Gary Glenn: "Decline is a Choice"

A great message. A great new leader!

Gary Glenn's campaign website is here.

RedState Interviews Gary Glenn

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and one of the primary candidates in next year’s Senate race in Michigan was recently interviewed by RedState.  Gary is actively seeking the Tea Party vote and has been endorsed by Mike Huckabee.

Gary's campaign website is here.

Gary Glenn Addresses 9-12 Group

Things are getting exciting in Michigan for supporters of Tea Party patriot Gary Glenn.  A few days after the above address to the Lenawee 9-12 group, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glennn won the straw poll following Saturday night's Tea Party-sponsored debate in Gull Lake by double digits.  He did even better in a separate poll taken of students in attendance who are still too young to vote in next years election:  Glenn 68 percent, Randy Hekman 23, and Clark Durant 9.  No other candidate received student votes.

This is going to be a great victory for all those who care about freedom, states' rights, fiscal responsibility, the right-to-work, family values and the restoration of our republic on the Constitution of the United States.

Gary Glenn Addresses Michigan Tea Party Group

Here's a man who has been standing in the gap all of his life and is seeking to rescue his country as a United States Senator from Michigan.  In the video below, Gary addresses the Western Thumb Tea Party group in Vassar, Michigan.  All Americans have a stake in this Michigan battle for the future of our country.  To learn more and to support Gary's campaign, see his website here.

Huckabee Endorses Gary Glenn for U.S. Senate

Gary Glenn with son, Hunter, and Governor Mike Huckabee

Former presidential candidate and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee Wednesday announced his endorsement of Gary Glenn in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

Huckabee posted the following statement on the website of his political action committee HuckPAC:

"I am very happy to endorse and support Gary Glenn for the United States Senate in Michigan. Gary is a person whose clarity of conviction is refreshing. He has boldly led on issues of life, traditional marriage, and the Fair Tax. When I needed help in Michigan in 2008, Gary didn't wait until it was convenient or popular, he stood with me out of sheer courage of his views. Gary Glenn won't take a poll to find out where he needs to stand. He will be a Senator that will take his values with him to Washington. I hope you will join me in getting behind Gary with your prayers, your generous and sacrificial contributions, and your vote."  

"The support of a person of Gov. Huckabee's character, leadership, and values is humbling and certainly encouraging, and it's reflective of the grassroots groundswell my candidacy is winning from Tea Party and other conservative activists in the Republican primary," Glenn said.

"No Republican who doesn't have the enthusiastic support of Tea Party and conservative grassroots can defeat Sen. Debbie Stabenow," Glenn said.  "And when conservatives learn about Pete Hoekstra's vote for the Wall Street bailout, debt ceiling increases, and Brady Bill gun control law, and his long record of association with Jimmy Hoffa and opposition to state and national Right to Work laws, they will not support him."

Glenn, who was a featured speaker at the first Tea Party rally in Midland County in April 2009, has won support from Tea Party activists across the state.  Last month, in the only campaign event in which all GOP candidates for U.S. Senate have appeared together, Glenn won a straw poll immediately following a candidate forum in DeWitt sponsored by three mid-Michigan Tea Party groups with an audience of 500 attendees.

Glenn won 32 percent of that straw poll, defeating former Congressman Pete Hoekstra (23 percent) and charter school founder Clark Durant (18 percent).  Three other candidates won support in single digits.

Glenn, for 12 years the president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the state Marriage Protection Amendment approved by voters in 2004, supported Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign and was a Huckabee alternate to the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Gary Glenn's campaign website is here.

U.S. Term Limits Praises Michigan Senate Candidate Gary Glenn for Pledge

Term Limits (USTL), the leader in the national movement to limit terms for elected officials, praised Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn for promising to support and co-sponsor an amendment to the U.S. Constitution limiting congressional terms.

Philip Blumel commented on Glenn’s pledge saying, “Gary Glenn is leading the way for the other candidates for the U.S. Senate by being an early signer of the term limits pledge.

Glenn’s commitment to returning to citizen government in Washington, D.C. is a beacon that should be followed by candidates across the nation.”

Glenn Wins Michigan Senate Debate Straw Poll

Defeats Hoekstra and Durant By Wide Margins

Gary Glenn

DeWITT, Mich. -- Thursday night, three mid-Michigan Tea Party groups cohosted a U.S. Senate candidates forum/debate in DeWitt which drew nearly 500 attendees.

Results of a straw poll of the audience taken immediately after the debate were released Saturday. See below.

Gary Glenn said the results "were consistent with what I've experienced everywhere I've spoken the last six weeks, from Escanaba to St. Joe to Warren."

"When Tea Party and other grassroots activists learn that Pete Hoekstra voted for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout, to raise the debt ceiling to $11 trillion, for earmarks like the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, for the Brady Bill gun control law, and that his campaigns have been funded by Jimmy Hoffa and Pete has long opposed state and national Right to Work laws, they want an alternative," Glenn said. "My mission and message of bringing more freedom, more fiscal responsibility, and more jobs to Michigan and America is making a powerful connection."

 STRAW POLL RESULTS

US Senate Candidate Forum

September 29, 2011

Banquet and Conference Center of  DeWitt, Michigan

Scotty Boman  ===================== 02.33%

Clark Durant=======================18.07%

Gary Glenn ====================== 31.84%

Randy Hekman ====================  09.94%

Pete Hoekstra =====================  23.39%

Pete Konetchy ====================    09.35%

Undecided =======================   05.08%

Glenn Hits Hoekstra on Right to Work at Conservative Confab in South Carolina

Pro-Right to Work Senate candidate addresses business and political leaders in Charleston, site of Boeing plant at center of national debate

Michigan Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn, a champion of Right to Work legislation for three decades, Monday will seek campaign support from business and political leaders from throughout the Southeast, telling them they can't trust former nine-term Congressman Pete Hoekstra to support state and national Right to Work laws if elected to the United States Senate.
 

Glenn will address The Charleston Meeting, a conservative conference in Charleston, S.C., the site of a new 1,000-job Boeing jetliner manufacturing facility that became the focal point of a national debate after Obama appointees to the National Labor Relations Board filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Boeing for locating the new plant in a Right to Work state, where compulsory union membership or financial support is prohibited by law.

MI GOP Senate Race Pits Tea Party Jobs Advocate Against 'Has Been' Defender of Hoffa and Status Quo

Right to Work advocate calls on Hoekstra to publicly disavow Hoffa threat to Tea Parties

By J. Gillman

Gary Glenn

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn, Midland, who has championed Right to Work legislation banning compulsory unionism, Wednesday said fellow GOP Senate candidate former Rep. Pete Hoekstra — because of his close relationship with Teamsters union president James Hoffa, Jr. — should publicly disavow Hoffa’s Labor Day comments in Detroit that some have interpreted as threatening violence against members of the Tea Party movement.

Glenn cited comments Monday in which Hoffa, referring to Tea Party activists, told a Labor Day rally, ”Let’s take these son of a bitches out.”

“Given Pete Hoekstra’s opposition to Right to Work and his cozy relationship and past endorsements by Hoffa and other Teamster union bosses, Pete needs to make clear to the public that his deafening silence does not indicate approval of his friend Jimmy Hoffa’s threats,” Glenn said.

Rick Perry Signed Hate Crimes Bill in Texas

"Thus, if Perry were to become the Republican nominee for president, both major presidential candidates would be on record as having signed into law what is arguably the most dangerous element of homosexual activists’ political agenda, which we routinely characterize — when criticizing Obama and other Democrats who advocate it — as threatening to result in the criminalization of Christianity"

From The New American

By Kelly Holt

Not long after Rick Perry became Governor of Texas, according to an Associated Press release on May 12, 2001 he signed the James Byrd Hate Crimes Act (HB 587) named for a black man in Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death behind a pickup in 1998.

In a bill-signing ceremony on May 11, 2001 Perry said:

As the Governor of our diverse state, in all matters it is my desire to seek common ground for the common good. In the end, we are all Texans and we must be united as we walk together into the future. That’s why today I have signed House Bill 587 into law. Texas has always been a tough-on-crime state. With my signature today, Texas now has stronger criminal penalties against crime motivated by hate.

President Obama signed a similar law, and the Texas statute signed by Perry does effectively establish a special “protected class” status including enhanced sentencing for crimes allegedly motivated by bias against it.

Gary Glenn on the Road to the United States Senate

Michiganders have a great opportunity to dramatically change their voice in the United States Senate and change the direction of America.  The following videos show Gary Glenn on the road to replacing the big government, big spending, socialist and Obamunist, Debbie Stabenow.

Every American concerned about the damage done to our nation by the Obama regime, who believes in liberty, loves this country, and wants a better future for his or her children, has a stake in Gary's campaign.  Here's a candidate with the spark of greatness, a freedom fighter challenging one of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents.  Learn more and help here.

Glenn Declares Candidacy for U.S. Senate

* Marriage Protection Amendment co-author
* Right to Work and School Choice leader
* Health care reform “pioneer”
 

Midland, Mich. — Gary Glenn, 53, of Midland Wednesday filed a formal statement of candidacy for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, for the U.S. Senate in 2012.  Glenn, who said he has crossed the $5,000 fundraising threshhold at which federal election law requires a formal statement of candidacy, is the only GOP candidate to formally file after former Rep. Pete Hoekstra announced his entry into the race.

Noting Hoekstra's votes for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout, earmarks such as the $223 million "Bridge to Nowhere," and budgets and debt ceiling increases that added trillions of dollars to the national debt, Glenn cited "Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

"The last twenty years, Debbie Stabenow and Pete Hoekstra both voted for red-ink budgets and debt ceiling increases that resulted in trillions in crushing new debt on our economy and our children's future," Glenn said. "A Democrat in Congress fourteen years, a Republican for eighteen years plus two more as a lobbyist, a total of over three decades as part of the go along to get along culture that got us where we are now. If we want to end the fiscal insanity in Washington, is it rational to expect we'll get a different result if we keep sending the same people back there over and over again?"

Glenn said the nation's "economy, security, liberties, moral foundation, and founding principles — all that’s made America and Americans exceptional in the history of the world – are under attack from within."

“If they're not stopped, liberal ideologues like Debbie Stabenow and Barack Obama will rob our children of their birthright and turn our country into the United Socialist States of America," Glenn said. "My mission, commitment, and duty is to do whatever I can to help senators like Jim DeMint and Rand Paul and Mike Lee stop them.”

Gary Glenn to Explore U.S. Senate Race Against Stabenow

The best political news we've heard in years!  Our friend, mentor and contributing editor of Sunlit Uplands has announced he is considering a race for the United States Senate against Debbie Stabenow.  This will offer the voters of Michigan the clearest choice they have had in decades, should be the most important race for every patriot concerned about the direction of our country, and knowing Gary's extraordinary political skills, will be great fun to watch.

Gary is a true Christian leader, a gentleman and a patriot.  Michigan has the opportunity to do something great for America in this race.

Dear family and friends,

I jumped off the high dive today.  But if we don't all do something to stop it, our country as we know it is on the brink of being lost, and I feel compelled to do whatever I can to help protect and preserve for our kids what we all love about America.

Lord willing, I can get there and help men like Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee demand and fight for restoration of the limited government principles of our Constitution.    

Please check out my new website: www.garyglenn.us

And please be sure to visit this page of the site in particular.  (Thank you in advance!)

Please also keep Annette and the kids and me in your prayers in the months ahead, as we face this challenge together.  We deeply appreciate your love, friendship, and support...

Salute, and thanks!

Gary

Prominent Mormon Blogger Labels Romney "Chameleon-Like"

By Gary Glenn

Connor Boyack of Levi, Utah -- well-known religion and politics blogger , Brigham Young University graduate, active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and self-described former Mitt Romney supporter -- nails Romney's "chameleon-like qualities" on a broad array of issues, up to and including Romney's personal responsibility for the executive order that actually implemented so-called homosexual "marriage" in Massachusetts.

Boyack posted on MormonBloggers.com:

"Governor Romney took it upon himself -- absent any authority or legal mandate -- to order town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples, making Massachusetts the first state in the country to allow them.

For all his subsequent grandstanding -- criticizing the Court, participating in pro-traditional marriage rallies, and endorsing changes to the U.S. Constitution to require marriage be between a man and a woman -- Romney was either ignorant in regards to his duties as governor, or duplicitous in his actions.

Being bound in no way (and having no authority) to issue such an executive order prior to legislative action, the first homosexual marriages -- and no doubt the impetus for other states to follow suit -- occurred due to Mitt Romney's actions alone."

Many of the issues Connor covers were discussed by multiple critics during the 2008 presidential election cycle, but Connor's critiques -- to the extent they become broadly known -- are something new: he threatens to dramatically multiply the damage to Romney's credibility precisely because, as a practicing member of the LDS Church, he is immune to Romney apologists' knee-jerk weapon of first (or at least eventual) resort: the false characterization of any and all criticism of Romney's public policy record as being motivated by religious "bigotry."

Michigan GOP Majority Eyes ‘Right to Work’ Legislation

The battle for America is playing out dramatically in the nation's heartland.  This struggle between two classes of Americans -- hard working taxpayers described by Obama as "clinging to their guns and Bibles," and the Obamunists -- socialist, governmental elites who fancy themselves the ruling class, and believe they know what's best for the rest of us.  Using the Cloward-Piven Strategy and their handbook for revolution, Rules for Radicals, they are intent on bankrupting and destroying the old Republic so that they might impose a new Marxist order.

Wisconsin makes clear that Americans should get their children out of schools that exist for the benefit of leftist governmental unions.  They provide indoctrination; they most assuredly do not provide education.  Their own test scores testify in every state that they utterly fail to provide the education most parents want for their children.

We believe the outcome of the battle in Wisconsin and other states is crucial to the survival and success of liberty in America.  In this regard, we are not surprised that one of the greatest freedom fighters we have known, and a Sunlit Uplands Contributing Editor, Gary Glenn, is playing a leadership role on what may be a battlefield even more challenging than Wisconsin.

The Michigan Messenger reports:

"Gary Glenn, who runs the American Family Association of Michigan, scored his first legislative scores in Idaho pushing for Right to Work legislation there. Idaho approved Right to Work 25 years ago, and Glenn recently returned to celebrate that win. He says Right to Work is really about civil rights.

'State Right to Work laws are civil rights measures that protect employees against job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation by prohibiting collective bargaining agreements which require employees to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of continued employment, i.e., ‘pay up or you’re fired.’ The result is that each individual is free to choose for himself whether to join or financially support a union at his place of work, without fearing discrimination, retribution, or termination for whichever choice he makes,' Glenn said. 'Obviously, employees in Right to Work states are just as free to exercise their federally-guaranteed right to join or support a union if they wish as they are anywhere else.'

Many Michigan groups, like CALL and a coalition of Tea Party groups who are hosting a day long conference in Lansing later this year, are turning to Glenn for advice, guidance and support in driving Right to Work legislation to the forefront of Michigan’s agenda."

Gary Glenn Interviewed on the Bott Radio Network

Gary Glenn

Gary Glenn, President of the American Family Association of Michigan and Contributing Editor of Sunlit Uplands, was recently interviewed on the Bott Radio Network by Dick Bott, its founder and Chairman and host of BRN’s public affairs talk show “The Complete Story.” The interview was heard on nearly 90 Christian radio stations in 15 states, from Tennessee to California and Indiana to Texas.

Click here to listen.

We think our readers will be especially interested in what Mr. Bott and Gary have to say about the "great pretender," Mitt Romney.  According to the AFA-Michigan website their discussion includes:

AFA-Michigan’s news release this week calling on Gov. Rick Snyder and legislative leaders to act to protect taxpayers from being forced to fund spousal-type benefits for the homosexual “partners” of state employees.  Glenn said the state should instead limit such benefits only to legally married employees as an incentive to encourage and promote marriage, an institution which social studies prove reduces poverty and the need for law enforcement, social welfare, and other government programs. Bottom line: incentivize and promote more marriages, get less government at less cost to taxpayers.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney’s responsibility for the actual implementation of so-called homosexual “marriage” in Massachusetts. As Associated Press reported April 25, 2004: “Gov. Mitt Romney’s top legal counsel told the state’s justices of the peace Sunday to resign if they are unwilling to preside over the marriage of same-sex couples beginning next month. …’If a justice of the peace cannot comply with his or her oath of office, then we would expect that person to tender their resignation from that office.’ …Romney has also ordered changes to the state’s marriage application, replacing ‘bride” and ‘groom’ with ‘Party A’ and ‘Party B.’”

African-Americans’ strong support for traditional marriage despite homosexual activists’ attempts to equate their political agenda with and thus exploit the black church-led Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Gary Glenn Celebrates 25th Anniversary of One of His, and Freedom's, Great Triumphs

"I'm a true believer. The purpose was always individual freedom. It is no longer legal to be discriminated against or fired on the basis of support or nonsupport of a private organization."

Gary Glenn is the most brilliant political strategist we know, a champion of individual freedom, and a columnist for Sunlit Uplands. This week he is returning to the scene of one of his most important political victories for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the campaign to end compulsory unionism in Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman tells the extraordinary story:

Glenn returns to celebrate 25 years of Right to Work in Idaho

Dan Popkey: Glenn returns to celebrate 25 years of Right to Work in Idaho

One of the most polarizing figures in Idaho history is marking a triumph that changed the workplace and solidified the Republican hold on Idaho.

Gary Glenn, now 52, was the baby-faced but ruthless leader of the long campaign to make Idaho the 20th of 21 states to outlaw "union shops," where workers are obligated to pay dues as a condition of employment.

After the passage of Right to Work in 1985 over the veto of Democratic Gov. John Evans, voters affirmed the change 54 percent to 46 percent. The subsequent emasculation of a key component of the Democratic base has changed politics forever.

"It was a big victory for the Republican Party and a big defeat for the Democrats," said Roger Madsen, a former GOP state senator who leads the Idaho Department of Labor. Madsen will join his boss, Gov. Butch Otter, and others Thursday night at a banquet organized by Glenn at the DoubleTree Riverside in Garden City.

The political culture has changed so much that the current Democratic nominee for governor, Keith Allred, declines to take a stand on an issue that was once a Democratic litmus test.

"What a difference 25 years makes," Glenn said.

Jim Kerns, president of the Idaho AFL-CIO from 1981 to 1992 and a key player in a 1970 Treasure Valley grocery strike, said the anniversary dredges up bitter memories. "You can't have an effective strike today in Idaho and everybody knows it," he said.

Steve Ahrens, a former Statesman political editor who became a business lobbyist and favors Right to Work, said the landmark campaign was plenty bitter. "The tactics on both sides were equally despicable," Ahrens said. "They ranged from scurrilous to reprehensible."

Kerns, 71, would just as soon forget it and focus on his grandkids and celebrating his Boise State Broncos. But Glenn, also a big Bronco fan, loves reliving the fight.

He edited 30 hours of video to 27 minutes for the banquet. Highlights include Oscar winner Charlton Heston's pivotal TV spots and lawmakers like Boise Republican Kitty Gurnsey, saying she was voting "aye" so Right to Work backers would go away. Glenn, who moved to Idaho in 1978, engineered defeats of key GOP opponents in order to win near-unanimous Republican support.

The result is a more conservative Idaho GOP and a weaker Democratic Party, Glenn said: "A party that could not sustain itself in the free market of public debate is no longer subsidized by compulsory union dues."

After the 1986 campaign, Glenn went to work for the Idaho Cattle Association and famously was barred from the governor's office by Democrat Cecil Andrus. (Evans also ousted Glenn's video crew when he tried to film the 1985 veto.)

Glenn ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1992 against now-Sen. Mike Crapo.

He spent six years as an Ada County commissioner before being defeated and leaving to become president of the American Family Association of Michigan. He's now the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to overturn the federal hate crimes law on grounds that it infringes on religious freedom.

"I'm held in the same regard among homosexual activists in Michigan as I was by AFL-CIO officials in Idaho," Glenn said.

Kerns takes some comfort in the fact Glenn left. Kerns still calls him a carpetbagger.

He says Right to Work has transformed Idaho into a company town. "Idaho's still a great place to live, but I don't think it's a great place to work," he said.

Union membership has tumbled nationwide since 1985, dropping from 18 percent to 12 percent of the work force.

In Idaho, the decline was steeper, from 12 percent in 1985 to 6 percent in 2009.

Kerns and Glenn disagree on the economic impacts. Kerns points to the relative decline in Idaho wages, from 84 percent of the national average in 1985 to 75 percent in 2008. Glenn cites two decades of job growth that easily exceeded all but a few states.

Researchers also differ. One study says that after you account for the fact the Right to Work states started off poorer, wages have risen faster than national rates. Another says Right to Work has brought a 6.5 percent "wage penalty."

Northwest Nazarene University economist Peter Crabb suggests Right to Work made employment more stable. Boise State economist Don Holley says lower wages may have made the housing bubble worse.

Glenn concedes there's almost religious fervor about the impact of Right to Work.

But economics weren't the most important aspect of the campaign, he said.

"I'm a true believer," he said.

"The purpose was always individual freedom. It is no longer legal to be discriminated against or fired on the basis of support or nonsupport of a private organization."

Mormon Blogger: 'The Chameleon-Like Qualities of Mitt Romney’s Conservatism'

By Gary Glenn

Connor Boyack of Lehi, Utah -- well-known religion and politics blogger , Brigham Young University graduate, active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and self-described former Mitt Romney supporter -- nails Romney's "chameleon-like qualities" on a broad array of issues, up to and including Romney's personal responsibility for the executive order that actually implemented so-called homosexual "marriage" in Massachusetts:

"Governor Romney took it upon himself -- absent any authority or legal mandate -- to order town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples, making Massachusetts the first state in the country to allow them. For all his subsequent grandstanding -- criticizing the Court, participating in pro-traditional marriage rallies, and endorsing changes to the U.S. Constitution to require marriage be between a man and a woman -- Romney was either ignorant in regards to his duties as governor, or duplicitous in his actions. Being bound in no way (and having no authority) to issue such an executive order prior to legislative action, the first homosexual marriages -- and no doubt the impetus for other states to follow suit -- occurred due to Mitt Romney’s actions alone."

Many of these issues were discussed by multiple critics during the 2008 presidential election cycle, but Connor's critiques -- to the extent they become broadly known -- are something new: he threatens to dramatically multiply the damage to Romney's credibility precisely because, as a practicing member of the LDS Church, Connor is immune to Romney apologists' knee-jerk weapon of first (or at least eventual) resort: the false characterization of any and all criticism of Romney's public policy record as motivated by religious "bigotry."


Gary Glenn is a long-time conservative and pro-family activist who co-authored and helped lead the successful ballot campaign to enact Michigan's Marriage Protection Amendment.

Clemency Call Seen Haunting Huckabee

We were very pleased to see Sunlit Uplands contributor, Gary Glenn, standing in defense of Mike Huckabee.

This is a tragic story, but the balance between justice and mercy, as Shakespeare made clear in his great play on this dilemma, Measure for Measure, cannot be achieved through scientific method. Governor Huckabee acted in good faith and made the best decision he could, nine years ago, with the facts that were available to him. He should not be held accountable for actions that could not be foreseen. After all, he's Constitutionally eligible to run for President, hasn't spent 20 years as a member of a church advocating racial hatred and contempt for the United States, and wasn't a community agitator for a criminal Marxist organization.

From The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
By Alex Daniels

A jury won’t determine the fate of Maurice Clemmons, the man who police say gunned down four Lakewood, Wash., police officers Sunday before being shot by a lawman Tuesday.

But for several people close to the man who granted him clemency in Arkansas nine years ago, the political verdict is clear: The bloodshed over the weekend has dimmed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s political hopes.

On Tuesday, Jason Tolbert, the Arkansas coordinator of HuckPAC, Huckabee’s political action committee, resigned.

“The recent news of the last two days along with the response did play a role in this decision but was not the sole factor,” Tolbert said in a statement posted on his Web log, www.tolbertreport.com.

Other former staff members and campaign volunteers vented their frustration on Tuesday.

Huckabee’s justifications for the clemencies he granted as governor were “inadequate,” wrote Joe Carter on a Web site run by First Things, a publication of the Institute for Religion and Public Life, which describes itself as an “interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.”

Carter was Huckabee’s director of opposition research early in the 2008 presidential campaign. He said that Huckabee, a preacher and former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, placed too much faith in “restorative justice” and should have denied more requests for leniency.

“The unfortunate reality is that for politicians, unlike pastors, there are limits to compassion.”

Even some supporters say the weekend violence has undermined a potential 2012 Huckabee bid for the White House.

David Schmidt, director of an online grass-roots organization dubbed Huck’s Army, is among them.

“I’m still with him,” he said. “But I’m not saying this doesn’t hurt him, because clearly it does.”

Tom Forbes, who was Huckabee’s campaign coordinator in Whitman County, Wash., wrote on the Red County Web log that when he found out about Huckabee’sconnection to Clemmons, he “cringed.”

“For Huckabee to punt on his personal responsibility is beyond the pale. Let’s face it. No matter what Huckabee says or doesn’t say, his shot at the presidency is gone.”

‘FULL RESPONSIBILITY’

Huckabee’s first statement on the killings did not mention his role in Clemmons’ release.

“He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence,” Huckabee said in a statement released Sunday. The resulting reduced sentence - from 108 years to 47 years - made him eligible for parole and he “was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time.”

On Tuesday, Huckabee, a Republican, followed up with another statement.

“I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago,” it said. “If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file were presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision.”

Huckabee, who hosts a television show on Fox News and a radio show on the ABC Radio Network, has not said whether he will take another shot at the Republican presidential nomination.

Over the weekend, shortly before the police officers were killed, Huckabee had suggested on Fox News that he was leaning toward skipping the 2012 race.

He has trailed other Republican politicians, notably former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in raising money. But he has scored well, leading the field in several early polls, and conservative Christian voters demonstrated their support for him in September, when he won the Value Voters Straw Poll.

Ed Rollins, Huckabee’s campaign chairman last year, declined an interview request Tuesday.

He said in an e-mail “I still like him and admire him and would not rule out helping him in the future.”

POLITICALLY ‘DIFFICULT’

Huckabee’s record on granting clemencies was an issue during his failed 2008 presidential run.

During his 10 1 /2 years as governor, Huckabee commuted the sentences of 163 prisoners, including 12 murderers.

In December 2007, Romney, one of Huckabee’s rivals in the race for the Republican nomination, criticized the Arkansan for granting pardons and commutations in an “arbitrary or capricious manner.”

Much of the attention on the clemency issue during the campaign was focused on Wayne DuMond, a Forrest City resident convicted of rape in 1984.

Huckabee, who had said he would like DuMond to be paroled, spoke with the state Parole Board in late 1996. Some of the members later said they had felt pressured by Huckabee to release Du-Mond, a claim Huckabee denied. DuMond was paroled in January 1997. Three years later DuMond, who had moved to Missouri, sexually abused and suffocated Carol Shields in a Kansas City apartment. Critics say Huckabee shoulders the blame for working to free DuMond and Clemmons.

“This isn’t Huckabee’s first Horton moment,” wrote Michelle Malkin, a conservative commentator on her Web log on Tuesday. Malkin referred to Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who was released from custody in Massachusetts on a weekend furlough in 1986 and disappeared. Nearly a year later, he raped a woman in Maryland.

Former President George H.W. Bush used Horton’s story prominently in his successful 1988 presidential campaign, when he defeated former Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis, who supported the weekend furlough program.

Bush’s opposition researcher, James Pinkerton, first got wind of the issue when reading transcripts of the Democratic primary debates. Al Gore had raised the issue to suggest Dukakis was soft on crime.

During the 2008 race, Pinkerton was a senior adviser to Huckabee.

“That’s ironic, isn’t it?” said Paul Brountas, who served as Dukakis’ campaign manager.

Brountas said the Horton issue helped cement in voters’ minds the perception that Dukakis was soft on crime. He doesn’t think the issue will stick with Huckabee.

“This is early for Huckabee,” he said. “By the time he announces, much of this will have worn off.”

Pinkerton did not return calls Tuesday. Nor did former Sen. Tim Hutchinson, the former U.S. senator from Arkansas who campaigned heavily for Huckabee.

Arkansas state Sen. Gilbert Baker, an announced candidate for the U.S. Senate, campaigned for Huckabee during his 2008 presidential bid.

“Politically, it is very difficult,” Baker said. “It gives folks an opportunity to make political points.”

He added that he is still a “strong” Huckabee supporter, saying he’d be “favorably disposed” to supporting him again, should he decide to run in 2012.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and another Huckabee supporter, said he’d support him in 2012.

“I don’t think this one decision is going to define Mike Huckabee as a man, a Christian or as a political candidate,” he said.

Schmidt, the director of Huck’s Army, said that it is not fair to compare Clemmons to Horton. Horton was a murderer at the time of his furlough, Schmidt said, and Clemmons was convicted of burglary and robbery.

“It would be comparable if you could see a pattern, or if there were known serious offenders getting out early when they shouldn’t have.”

Does that include Wayne DuMond?

“That’s a fair question,” said Schmidt. “It does open it up for discussion.”

Should Homosexuality Be a 'Litmus Test' for High Court?

"Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, contends the position held by Focus on the Family is the equivalent of 'moral retreat.' 'It's not just the damage caused by Focus on the Family's moral retreat on the issue,' Glenn argues. '[That explanation] will be used by homosexual activists and their allies in the media to further marginalize and delegitimize any pro-family organization that continues to take a Biblical standard.'"

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

Conservative political activists are divided over whether homosexual behavior should disqualify a judicial nominee from consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Focus on the Family's judicial analyst, Bruce Hausknecht, recently told liberal blogger Greg Sargent that Focus would not oppose a Supreme Court nominee solely because of their homosexual behavior. "Our concern at the Supreme Court is judicial philosophy," Hausknecht said. "Sexual orientation only becomes an issue if it effects their judging."

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus, says just like a nominee's ethnicity and life experience, homosexuality should not be a litmus test.

"Someone's sexual orientation or their preferences, none of these things should come into consideration when we're talking about evaluating someone who will make decisions based on precedent under the law [and who will] practice judicial restraint," Horne explains. "Those are the things we look at for whether or not someone would make a fit justice on the Supreme Court."

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, contends the position held by Focus on the Family is the equivalent of "moral retreat."

"It's not just the damage caused by Focus on the Family's moral retreat on the issue," Glenn argues. "[That explanation] will be used by homosexual activists and their allies in the media to further marginalize and delegitimize any pro-family organization that continues to take a biblical standard."

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council agrees with Focus on the Family that homosexuality should not be an absolute litmus test for a Supreme Court nominee. He argues in blog comments that "even Supreme Court nominees deserve some zone of privacy, and...there is at least a hypothetical possibility that somewhere in the country there is a judge who has experienced same-sex attractions, but who also respects judicial restraint and the original intent of the Constitution.

"In the real world, however, the chances of finding a highly-qualified judge who fits both of those descriptions are probably about equal to the chances of a camel passing through the eye of a needle," Sprigg concludes. "So don't hold your breath waiting for social conservatives to 'support' a 'gay' judicial nominee."