Mike Huckabee For President 2008

[EdF]

On Pardons, his response to Sean Hannity:

HUCKABEE: Sean, I did something that governors ought to do. I took my job seriously. If I had acted in my own political interest, do you know how many clemencies I would have given? Zero. Because no governor is ever in trouble for denying one. You only get in trouble for actually granting it. But it's part of your job. And if people want a person elected president who looks after his own political interests rather than taking that job seriously and looking at each case with responsibility, I'm sure there's somebody else that will play politics with the lives of other people.

Let me mention two things — let me tell you why this isn't going to be an issue when it comes down to the presidential race. In the first place, crime went down in my state during my tenure as governor, not up. The second reason is I had to do something — and I did it — that no other candidate, Democrat or Republican, has done. And that's — I had to carry out the executions of 16 different people.

Now, you don't call a guy soft on crime when you carry out executions. So the whole idea that somehow I'm a soft guy

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316425,00.html