A case of clemency that's easy to explain
It hasn't been apparent to me why Mike Huckabee favored the release from prison of Wayne Dumond, a patently dangerous rapist who, once released, committed murder. By contrast, it's easy to see why Mike Huckabee wanted to help Eugene Fields after he was convicted in 2003 for driving while intoxicated for the fourth time in less than five years. Fields, after all, was a wealthy developer and major donor to the Arkansas Republican Party. Moreover, according to the New York Times, Fields had Richard Bearden, a former executive director of the state’s Republican Party with close ties to the Huckabee administration, backing his bid for clemency.
Huckabee obliged in early 2004, when he announced his intention to grant clemency to Fields. The announcement meant that the public had the right to comment. Naturally, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) urged Huckabee not to give Fields, a serial offender, yet another chance. Teresa Belew, MADD’s local executive director, made her comments public. This was her right and, given the political “juice” behind Fields, it was also the sensible move.
Huckabee responded to Belew with the harsh petulance (and arguably the "arrogant bunker mentality") to which the political world has recently become accustomed. According to the Times, Huckabee sharply criticized Belew for going public with her criticism of Huckabee's notice of intention to free Fields. In addition, he questioned MADD's motives, stating the organization was simply trying to fan “the flames of controversy that have been stirred in this case by the unusual curiosity of certain media members.”
Further foreshadowing recent themes, Huckabee's petulance took on a personal/political tone. Why, he demanded to know, has MADD "been so public with this letter when during the last campaign season, MADD refrained from public comment regarding my wife’s opponent, a public official with several D.W.I.’s, one of which was in a state-owned car?” Huckabee was referring to the fact that his wife had recently lost her campaign to unseat Arkansas’ incumbent secretary of state, Charlie Daniels.
The Huckabee campaign insists that the governor's decision to release Fields had nothing to do with political donations and connections. Instead, Huckabee simply made a “tough call” — one that the ever-compliant Arkansas Parole Board supported — to release a model inmate at a time when the state’s prisons were overcrowded.
But the claim that politics was not a factor is difficult to square with Huckabee's quickness to invoke raw personal politics in his exchange of views with MADD. This is a man, it seems, for whom nearly everything is political, personal, or both.
Huckabee's explanation is also difficult to reconcile with common sense. The fact that Fields was a model prisoner had no bearing on the overriding question of how likely he was to engage in drunk driving again once released from prison, where one can neither drive nor (presumably) drink. The serial nature of Fields' offenses would surely have precluded early release had Huckabee engaged in the good faith review that faithful execution of his duties as governor demanded.
Not long after his release, Fields was arrested again for D.W.I. According to the police report, his Chevy truck crossed the center line of Highway 59 directly into the path of an oncoming police car, which he missed. Fields' blood-alcohol level measured 0.18, more than twice the legal limit. Fortunately, but no thanks to Huckabee, no one was injured.
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