Mike Huckabee speaks today at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock. (Photo by Lewis Delavan/Stephens Media)
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Mike Huckabee said today he has not ruled out running for president in 2012 and is not worried about the possibility of facing attack ads over his decision to commute the sentence of a man later suspected of killing four Washington police officers.
“I haven’t ruled anything out, but I think we’ve got to first get through the 2010 elections and see where those take us,” Huckabee said when asked about his plans during an appearance at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
“I’ve told some people that if I jump back into that pool I want to make sure there’s some water in there,” Huckabee said. “It’s not much fun to hit the concrete with your head. So a lot depends on what happens over the next year, and it’s not anything about which I have made a foregone conclusion one way or the other.”
Talking later to reporters, the former Arkansas governor said he is not concerned about the possibility that his 2000 decision to commute the sentence of Maurice Clemmons could be used against him in attack ads if he runs for president a second time.
“If people want to use that politically, they will, and if it’s not that it’ll be something else. Politics is a brutal game, and if you go into it you clearly understand that everything is out there,” he said.
Huckabee told the audience at the Clinton School he shortened Clemmons’ prison term because he believed his 108-year sentence for robbery and other crimes was excessive. He said he would have acted differently if he could have known what Clemmons would do after being released, but he continues to believe in a system in which excesses in the courts can be addressed.
“What I fear is, because of the political backlash from this incident governors in the future will never, ever want to consider clemency again,” he said.
Huckabee appeared at the school to speak about and sign copies of his latest book, “A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.”
