Mike Huckabee’s Willie Horton Moment

From ABC’s The Blotter:

A Missouri mother says she will do “whatever it takes” to stop former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee from becoming president, because he freed the man who went on to rape and murder her daughter, Carol Sue Shields.

“I can’t imagine anybody wanting somebody like that running the country,” Lois Davidson of Adrian, Mo., told the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Dumond was initially sentenced to life plus 25 years for raping a 17-year-old Arkansas high school cheerleader. In 1999, a parole board voted to free Dumond, after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee announced his desire to see him released.

Look, Gang… Huckabee may be doing well out in Iowa, but this stuff is NOT going to play well in New Hampshire, once it takes hold.  And lest we forget, Huckabee’s already in trouble up there. They remember very well up there, Willie Horton. For those of you who don’t recall the ’88 election….

” … After stabbing a defenseless gas station attendant 19 times during a robbery, Willie Horton was arrested and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. Eleven years later, Horton was given a ‘weekend pass” from prison and his unexpected freedom resulted in another sadistic rampage. ” -From the jacket of “Willie Horton: True Crime and Its Influence on a Presidential Election” by Massachusetts-based author Steve Takesian

But let’s recall further… Wikipedia:

On June 6, 1986, he was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return. On April 3, 1987 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a local woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted, but was later captured by police after a chase. On October 20, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years.

That weekend pass was provided him by a program supported by then Governor Mike Dukakis.

Now, to understand the depth of that situation, one needs to understand how deeply the anger at Dukakis was felt in New England… and remains to this day, for his support of this program. A goodly amount of his support, even among staunch Democrats went to Bush in 88, as a direct result of that situation. This is not just a situation of the perception of his being weak on crime, but being just downright STUPID. (Granted there were other indications of his lack, such as this photo op)

Now… after that lesson, I’d not have thought to find anyone else being anywhere near such an incident. Yet, along comes Huckabee, who recently told CNN,

“None of us could’ve predicted what Dumond could’ve done when he got out.”

Really, Mike?  How disconnected must you be to NOT understand that eventually, there’s going to be violent deaths occurring because of these kinds of programs, particularly given the experience of Dukakis, ten years earlier?

If you’re really that dense, the nation doesn’t deserve you walking around unsupervised, much less you being president.

See also, Memeorandum who has discussion and more links on the subject.

Update: (Bit)

NRO’s Byron York takes this one up… and the added details make Huckabee a troubling candidate.

Nice to know Michelle’s reading Bitsblog.