(Here are our very picturesque dorms in very chilly Bennington)
Now that we’ve had a bit of time to reflect on what Thursday’s Iowa wins mean, Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy has done a smart take on the Iowa winners from the perspective of sentencing policy in a post that he calls:
A huge win for sentencing hope over fear in Iowa
As usual with Berman, he’s got his own intriguing spin. Here’s the opening:
Though the Iowa caucuses obviously were about a lot more than sentencing law and policy, I cannot resist putting a sentencing spin on the results:
* The two biggest winners in Iowa — Mike Huckabee and Barak Obama — have the most progressive records and/or positions on sentencing issues: Huckabee has an extraordinary clemency record from his days as Arkansas governor; Obama has set forth the most developed and thoughtful position papers on sentencing reform.* The two biggest losers in Iowa — Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton — have the least progressive records and/or positions on sentencing issues: Romney has taken pride in never granting a pardon and he attacked Huckabee on his clemency record; Clinton showed her affinity for tough rhetoric over sound policy and fairness by opposing making the new crack guidelines retroactive (details here and here).
Of course, crime and punishment issues played a very minor part of the Iowa campaign. But this fact is a itself an important: Clinton’s political team, as noted here, last month “said that Obama’s support for retroactivity in drug sentences would kill him with tough-on-crime white independents.”
I want to repeat that last sentence because it’s my personal favorite: Clinton’s political team, as noted here, last month “said that Obama’s support for retroactivity in drug sentences would kill him with tough-on-crime white independents.”
Would that be like with the Iowa independents?
HA! Guess not.
Hillary Clinton signaled that she intends to play on Obama’s as yet unexploited political weaknesses: “Who will be able to stand up to the Republican attack machine?” she asked at an appearance in Nashua.
Hillary’s aides point to Obama’s extremely progressive record as a community organizer, state senator and candidate for Congress, his alliances with “left-wing” intellectuals in Chicago’s Hyde Park community, and his liberal voting record on criminal defendants’ rights as subjects for examination.
Along the same lines, ABC reported that Clinton aides gave the network various examples, of Obama’s controversial stands. The aides cited Obama’s past assertion that he would support ending mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, pointing to a 2004 statement at an NAACP-sponsored debate: “Mandatory minimums take too much discretion away from judges.”
(from Thomas Edsall at HuffPo)
Some interesting insight into Obama’s criminal justice work in the Illinois legislature –
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_01/012841.php
Liberals were attacking Huckabee for his clemency record and falsely accused him of releasing someone just because the victim was related to Clinton. Now, Huckabee is praised by some of the same for his “progressive” record on clemency?
Maybe other families and victims would not approve of the early release of the criminals who harmed them but whom liberals cry to let out, often based upon nothing but statistics rather than individual cases. Is it okay to release anyone as long as that criminal didn’t do something against your own family or to a Democrat? Is that being a compassionate progressive?
Each clemency should be based upon the individual facts and circumstances of the case rather than complaints based upon popular “causes,” which are further based on general statistics and ignore individuals.
How’s that global warming thing looking at Bennington?
God! I don’t believe it that there is something that Woody and I almost agree on. I think Huckabee’s clemency record is fair game. I sure think that too many people are in the jug but that doesn’t mean that I think NOBODY belongs there. And, call my crazy, but a guy who rapes a teenager seems a good candidate and for Huckabe to ignore all the evidence because that Teenager was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton and, therefore, subject to the “Clinton Deraingement Syndrome” that plagues the right which caused old Mikey to press a reluctant parole board to release him in the face of evidence that he was still a menace to society – a hunch born out by his subsiquent murder/rape spree in Missouri ought to be discussed in a Presidential race.
Hillary will have to do better than that! I suggest other lines of attack. But I don’t want to bring the rath of Reg down on me this early in the day!
I welcome any and all attacks by Hillary on Obama. The more the better. For whatever reason, it’s not her most endearing or effective mode.
BTW Reg I don’t want to bring you down because a little euphoria is a good thing. But over at the GROUP NEWS BLOG – the successor to the blog of the late, great Steve Gilliard one of the writers “Lower Manhattanite” wrote something that chilled me as much as worried me because it simply can’t be ignored.
The night that Obama gave his speech LM watched and was uneasy. He wasn’t sure why till his mother called from Harlem. “Is he wearing a vest?” Mom wanted to know? And where were all the people around him? Was she needlessly worried? LM noted she was around when Malcom got it and MLK. I’d add RFk. I watched him that June night and thought that Chicago was going to be interesting (I was working for McCarthy then – lost causes are my specialty) and a few hours later the world changed,
There’s a lot of humor today about about Bill O’Reilly’s encounter with an Obama aide and the secret Service. But now I’m not so sure that its so funny. Supposedly one of the reasons Colin Powell didn’t run was his wife’s fear of just this thing. If Barack wins NH (and I think he will) this has to be considered.
It’s clearly already been considered by the people who really need to consider it…Michelle and Barack. I’ve seen his Secret Service guys and they are formidable – I think he’s in the best of hands for security – much better than Malcom or MLK. Hell, Reagan got shot. The pope got shot. Two Kennedys got shot. It could happen to any public figure any time.
More evidence of Huckabee’s pardoning excess….
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/01/05/presidential_candidate_pardons_keith_ric
It’s rumored that Keith Richards may have used drugs since the pardon.
howdy I quite enjoyed this website .