No More Mr. Nice Guy!

I beg your pardon, I never promised you the Rose Garden...

Maha has an interesting post on Mike Huckabee's inconsistent record with death row prisoners. Apparently, if you rape a relative of Bill Clinton, that qualifies you for a full pardon, but if you convert to a religion other than Christianity, you get executed sooner.

Two points struck me. First, Huckabee is quoted as saying with respect to multiple rapist-murderer Wayne Dumond (who raped and murdered again after Huck had sprung him and written him a love letter): "None of us could've predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out." This is eerily reminiscent of George Bush Junior whining: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Secondly, there was the following detail from the case of another Arkansas prisoner, Frankie Parker: "Frankie had requested a Bible, the only book allowed in solitary confinement." Good grief, isn't solitary confinement punishment enough - why throw in the Book o' Blood as well? Seriously though, this strikes me as a rather glaring violation of church-state separation. And is it really the best book for rehabilitating violent criminals? It's packed full of violence, brutality, rape, incest, murder, genocide, and every imaginable evil - all either performed or commanded by Jehovah.

Anyway, this whole ghastly story underlines the moral bankruptcy and infantility of the Rev. Huckabee and his version of hard-right Christianity. If he gets into the White House, we're all on Death Row.