Comments on: Rove Linked to Siegelman Prosecution

By: John Jakiela

John Jakiela — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:52:55 +0000

The 60 Minuute story on Governor Siegelman not only proves that Governor Siegelman is a political prisoner. The people involved in prosecuting this sham of a case against him should be investigated and thrown in prison.

The best of luck and may God bless Governor Siegelman.

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:28:17 +0000

2002 is when the conversation happened? That is before the prosecution of Siegelman in Birmingham that Martin bungled so badly it had to be dismissed by the Chief Judge in her district.

2002 was after William Canary paid off Martin’s campaign debts. http://alelections.blogspot.com/2006/01/guest-blog-by-siegelman-aide-chip-hill.html It looks like Canary’s girl owed him, even if that meant she had to bring a bogus prosecution to keep Karl Rove happy. (Is that what kept Martin on the “safe” list during the firing of “incompetent” United States’ Attorneys despite the fact that she personally lost the lay down prosecution against Richard Scrushy in Birmingham?)

When Martin flamed out, Canary’s other girl prosecuted Siegelman, but failed to convict him on any counts in the massive indictment except for the few that permitted the Jury to also convict a reviled Alabama figure, Richard Scrushy, the founder of Healthsouth whose prosecution was also bungled by Martin. Siegelman was convicted of bribery in charges that didn’t involve any personal gain to him and that placed Scrushy on a board that previous and unprosecuted Republican Governors had appointed him to. The Government has now asked a Republican Judge to put Siegelman in jail for thirty years, ten more than for Scrushy who sure enough wrote out a gigantic check and paid a bribe. Apparently, Siegelman is big cheese compared to Scooter Libby who only invoked enough prosecutorial wrath to warrant a three year recommended sentence from the Government.

Perhaps the kicker? This story about Martin firing a black prosecutor & being sanctioned just this year for engaging in racial discrimination and retaliation when she fired this lawyer. http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070107/rehire.shtml U.S. Attorneys’ can only hire a new prosecutor when an existing one leaves.
Let’s get this straight — Did Martin go trump up the firing of a black prosecutor to make way for her to have the space to hire Matt Hartt, an employee of the Alabama Attorney General’s office with a less than stellar resume for ethics and a penchant for going after Democrats?

By: Del

Del — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:10:53 +0000

Eddie seems pretty untamable, but I would put nothing past the folks who run the Press Register. (”Mobile Register” no longer—that’s such a limiting name.)

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:17:53 +0000

The really interesting thing about the affidavit is that it appeard to have been filed because Simpson thought Butts had a conflict of interest. NOT because she thought the charges were politically motivated.

Overlooked in all of this is that the ball got rolling on Siegelman’s history of corruption by Eddie Curran’s reporting for the Mobile Register. I DOUBT Karl Rove had anything to do with that.

By: Jeff (no, the other one)

Jeff (no, the other one) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:05:44 +0000

Read the Simpson affidavit here: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/rove-affidavit/?resultpage=1&

Both parties have pulled the same dirty tricks over the years. This IS politics. And wrong is still wrong.

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:13:08 +0000

“According to someone who worked for him. . .”

Well now there’s a verifiable source. And Joe Perkins is the king of sleezeball tactics in Alabama. I’d hardly call him credible on the issue of ethical campaign tactics.

Alabama’s Democrats (like joe Perkins) are fond of blaming their losses in judicial races on Karl Rove and supposedly ‘dirty tactics” so they don’t have to take responsibility for the fact that that brand of jackpot justice alienated the vast majority of Alabama’s voters.

By: mooncat

mooncat — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:19:56 +0000

Sorry the list is such a mess. I accidentally hit Post before I was really finished.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:30:36 +0000

mooncat, very interesting list. Thanks for posting it.

Jeff, that’s just poisonous. Nothing is too low for Rove.

By: Jeff (no, the other one)

Jeff (no, the other one) — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:05:42 +0000

And further down in the article I linked:
“Some of Kennedy’s campaign commercials touted his volunteer work, including one that showed him holding hands with children. “We were trying to counter the positives from that ad,” a former Rove staffer told me, explaining that some within the See camp initiated a whisper campaign that Kennedy was a pedophile. “It was our standard practice to use the University of Alabama Law School to disseminate whisper-campaign information,” the staffer went on. “That was a major device we used for the transmission of this stuff. The students at the law school are from all over the state, and that’s one of the ways that Karl got the information out—he knew the law students would take it back to their home towns and it would get out.” This would create the impression that the lie was in fact common knowledge across the state. “What Rove does,” says Joe Perkins, “is try to make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship. Mark is not your typical Alabama macho, beer-drinkin’, tobacco-chewin’, pickup-drivin’ kind of guy. He is a small, well-groomed, well-educated family man, and what they tried to do was make him look like a homosexual pedophile. That was really, really hard to take.”

By: mooncat

mooncat — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:18:44 +0000

My opinion is that many officials have done or are actively doing things that push the envelope of legality. Most are never indicted for it. The DOJ can’t prosecute everything and ideally they would go after the most serious offenses first and most of the nickle and dime crooks would get a warning, but not much else. The Siegelmam/Scrushy case probably makes the grade, since there was a lot of money involved. What boggles my mind and clouds the whole issue is that, according to this article, the Bush DOJ investigates 7 times more Democrats than Republicans. I just cannot believe that either party has such a monopoly on corruption. From Appendix A of the same source, here are the Alabama state and local officials investigated from 2001 to 2006:

State or Local Official Elected Office Location Investigation and/or
Indictment Party Approx.Date of Story
Don Siegelman Former Governor AL Bid Rigging D 05-28-04
Philip W. Jordan Chair, Co. Comm. Cherokee Co., AL Public corruption D 07-01-04
Leonard Woodall Commissioner Cherokee Co., AL Accepting bribes D 12-01-04
Chris McNair Commissioner Jefferson Co., AL Bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud D 06-05-04
Robert Michael Berry Commissioner Macon Co., AL Accepted drugs for information D 09-24-03
Freeman Jockisch County Commissioner Mobile, AL Kickbacks, Tax Evasion R 11-26-03
John F. Pilati District Attorney Franklin Co., AL Extortion; false statement FBI D 05-11-04
Roger Bedford State Senator Marion Co., AL Extortion D 12-22-01
Mike Millican State Senator Hamilton, AL Investigating extortion D 12-02-01