By GARY BAUMGARTEN
Paltalk News Network

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, the darling of the conservatives in the Republican Party, and a GOP presidential nominee hopeful last year, is getting blasted by his own base.

The conservative blogosphere is all over Huckabee for granting clemency to the man suspected in the killings of four police officers in Washington state.

The fact that so many people who share political ideology - and party affiliation - with Huckabee would publicly part with him on a matter of principle is actually a healthy sign for the nation. Much as many progressives who worked so hard to elect Barack Obama likely will react following his speech Tuesday night announcing that he'll be sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Too often, too many members of the public take positions they're told to take by their respective parties. Too often, too many people are reticent, for partisan reasons, to question or criticize their fellow Republicans or their fellow Democrats.

These rifts within the parties shows that there are some people who put what they believe ahead of partisan politics. Whether they are ultimately right or wrong isn't the issue. What matters is that they are thinking independently. And that's something that - if it's sustained - can only be healthy during discourse of issues of national significance.

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