first Horton moment,” Malkin continued, referring to the convicted murderer who raped a woman during a weekend furlough program supported by then-Massachusetts governor and later Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Willie Horton was featured prominently in damaging ads from George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaign painting the Massachusetts Democrat as soft on crime.

On his conservative RedState blog, Erick Erickson wrote that the shooting “is going to be extremely problematic for Governor Huckabee.”

“Of course, a lot of folks said the last guy was Mike Huckabee’s ‘Willie Horton,’ Erickson continued. “How many Willie Hortons can one man have?”

Huckabee sought to distance himself from Clemmons in a statement posted on his political action committee’s website late Sunday, blaming “failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State.”

“This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Huckabee said. “Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers.”

At the age of 18, Clemmons was sentenced to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft – a sentence which he was slated to serve in addition to the 48 years he was already serving on five felony counts, including bringing a handgun on school grounds.

Citing Clemmons young age at the time he committed the crimes, Huckabee commuted Clemmons’ sentence after the convicted felon had served 11 years. Since getting released on parole, Clemmons has faced additional criminal charges—including at least eight felony charges in Washington, where he moved in 2004, according to local press accounts.

Few of Huckabee’s allies—including candidates he has endorsed for the 2010 campaign and his former campaign manager—responded to requests to speak to POLITICO about the fallout from the shooting. But on conservative blogs, Huckabee came under sustained attack.

Numerous bloggers used the incident to remind readers that the former Arkansas governor faced criticism during the 2008 presidential primary for granting a pardon to convicted rapist Wayne DuMond. Like Clemmons, DuMond returned to a life of crime, earning a second conviction before dying in prison in 2005.

Michael Goldfarb, a former aide to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign and currently a blogger for the Weekly Standard, said Huckabee has suffered through a “brutal 24 hours” since the shooting, which came on the heels of his remarks to Fox News Sunday that he is “less likely,” rather than “more likely,” to run for president in 2012.

Goldfarb picked up Malkin’s criticism, telling POLITICO that the incident is Huckabee’s “second Willie Horton.”

“It was the worst week Huck’s had since he lost South Carolina in ’08,” Goldfarb said.

“Of course Huckabee couldn’t predict that the convict would shoot police officers, but the exercise of executive clemency goes right to judgment in a way that is very clearly understood by voters,” Ed Morrissey, a widely-read blogger on the conservative site Hot Air, wrote in an email. “His primary opponents will use it against him, and I'd guess that such an attack would be particularly effective with social conservatives.”

Former Huckabee press aide Joe Carter wrote on the blog for the Institute on Religion and Public Life that the story undercuts the former governor’s strengths as a candidate.

“Ironically, what makes Huckabee such an appealing Presidential candidate—his empathy for all people and genuine belief in the individual—is also the trait that will prevent him from ever reaching the White House,” Carter wrote. “His experiences and intuitions that served him well as a minister of the gospel were not always applicable in of governor of a state. The unfortunate reality is that for politicians, unlike pastors, there are limits to compassion.”

Conservative blogs were not the only corner of the Internet where Huckabee took a pounding. The popular Drudge Report website provided a prominent link to a Seattle Times story on Clemmons’s disturbing criminal history accompanied by the headline, “Huckabee granted clemency to man wanted for questioning.”

The former governor’s Wikipedia entry was altered midday to identify Huckabee in all caps as “THE IDIOT” who “RELEASED THE COP KILLER MAURICE CLEMMONS.”

Republican operatives and politicians contacted by POLITICO said the incident is already proving to be damaging.

One well-known GOP strategist with presidential campaign experience said the shooting is “pretty devastating” to Huckabee’s political future.

Mark Corallo, a veteran Republican communications consultant, added that since Republicans “are supposed to be the law and order, tough on crime party – it hurts [Huckabee] plenty.”

While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney used the DuMond story to attack Huckabee during the bitterly fought presidential primary, none of Huckabee’s prospective 2012 opponents have singled out the former governor in the wake of the murders.

Spokesmen for Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich did not respond to requests for comment on Clemmons.

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, posted a brief message about the shooting on her Twitter feed while stopped in Richland, Wash. as part of her ongoing book tour, but made no mention of the clemency granted to the suspected shooter.

“While in Washington state today my heart goes out to the WA police officers gunned down so tragically & senselessly,” Palin wrote. “God comfort the families.”



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Maurice Clemmons Shot Dead This Morning By WA. Police...4 Others Arrested

Cop-killer suspect shot dead by officer

A lone officer on patrol in the middle of the night Tuesday spotted a car reported stolen, its hood up and engine running, and pulled over to check it out. As the patrolman sat in his cruiser, a burly man with a large mole on his cheek came up from behind.

The officer turned and instantly recognized the most wanted man in the Pacific Northwest — the ex-con accused of gunning down four cops at a coffee shop.

Moments later, Maurice Clemmons, 37, lay dead in the street, shot by the patrolman after Clemmons made a move for a gun he had taken from one of the slain officers, police said.

Clemmons' death brought to an end two days of fear across the Seattle-Tacoma area and one of the biggest manhunts the region has ever seen. Dozens of police officers milled around at the scene afterward, some solemnly shaking hands and patting each other on the back.

"Good thing he wasn't able to get the gun out here or we might have had a different ending to this whole thing," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "The officer in Seattle did a good job of making sure he went home safe tonight."

Clemmons eluded capture thanks to family and friends who provided him with shelter, cell phones, cash and first aid for the severe belly wound he suffered when one of the dying officers in Sunday's coffee-shop rampage got off a shot, police said. Six to seven of those associates were being arrested Tuesday.

Among them were an accomplice who drove the getaway truck after the rampage and Clemmons' sister, who bandaged him and gave him a lift to a house in Seattle, police said.

"Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime," Troyer said.

Frantic search

It was not clear exactly where Clemmons was while on the run. Police rushed from place to place, following tips that often came up empty or yielded only accomplices. They searched homes and apartments around the city and cordoned off a park after a report of blood in a restroom.

On Sunday, Clemmons briefly took refuge at a house in the city's well-to-do Leschi neighborhood, slipping away before police surrounded the home in an all-night siege that ended when SWAT officers stormed the place and realized he wasn't there.

Clemmons has a violent, erratic past, and authorities in Washington state and Arkansas — where then-Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2000 commuted his 108-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other offenses — are facing tough questions about why an apparently violent and deranged man was out on the street.

On Sunday, six days after posting bail in Washington on charges of raping a child, Clemmons walked into the coffee shop in Parkland, Wash., a suburb a few miles south of Tacoma, and killed four uniformed Lakewood police officers as they caught up on paperwork on their laptops, police said.

"The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers," Troyer said. Investigators also reported that Clemmons told others the night before the shooting that he was going to kill police and they should watch the news, but they wrote it off as "crazy-talk."

In a statement posted on the conservative Newsmax.com Web site, Huckabee said: "I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision."

Familiar face

The Seattle patrol officer who killed Clemmons, Benjamin L. Kelly, 39, a seven-year law enforcement veteran, will be placed on leave, which is standard procedure after a shooting.

The officer was driving in a working-class neighborhood of south Seattle at about 2:45 a.m. when he came across a stolen car, its engine running, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said.

As he sat in his cruiser, beginning paperwork on the car, he sensed movement, turned and saw someone approaching, Pugel said. The officer stepped out and immediately recognized the man, whose face had been all over TV and mugshot fliers memorized by every officer in the region.

The patrolman ordered Clemmons to freeze and show his hands, but he kept moving, and the officer fired several rounds, hitting the man at least twice, Pugel said.

Police said Clemmons would have died eventually of the gunshot wound he suffered in the coffee-shop rampage.

At the time of his arrest in Washington state earlier this year, investigators said Clemmons had visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. He also "told the officer President Obama and Lebron James are his brothers, Oprah (Winfrey) is his sister and referred to himself as 'the beast,"' according to court papers obtained by The News Tribune of Tacoma.

A psychological evaluation in October found he was a risk to public safety, but not enough of one to justify committing him, the newspaper reported.

The slain officers Kwere Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

A memorial to honor them will be held next Tuesday in the Tacoma Dome. More than 20,000 members of the law enforcement community, emergency response agencies and the public are expected to attend.



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Manhunt For WA. Police Serial Killer (Maurice Clemmons) Continues...Family Aiding Suspect

Manhunt for alleged cop killer continues. Police are still in pursuit of Maurice Clemmons, a former inmate suspected of gunning down four Washington state police officers Sunday. NBC's George Lewis reports.

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WA. Police Chief: "We will all miss them very much". Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar, flanked by city officials and numerous police officers, is emotional as he speaks to reporters about the shooting deaths of four of his officers.

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Washington State Police: Family helping cop-killings Suspect



Authorities believe the man sought in the slaying of four police officers is still alive and has been aided by a network of friends and family, a police spokesman said Monday night. Officers believe Maurice Clemmons was shot in the abdomen during the attack on the officers at a Parkland coffee shop, and had speculated he might have died.

But Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff, said investigators have questioned several people who had provided assistance to Clemmons since the Sunday morning shootings.

"We think his network of people helping him is running out." Troyer said. "He's probably on his own."

Police are also certain Clemmons, 37, was in a Seattle house on Sunday night, but was able to flee before police could contain the area. Police staked out the house overnight before SWAT team members determined early Monday that Clemmons wasn't there.

Clemmons has had access to handguns, rifles and shotguns, Troyer said.

"It's unfortunate he's been a step or two ahead of us."


Large Reward Offered

Monday morning's realization that the suspect had not been cornered after all prompted police to fan out across the city, looking for any sign of Clemmons. Authorities posted a $125,000 reward for information leading to his arrest in the Sunday morning shooting rampage.

The manhunt came as authorities in two states took heat for the fact that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime spree in Arkansas that landed him an 108-year prison sentence. He was released early after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.

"This guy should have never been on the street," said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood, where all four slain officers worked. "Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out."

Police said they are not sure what prompted Clemmons to assassinate the officers as they worked on their laptop computers at the beginning of their shifts. He was described as increasingly erratic in the past few months and had been arrested earlier this year on charges that he punched a sheriff's deputy in the face.

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told the Tacoma News-Tribune that Clemmons indicated the night before the shooting "that he was going to shoot police and watch the news."

Authorities said the gunman singled out the officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop in a suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before he was apparently shot in the torso by one of the dying officers.

Police later learned he may have been holed up at the house in Seattle. After an all-night siege in which they tried to get him out using loudspeakers, explosions and a robot sent into the house, a SWAT team stormed the place and discovered he was not there.

Police spent the rest of the day frantically chasing leads, visiting hundreds of locations as they followed up on tips, at one point cordoning off a park where people thought they saw Clemmons. They also alerted hospitals to be on the lookout for a man seeking treatment for gunshot wounds.

University of Washington officials alerted students by e-mail and text messages to an unconfirmed report that Clemmons might have gotten off a bus on or near the campus.

Investigators also examined the coffee shop for clues. Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Dave McDonald said that authorities found a handgun carried by the killer, along with a pickup truck belonging to the suspect with blood stains inside.

Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas.

On Sunday, Huckabee issued this statement on his Web site: "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."

In seeking leniency from Huckabee, Clemmons wrote the parole board that he was a "misguided fool" when he committed the crimes and "learned through the school of hard knocks to appreciate and respect the rights of others."

Huckabee cited Clemmons' youth in granting the request. But Clemmons quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison. He was released again in 2004.

Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. But he was released from jail after posting bail with the assistance of Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.


The world is going to end soon

Documents related to those charges indicate a volatile personality. In one instance, he is accused of punching a sheriff's deputy in the face. In another, he is accused of gathering his wife and young relatives and forcing them to undress.

"The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus," a Pierce County sheriff's report said.

Neighbors said Clemmons had surveillance cameras installed along the bushes in front of his house, and had mostly kept his blinds shut since he was accused of throwing rocks through the windows of his neighbors' cars and houses earlier this year.

Neighbor Ken Dietiker said he initially thought Clemmons' cameras were there to prevent crime. "But now I'm starting to think he's just paranoid," he said.

Dietiker said he was frustrated to learn about Clemmons' record and releases from custody.

"There were all these indicators. Who didn't see them?" he asked. "That's what I want to know."

There was no indication of any connection between Sunday's killings and the Halloween night shooting of a Seattle Police Officer as he sat in his patrol car.

Authorities say the man charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a "one-man war" against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested after being wounded in a firefight with police days after the Seattle shooting.



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