Former Arkansas governor and now presidential candidate Mike Huckabee sounded almost indignant last week describing how police in his home state charged Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards with reckless driving back in the 1970s. When Huckabee met Richards last year, he righted that perceived wrong by pardoning the rock star. Cynics accused Huckabee of giving the famous special treatment, saying he wouldn't pardon the average citizen. To which Huckabee responded: "No, I wouldn't. . . . But here's the deal: If you can play guitar like Keith Richards, I'd do it for you."And here's the video of Huckabee basking in his memories of Keith. Put up with the commercial, because the video shows Huckabee glowing with love for the guy and even imitating his English accent. And how often do you get to hear a presidential candidate laughing off the notion of equal justice under the law?
September 1, 2007
When Huckabee pardoned Keith Richards.
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13 comments:
What a bad combination for a candidate-- the belief that government should be more powerful to control our lives, coupled with the belief that the law is what he says it is.
People think that describes Bush?
Ha! You ain't seen nothing yet with Huckabee.
There is that, I guess. And now that you mention it, what we need from the leader of a nanny state (which Huck aspires to be) is the ability to tell us a good bedtime story.
After all, it wasn't too long ago that in a Presidential debate, we had someone represent all of us as the government's children.
It must be an Arkansas thing.
This does rub me the wrong way. But does the pardon have any practical effect, really? Richards did his jail time and paid his fine, so isn't this just a matter of an authority doing something slightly goofy but practically inert?
On rare occasions the law must bow before art.
Ann:
"And how often do you get to hear a presidential candidate laughing off the notion of equal justice under the law?"
With increasing frequency, actually. For starters, there's the pardon of Libby for a term equivalent to many being served today by people around the country,for the same charges.
There's a longer list, but there's also grass to mow, so I'll let someone else flag them.
Once a Baptist preacher always a Baptist preacher.
The ability to preach well, sing well, play well, has long been a way to rise above the normal constraints of us layfolk. The rules don't apply if you can stand on stage and put on a show.
The whole thing here reminds me a little of a Baptist minister trying to be hip and cultured, only a few decades behind the times as Baptist preachers are apt to be.
I know with my background I'm supposed to like Huckabee, been told that in direct terms. But I just don't yet.
Maybe it's because I have a lingering distaste for that kind of pastor. Friendly, caring, and a little too controlling, unless you can be used to help his cultural bona fides.
How often do you get to hear a serious GOP Presidential candidate advocate permanent voting representation for D.C. in Congress, as Huckabee did yesterday:
They’re American citizens. They pay taxes and it just doesn’t seem right that someone could be even partially disenfranchised.
When someone mentioned that most GOP leaders oppose the bill, Huckabee replied:
I’ve been running for president of the United States, I am not running for president of the Republican Party.
Huckabee's comments about both Richards and D.C. are startlingly refreshing.
Ahem ...I believe Richardson wouldn't be the 1st notable to get a "symbolic pardon" for something done long ago. Reagan, Ray Charles, and a heroin bust comes to mind.
I don't think Huckabee charged Keith like a Clintonista would, for a pardon.
Nor does the role model for Captain Jack Swallow and drunken coconut palm climber Keith worry much about reputation. This is the guy that was reputed to have the iron constitution to survive global thermonuclear war, and likely to snort the surviving cockroaches, if they were the only other things left...
If we want examples of privilege creating a 2-tier justice system - it would be on the powerful and famous or people adroitly using the Victimhood defense in a Therapeutic culture - that actually did escape proper justice.
A women getting away with murder for shooting a sleeping husband in the back by a jury of dunces.
Patrick Kennedy, Lohan - no jail just Rehab and a fine out of their regular coke fund's spare change...
DA Michael Nifong having the Good Old Boy's network closing ranks around him at his contempt trial about his lying and perjuring himself 3 times in open court - to coax & legitimize their fellow crony judge to give Nifong a sentence of 1-day in jail for his lies. And Nifong was lying to obstruct evidence and railroad people.
Internet Ronin: "How often do you get to hear a serious GOP Presidential candidate advocate permanent voting representation for D.C. in Congress, as Huckabee did yesterday:"
They’re American citizens. They pay taxes and it just doesn’t seem right that someone could be even partially disenfranchised.
Well, Guam is US citizen territory, also "full of disenfranchised voters", and they too want Statehood and the clout of 2 US Senators. Samoa is interested, too...
California would no doubt like it of they could have Senatorial Representation on a level that DC wants for its small population - think of how much better off California would be sending 70 new Senators to the Bigger and Better Congress!
So do 20 other cities that are larger than The Imperial City, and who also are disenfranchised in the sense that they don't run the State they are in...don't get their own Senators..
The other part of this is the argument that proponents of DC Statehood try to scream down with accusations of racism! racism!
1. DC has the greatest degree of Federal parasitism of any place in America. For every tax dollar DC residents send to the Feds, they get 6.48 dollars in Federal benefits back.
That doesn't include the billions Congress spends anually to keep government buildings and workers fairly secure - even pre 9/11 - mainly from DC residents.
2. DC's government elects drug addicts, and has screwed up so badly on competence and corruption grounds that Congress has had to take over running the place on several occasions.
3. This is a city that vies with NOLA, Camden, Detroit for highest murder rate, highest addiction rate, highest illegitimacy rate.
If DC underclass residents wish to be "franchised" they should be encouraged to move elsewhere. Nothing would please the real estate speculators that see flourishing businesses and apartments rising from what are now violent slums - more.
The obvious solution would be to give the DC residents back to Maryland - but even prosperous Democratic Maryland wants nothing to do with them.
Goodness, you mean he pardoned someone 30 years later, such a bad thing. NOT. Especially as I'm pretty confident that Keith Richards is not a regular driver on Arkansas highways.
Now I don't know if I'd pardon Keith Richards, but I sure would Eddie Van Halen, for the same reason as Huckabee gave.
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