Deace Comments on Huckabee and the fallout from Maurice Clemmons
- Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 11:17
- Iowa, News Center
- 1,588 views
- 27 comments
The past two years perhaps no Republican politician in America has had more of an impact on the political landscape than former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
John McCain may have won the nomination, Mitt Romney may have the money, and Sarah Palin has the star power, but it’s the former Baptist minister with the funny sounding last name that has had the biggest impact for three reasons.
First, Huckabee proved during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses that sincerity and clear moral convictions trump money and organization in his huge upset of Romney. Second, his presidential campaign revealed to the Republican Party’s Christian Conservative base just how hated it is by the party establishment, and that Republican media bias against people of faith is just as ugly and prevalent as it is among the Democrats. Third, his political ascension also revealed just how cowardly and compromised many so-called “Christian leaders” are when it comes to their political activity.
The fallout of these three factors is immeasurable, and will continue to have far-reaching consequences long after people forget who Mike Huckabee was. Huckabee has also demonstrated that Christians don’t have to water down their core moral convictions to run for office, but can win with them provided they’re as sincere and winsome as they are serious.
As a result of his impact, Huckabee has inspired a whole new generation of Christians to get politically active, and has been rewarded with multi-media (Fox News & ABC Radio Networks) access to the voting public most politicians would give sensitive parts of their anatomy to have. Probably not coincidentally, he’s currently the leader in the Republican presidential polls for 2012.
However, just when it seems as if Huckabee’s star is about to go supernova, his entire ministry and future political ambitions are now at risk because of this story.
Predictably, the Republican establishment and its various media cronies who hate Christians more than the Democrats do have pounced on this story.
The exact same people who said nothing while Palin put a Planned Parenthood official on the state supreme court where she could kill babies from the bench with little difficulty, or still haven’t come clean about Romney’s far left record in Massachusetts, now suddenly can’t wait to expose Huckabee’s poor judgment and the tragedy that at least partially resulted from it.
But what’s also been unfortunately predictable has been the reaction of too many Christians to this series of unfortunate events. Too many of Huckabee’s most faithful following among the faithful seem too eager to excuse this if you read some of the comments over at HuckPac. And I’ve received more than a few emails from Christians who supported Ron Paul in the caucuses saying “I told you so.”
If only it were as simple as our tribalistic instincts.
Several stalwart Christians I respect love Paul, and have a lot of respect for him as well. I was proud to emcee a recent fundraiser for State Rep. Kent Sorenson in which he was the guest of honor. His stance for constitutional government, the sanctity of life, and against the welfare state is heroic.
However, he has on many occasions expressed a flat out dangerous naiveté regarding radical Islam, even going so far as saying 9-11 happened because of American imperialism in the Middle East. As a Christian, Paul should know better. Radical Islam has been at war with Christendom from the time its founder died fighting wars with Jews and Christians. While I don’t see the United States of America as the central hub for Christendom, our Islamic enemy does and that’s all that matters.
Paul also is soft on homosexuality, even going so far as to refuse to describe it as “sin” which the Bible clearly says it is. But don’t take my word for it, click this link and find out for yourself.
I’ve even had Christians supporting Paul question the sincerity of Huckabee’s faith and call him a liberal Baptist because he doesn’t share some of their doctrinal positions. Yet Paul was raised Lutheran, baptized his kids Episcopalian, and now attends a Southern Baptist Church. That’s quite the theological pea soup for those claiming theological purity, especially when you throw in the fact that one of Paul’s brothers is an ELCA pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That’s the same ELCA that back in August voted to affirm homosexual relationships and has been providing abortion coverage for its employees for years.
The point I am making here is that I’m not sure why Christians who supported Ron Paul are acting as if they’re political puritans and the Huckabee supporters sold out the faith, because there are some obvious beams in Paul’s eye they should deal with before addressing the speck of dust in their brother’s. If they want to criticize Huckabee that’s fair game, provided they’re willing to hold themselves and their champion to the same standard they hold the others.
On the other hand, as a vocal Huckabee supporter, it’s not as easy for me to just dismiss this as another case of media bias and the establishment having it in for my man. That’s not critical thinking. In fact, it’s the same kind of cult of personality Huckabee supporters often accused Romney supporters of when they kept believing him to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan despite his far left record.
As Christians, we don’t hold ourselves and each other to the standard of the world, and we are to aim higher than the lowest common cultural denominator. We don’t get to say because your guy did this and my guy did that it’s not as bad and I am better than you. That’s moral relativism and that isn’t Biblical.
As Christians we are called to live up to God’s standard, not the world’s, regardless of whether the rest of the world is going to hell in a hand basket. “Everybody is doing it, why can’t we” is the title to Cranberries album, not a verse in the Bible.
Therefore, this is the inconvenient truth we Huckabee supporters must confront: four families in Seattle will be celebrating the Christmas season with one fewer loved one because of the decision Huckabee made several years ago, and while he’s not solely to blame for this miscarriage of justice he is the one that set the wheels in motion.
So what is the proper Christian response to these grisly murders, and a national Christian leader’s role in it? Let’s start with what I think it’s not.
We should avoid at all costs the fleshy temptation to make this about Huckabee’s political future, pro or con. Let me be among the first to say I’ve already violated this suggestion, because my first inclination when I heard about this story was to gauge its political ramifications as well. Mea culpa.
We should also avoid the temptation to lecture our fellow Christian about his support for Huckabee, unless we decided to support nobody last election because nobody was good enough, because the simple fact of the matter is none of these candidates holds up 100% to the scrutiny of the Scriptures.
Those of us that supported Huckabee, beginning with myself, should probably stop projecting our hopes for revival or cultural renewal upon him and his political future since he’s just a man and not Jesus. We should probably admit to ourselves that we made him out to be more than he really was because we were scared for our country, our families, our political party, or all of the above. We should probably admit that we willingly chose to overlook or ignore certain things we didn’t want to be true or didn’t want to know because we saw in Huckabee a man with a heart for God, and we’re desperate for that kind of leadership nowadays. And then we should probably recognize that by doing so we actually hurt our brother’s chances of being the Godly leader we’ve been praying for and didn’t help him get there, because instead of ironing sharpening iron as we become Christ-like we became followers of a man. A Godly man, but a man nonetheless, and with being a man comes all the temptations and shortcomings every other man has to endure and overcome.
We should stop dismissing the importance of theology. The reality is that no matter which god a human being worships, every decision he makes is a theological one—it’s just a matter of who he thinks Theo is. For example, I believe Huckabee’s “prisoner problem” is the result of a well-intentioned but misguided theology that says there is some good in human nature, and because of that a human being – even a hardened criminal – can “choose” to be good if given the chance. Thus, a prisoner expresses remorse, maybe even “asks Jesus into his heart” while incarcerated, and we let him go because everyone deserves a second chance.
The problem is that Biblically that is not the role of the state, not to mention the fact it’s a theological error. The state exists to punish evil-doers, which the Seattle killer commuted by Huckabee clearly is, and not to redeem them. Frankly, that is the sort of thinking liberals base their flawed ideology on, and we have the welfare state, open borders, generation family dysfunction, and overcrowded prisons to thank for it.
It is THE CHURCH that is called to redeem, not the state, and it is the state that is called to administer justice, not THE CHURCH.
Therefore, as Arkansas governor Huckabee’s first job wasn’t to be a minister of the Gospel, but a minister of justice. It’s not the governor’s job to hand out second chances, that’s the pastor’s. It’s the governor’s job to make sure those that blew their first chance don’t have another chance to hurt more people and property before they’ve been adequately punished and are sufficiently repentant.
Huckabee blurred the ministerial lines here, and a tragedy happened because of it. His intentions were good, but so are the intentions of most liberals that engage in the same thinking with American taxpayer money. Besides, didn’t someone once point out the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions?
That then leads us to what we should do. For that I have one simple suggestion. Take Huckabee’s advice and make the Gospel the one and only priority we filter all other things through, including (and perhaps especially) our political involvement.
Instead of looking at Huckabee’s ordeal through the lens of salvaging a Godly man’s political ambitions, we should see it as an opportunity to show true humility, mercy, and justice to the unbelieving world.
Instead of thinking Huckabee or some other man is the next messianic political figure that will lead us out of the wilderness, we should start realizing we’re lacking those leaders because the real Messiah’s message isn’t being preached and taught in our pulpits.
Instead of spinning our mistakes, we should own up to them and make restitution to those offended before wondering how it will impact our own ambitions and desires.
Instead of first testing the positions of our Christian leaders, we should examine their hearts and test their convictions. It is the fear of the LORD that is beginning of wisdom, and if a Godly man has that reverential fear in him God can take care of where he’s at on the issues later.
A loyal listener to my show, who is also a big Huckabee supporter, expressed this paradigm shift as righteously as I ever could have. That’s why I’m closing today’s blog with her comments:
I have been trying to process all of this. First, let me say that my prayers are for the victims’ families and Huckabee is correct when it is a shame that it is turning into a political circus instead of letting the families grieve. I just hope that the people out there “celebrating” this (and you know there are a few of those) realize that they are doing it at the expense of four lives.
Huckabee is the one that set this tragedy into motion by commuting the shooter’s sentence. I know he used his best judgment with the facts at the time and never meant for this to happen, but the fact is that no matter how legitimate Huckabee’s decision might have been, the shooter would have still been in prison had it not been for him. This set in motion a multitude of failures in the system in two states. There was chance after chance to keep this man behind bars and they all failed. While Huckabee set it in motion there were many others equally to blame.
Because of all these failures on every level that contributed to the deaths, I think that Huckabee will be wounded but will not bleed to death except for the fact that it has happened twice—twice. He succeeded in getting past the Dumond case and I believe that one was even worse. I believe he raped and murdered a girl almost immediately after being released. You see, one time is a freakish thing to happen especially when it involves multiple screw ups for the deaths to happen, but it happened twice. I know without a doubt that Huckabee never wanted this to happen. I believe he carried through his decisions with the highest regard to all sides, but that doesn’t change the facts that are out there—twice.
His critics were waiting………..waiting for something to happen. Like I said, I hope they remember that there are four mourning families out there. I don’t have an answer for what this will all mean for Huckabee and his future in politics. God’s ways are not our ways. Although I believe most everything hinges on if Huckabee admits it was his action that set the whole thing in gear.
All I know is that our prayers should be with Huckabee that he will handle himself in a way that shows the world why we all support him. He is a good man who was a good Governor. Even if this event takes away his political future, I don’t want those things taken away from him. He has worked too hard and does not deserve to have what good he has done and still is doing to be stripped from him.
Photo by Dave Davidson
About the Author
Steve Deace has written 2 stories on this site.
Steve Deace is host of Deace in the Afternoon on Newsradio WHO 1040 AM in Des Moines, Iowa. Steve’s show can be heard weekday afternoons from 4 to 7 p.m.
27 Comments on “Deace Comments on Huckabee and the fallout from Maurice Clemmons”
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Steve Deace is the kiss of death for any candidate. You heard it here first…
Reader’s Digest version of this column:
Huckabee screwed up, BUT PALIN APPOINTED A PLANNED PARENTHOOD SUPPORTER TO THE SUPREME COURT……..AND ROMNEY IS THE SPAWN OF SATAN!!!
I’m disappointed in you, Steve. I’m not that disappointed in Huckabee, since I already thought he was the modern day Elmer Gantry. I’m disappointed because your first reaction to this story is to lash out at Romney AND Palin; both of who, unless I am very badly mistaken, had NOTHING to do with granting clemency to this murdering scumbag. All your talk about not making this political seems to be simply projection, given your political attacks on Huckabee’s once and future rivals.
And the worst part of these clemencies isn’t that a few of his released felons committed crimes after they were given clemency by the Governor. No, the worst part is that in all the extreme cases, there were prosecutors, family members and even judges telling Mike “letting this guy go is a BAD idea”. I recall hearing that one prosecutor went as far as to take Governor Huckabee to court to get his clemency overturned. When a prosecutor has to go to that extreme to get a politician’s attention, it seems to me that the politician is NOT listening to what the people who know the details of these cases are telling him.
There were several other cases where Governor Huckabee wanted to give clemency to Manson-esque killers and rapists, but the public outcry kept him from letting them go (I don’t have time to post a link right now, but I remember the Ace of Spades blog (ace.mu.nu) did several pieces on Huck’s excessive clemencies back during December of ‘08.
And those of us who pointed these flaws out at that time? We were told that “Huck is the best man for the job, so you should shut your heathen piehole & get with God’s team”. Yeah, we were told that by…….Steve Deace and others.
You know what? I’m starting to realize that one of the hardest parts of being a Christian is dealing with the rank stupidity exhibited by your fellow Christians. They’re not bad people, but being a Christian doesn’t automatically transform you into Solomon or even MacGyver. Just because you’ve got the Love of Jesus in your heart, doesn’t mean that you can force 2 plus 2 into equalling 5.
In that last paragraph, I should have worded it “the rank stupidity THAT IS SOMETIMES exhibited by SOME OF your fellow Christians”. I apologize to anyone who thought that I meant to say that Christians as a group are stupid.
Deace, Palin had to choose from the two nominees given to her by the Judicial Nomination Committee. She was bound constitutionally to do so. The person she appointed was not on the Planned Parenthood committee when Planned Parenthood started performing abortions in Alaska. Both nominees were pro-choice, but the one she chose was better on oil/gas issues which at that time was the larger concern. But either way a pro-choice pick was going to end up on the court. I covered that pretty extensively in my blog as it happened because I was concerned when I heard it as well. But when you actually look into it you realize she made the best choice she could. She also talks about this in Going Rogue.
Now, why you choose to bash Palin or even Romney for that matter is beyond me as neither have made statements condemning Huckabee? Unfortunately he made a decision that came back to bite him.
And yes, before Steve comes back to tell you “Russ is a Palin fan”, I’ll admit that I think she’s got a lot of potential. What’s at issue here isn’t what Palin OR Romney did: It’s the fact that Mike Huckabee has demonstrated repeatedly that he’s unfit for executive office. Palin could have appointed Damian Freakin’ Thorne to the Alaska Supreme Court, and Romney could have held a Black Mass on the front steps of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City………and neither one of these things would cancel out the fact that Mike Huckabee’s judgement is suspect.
We need to get serious about treating mental illness in this country. Clemmons was hearing voices and convinced he could fly. He should have been committed to a mental institution.
Well, I’m sure that the mental health services in the Arkansas Penal System would have helped him out. If only he’d STAYED THERE!
I’m a Christian, a Republican, and I wasn’t a Huckabee supporter. I supported Romney.
I don’t hate Christians and I’m not looking to use a murderer against anybody. I highly doubt too many others are either. There do appear to be temptations here, but most of them appear to be concerned with deflecting criticism or accountability into attacks on other Republicans.
I would challenge Steve to start acting more like a Christian and less like a petulant liberal.
Christians are supposed to be workers for peace. I don’t see any peace-making in this blog.
I see a lot of finger-pointing.
Christians are supposed to forgive. A good start would be forgiving other Republicans for not supporting the same candidate you do or for not seeing the same flaws you see in other candidates.
Christians are supposed to encourage others to take up the Lord’s path, not condemn them and excoriate them because they’ve fallen off or have yet to find it.
Constructive criticism is a good thing. Unsubstantiated, stereotyped attacks upon a whole group of people…well, Harry Reid thinks the tea party participants are evil…I’ll let you decide how much weight that type of argument holds.
“First, Huckabee proved during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses that sincerity and clear moral convictions trump money and organization in his huge upset of Romney. Second, his presidential campaign revealed to the Republican Party’s Christian Conservative base just how hated it is by the party establishment, and that Republican media bias against people of faith is just as ugly and prevalent as it is among the Democrats. Third, his political ascension also revealed just how cowardly and compromised many so-called “Christian leaders” are when it comes to their political activity. ”
This is as far as I’ve gotten in this wacko “letter” and I’m stopping right here.
Please ANYONE tell me why ANYONE takes this guy seriously. He is NUTS!!!!!
Is Deace stil defending Huckabee. I can’t stand to read this.
All this info about Huck was available BEFORE the caucus but Deace still wants us to believe that Huck has moral clarity none of the rest of them had.
Deace, please just go away.
Deace is a modern-day Pharisee.
Regarding my previous comment here is a link to the blog post I wrote after looking into Palin’s judicial pick – http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/?p=2253.
“Predictably, the Republican establishment and its various media cronies who hate Christians more than the Democrats do have pounced on this story.”
Made the mistake of reading a couple of paragraphs further. Now the guy is not only delusional, he’s a darned liar.
Throw a blanket over him.
I clearly remember all these things came out before the ‘08 caucus(Mikelson had discussions about this at least a few times on his show), but many didn’t wanna hear it because he was “such a good Christian”.
I’m disapointed that there seems to be so many who are so easily deluded. As long as the next charlatan comes along and throws around a few “god words”, these folks will automatically turn off their critical thinking skills again. Even the “Good Book” warns us to be wary of this kind of snake oil!
As for deace, hopefully now a few more of you can see thru his bs and refuse to drink the Kool-Aid!!!
Heh. The opening photoshop on this article is worth the click in and of itself.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/295328.php
Deace is holding his vote until someone as perfect as him decides to run for public office. Yawn.
Screed (n.): a long monotonous harangue or piece of writing
“First, Huckabee proved during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses that sincerity and clear moral convictions trump money and organization in his huge upset of Romney.”
- – - – -
lol. The only thing that Huckabee proved in the 2008 Iowa Caucuses was the fact that the GOP couldn’t nominate a viable candidate. It also was further evidence that the Iowa GOP is downright quirky sometimes – ask Pat Robertson, he knows.
Huck’s success in Iowa had more to do with the other candidates having soft support and less to do with Huck himself. Huck may be a good guy, and he’d make a great leader of Right to Life, but alas there is more to being president than leading the charge against abortion and homosexuality.
I did read this entire “screed” – only because I can’t stand to listen to Deace on the Radio. My only comment on it is that it seems to create quite a few POT / KETTLE moments – defend my guy with examples and reasonings that I will never apply to those I don’t like.
Huckabee is a likeable guy and think he’s well placed to “tell his story” on TV… and hope he stays there. I don’t see him as a viable Republican Politician on the national stage and never did.
You guys all make Mike Huckabee look like he couldn’t govern anything and should be president. Huck was governor for TEN and a half years. He was named one of the top 5 governors in 2005. He was the chairman of the National governor’s association. That is a lot more than any of you would and could ever do.
I mean shouldN’T be in the first sentece. My bad
Seriously Deace, are you for real? I knew during his 2008 Presidential run that Huckabee was a seriously flawed candidate and no conservative.
Yeah, he’s great on social issues, but he’s open door on immigration (and questionable ties to businesses in Arkansas who used illegals for labor), bumped up the welfare state in which illegals got to benefit, supported SCHIP, scholarships for illegals, came out in opposition against a Prop 200 law in the Arkansas legislature, supported a sales tax hike, gas and diesel fuel tax hikes, another sales tax hike, a cigarette tax hike, a nursing home bed tax, another sales tax hike, an income surcharge tax, a tobacco tax hike, taxes on Internet access, and higher beer taxes.
That’s just a few of a long list of non-constitutional things Mick Huckabee did while governor. He also had some very questionable financial dealings. Huckabee is little more than a religious socialist, someone who thinks the govt should do God’s work. I think this highlights the glaring problems of the hyper-religious Theocrats in the GOP. They have no concept of limited govt, the Constitution, the 10th Amendment or most of what the Founders stand for. I don’t care how well intentioned you are, using the govt to advance your agenda is playing with fire, as Washington so correctly pointed out over 200 years ago.
Correspondence between an Arkansas prosecutor and Governor Huckabee’s office. If it’s genuine, then Mike Huckabee has proven to be too unserious for public office:
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/295376.php
Deace accepts money from Planned Parenthood. He is a man in need of prayers and guidance, not a man to be held up as a source of truth or even well thought out opinion. I will say that he did nail Romney.
“Yeah, he’s great on social issues, but he’s open door on immigration (and questionable ties to businesses in Arkansas who used illegals for labor), bumped up the welfare state in which illegals got to benefit, supported SCHIP, scholarships for illegals, came out in opposition against a Prop 200 law in the Arkansas legislature, supported a sales tax hike, gas and diesel fuel tax hikes, another sales tax hike, a cigarette tax hike, a nursing home bed tax, another sales tax hike, an income surcharge tax, a tobacco tax hike, taxes on Internet access, and higher beer taxes. ”
So let’s get this straight: Deace spent hours/days/weeks/months promoting Huck as he was the only pure enough Republican running for prez. Unless one supported Huck, you’re risking going to hell.
Now that Huck has failed the perfection test, we also find out that Deace is accepting money from Planned Parenthood and also supporting pro-abortion Democrats over pro-life Republicans. We still have gullible followers who are willing to follow Deace straight over the cliff and all the while still trying to convince the rest of us that their “principles” are better than ours.
Besides, didn’t I read somewhere in here that Deace emceed an event where the guest speaker refuses to call homosexuality a sin.
Pot, meet kettle. Deace also fails his own purity test, so it’s time for his Kool Aid drinkers to wise up.
DVFO – and that’s the short list. I could go on…and on.
So, a man that grants clemency to a deranged criminal over the protestations of the prosecution is now a man with “strong moral convictions”? Good grief.
Huckabee also had some hopelessly naive beliefs on foreign policy, which, coupled with this tragedy, should put the last nail in the coffin of his presidential bid.
Steve talked about my post on his show in the “Fools and fanatics” section, and said he sent me a private message on this site, making it sound like I was afraid to respond.
So, someone please direct me on how I access that. Because I am not finding anything.
If you’d like to hear the spot, click below. Steve, since you obviously read these forums, feel free to send me an email: mlerette@machlink.com
And please, if you’re going to insinuate I’m afraid to respond to something, at least have the courage to post publicly here. Pot, meet kettle, right?
http://www.whoradio.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/playerccas.html?mps=deace.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/DESMOINES-IA/WHO-AM/FOOL%20120309%20podcast.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=DESMOINES-IA&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&NG_ID=who1040am&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.whoradio.com&SITE_ID=1165&STATION_ID=WHO-AM&TRACK=