Dakota Beacon

Here’s something for you term-limit fans to think about.  This week term-limited Governor Haley Barbour (R) of Mississippi left office with quite a flourish: he pardoned some 200 convicted felons.  A few years ago un-elected Tennessee Governor Blanton did the same.  There is no doubt about it: a lame-duck executive without principles is a dangerous person.  Just as a lame-duck Congressman or Senator is dangerous because we have no leverage over him and he can therefore flout our objections to whatever end-of-term folly he might have in mind, so a lame duck, term-limited governor can wreak havoc without looking over his shoulder.

 The pardon action is problematic for several reasons, constitutional ones as well as good old common sense ones.  In practical terms, take a moment to mull over the realities.  Among those released and pardoned are four murderers and assorted and sundry carjackers, woman beaters and others.  David Gatlin, convicted of the murder of his wife as she held their baby, and a friend, for example.  He left the baby on the dead mother’s body.  Other equally brutal murderers went free this week.  Gatlin had just been turned down by a parole board for early release when his pardon came through. 

 One is stunned by the sheer recklessness of such an act by a state governor and left wondering why?  It is known that some of these convicts were in a work-release program where they worked at the governor’s mansion.  Presumably some of these hardened killers brought Barbour his afternoon tea.  Or whatever. There are myriad theories, some quite lurid, to explain the action of Haley Barbour and speculation is running rampant.  We needn’t advance any of them here.

 All we know for sure is that these convicted killers are now on the loose, with the legal right to firearms and whatever other rights the normal law-abiding citizen enjoys.  Which leaves the surviving victims and the survivors of the victims at risk.  Under Mississippi law, they were to have 48 hours’ notice.  There isn’t even a witness protection program for them.  And how would you like to be in the shoes of the district attorney that won the conviction? Or the jurors who sat in the case?  Would you like to serve jury duty in Mississippi after this?  The murderer you sent up probably had a good week or two to study your face . . . and probably knows how to find where you live, thanks to state-of-the-art communications electronics frequently found in prison rec rooms.  Former Governor Barbour will be a little harder to find, or at least well-protected.  He can go wherever he likes, now, unlike the victims, otherwise known as “Fish in a Barrel”.

 Of course this is not an isolated case.  As mentioned above, former Tennessee Governor Blanton did this, and, lest we forget, that folksy guitar picker and man of God, former Governor Huckabee of Arkansas.  And others before him.  Had Huckabee been held accountable for the disastrous result of his pardon of Washington State cop killer Maurice Clemmons, Haley Barbour might have had second thoughts.  But, no.  Huckabee went on to a cushy celebrity spot on FOX NEWS instead.  And seems to have clung to his image as a paragon.  That he was not disciplined by the Republican Party is an outrage. 

 The Republican Party should take care that it does not carry the “Eleventh Commandment” too far and leave itself open to a certain degree of culpability here If Haley Barbour, also, survives this off-hand attitude toward public safety, we must hold the Party responsible for abandonment of principle . . . in yet another area. 

 Barbour is in disfavor with many Conservatives and constituionalists and citizens’ groups such as the Castle Coalition, due to his veto of legislation giving property owners protection from the use of eminent domain to benefit private entities.  The Republican Party needs to clean house.  We should not open our arms to just anyone and call him a “Conservative.  Barbour has been calling himself that for years and by extension, inattentive Republicans have therefore accorded him that status. 

 The Republican Party, like the nation it hopes to represent, is in big trouble these days.  It is in an identity crisis of its own and of its own making.  Even while we watch it atrophy as it attempts to be more Democrat than Republican, while it contorts itself to be a “big tent” that embraces everyone and every position, its own core is disintegrating.  It seems to have lost its soul.

 Arguably one of the best and brightest and most resoundingly successful of Republican governors, New Mexico’s Gary Johnson, found himself outside the door this year, while the Party ranges around every nook and cranny to find a left-enough leaning candidate for President.  The party that favors a left-of-center Chris Christie over a Gary Johnson is no alternative to the socialist Democrats now in the driver’s seat.  And by labeling such as Haley Barbour and Mike Huckabee “Conservative Republicans” the Party advertises its bankruptcy.  Will it survive its fear of its own identity?  I hope so.  We shall see.  Unless it shapes up I will join many others in calling myself  “Independent”.

 Sally Morris is a member of Americans for Constitutional Government and the Executive Committee of the Valley Tea Party Conservative Coalition, for whose website (vtpcc.com) she also blogs.  She has been an active member of the Republican Party in both North Dakota and Minnesota.