No stranger himself to pardon controversies, former (and future?) presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is standing behind Gov. Tim Pawlenty over his decision to pardon Jeremy Geifer.

Pawlenty pardoned Geifer after he had served a term in prison for having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, whom he later married.

Prosecutors now say Geifer has sexually abused another underage girl, putting Pawlenty's pardon in the spotlight.

The GOP 12 blog spotted Huckabee, formerly governor of Arkansas, on Sean Hannity's TV show Friday night saying criticism of Pawlenty is "unfair."

HANNITY: Tim Pawlenty, now, has got to spend a lot of time dealing with this issue of a pardon. You had to deal with almost a similar issue.

HUCKABEE: Absolutely, and I will deal with it again. I was a governor 10.5 years. You deal with this stuff. Frankly, the thing that he's being hit with is very unfair.

Tim Pawlenty made a tough decision. He didn't make a decision based on his ability to see into the future. He made the decision based on what he had.

I'll be honest with you. The politically safe position is always to deny. Never, ever get involved in any type of clemency -- whether it's a pardon, a commutation, anything.

Pawlenty didn't show Huckabee the same love a year ago when he landed in hot water for granting clemency to a man who later killed several police officers.

On Laura Ingraham's radio show in Nov. 2009, Pawlenty emphasized that he does not support clemency and would not have granted it in that case.