Huckabee Got There First

Jim Webb's legislation for a bipartisan commission on prison reform is welcome - especially if it leads to improvement of conditions in prison rather than decarceration on a mass scale. Glad to see Arlen Specter will provide Republican cosponsorship. Fairness though requires acknowledging the first politician in years to take the risk of speaking up for this once least popular of causes: Gov. Mike Huckabee. From a 2007 report by Salon.com:

[Huckabee] campaigns on a compassionate approach to wrongdoers, especially those whose crimes are the result of drug or alcohol addiction. At Philly's Finest, he condemned the "revenge-based corrections system," sounding every bit the sort of squishy liberal that the Bill O'Reillys of the world long ago scared into the shadows. "We lock up a lot of people we are mad at rather than the ones we are really afraid of," he said. "We incarcerate more people than anybody on earth." As governor, Huckabee pushed for drug treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent offenders. He pushed for faith-based prison programs, and was critical of governors who "gladly pull the switch" on death penalty cases, an apparent knock on President Bush, who was criticized as governor of Texas for being cavalier about capital punishment.

Will the governor keep speaking about this issue from his new platform on Fox? That would be a good and useful gift to the country and his party.