N.Y. Times, "The Strange Case of an Imprisoned Alabama Governor"

[Botany]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/opinion/10mon4.html?ex=1347076800&en=a7dde87c26d95529&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

So when election fraud was proven in Alabama what did The Rove/Gonzales/RNC
crime family do? Get a U.S. Attorney drum up a phony case and send the man to
prison.

"The Strange Case of an Imprisoned Alabama Governor"

By ADAM COHEN
Published: September 10, 2007
Alberto Gonzales is out as attorney general, but there is still a lot of questionable Justice Department activity for
Congress to sort through. The imprisonment of Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama,
should be at the top of the list. Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer and Republican operative, is heading to Washington
this week to tell Congressional investigators that she heard prominent Republicans plotting to use the United States
attorneys’ offices to remove Mr. Siegelman as a political threat. The case should be the focus of a probing Congressional
hearing this fall.

Mr. Siegelman was a major frustration to Alabama Republicans. The state is bright red, but Mr. Siegelman managed
to win the governorship in 1998 with 57 percent of the vote. He was defeated for re-election in 2002 under suspicious
circumstances. In the initial returns, Mr. Siegelman appeared to have won by a razor-thin margin. But a late-night change
in the tallies in Republican Baldwin County gave the current governor, Bob Riley, a victory of a little more than 3,000
votes out of 1.3 million cast.

Mr. Siegelman has charged that the votes were intentionally shifted by a Republican operative. James Gundlach, an Auburn
University professor, did a statistical analysis of the returns and found that the final numbers were clearly the result of
intentional manipulation. Mr. Siegelman wanted to take back the governorship in 2006, but his indictment made it impossible.

If Ms. Simpson is telling the truth, she provides important support for Mr. Siegelman’s claim that his prosecution was
political. In a sworn affidavit, she says she was on a phone call in November 2002 with Governor Riley’s son, Rob Riley,
and Bill Canary, a Republican political operative whose wife, Leura Canary, is the United States attorney for Montgomery.
According to Ms. Simpson, they were discussing the political threat Mr. Siegelman posed, and Mr. Canary said his “girls”
— his wife and Alice Martin, the United States Attorney in Birmingham — would take care of Mr. Siegelman. Ms. Simpson
said Mr. Canary also said the case had been discussed with Karl Rove.

[Hepburn]

1. Holy shit!

Even with all the evil BushCo has done, this info shocked me!

Wow!

[Botany]

4. Gov. Don Siegelman

Is on record as saying, "I smell Karl Rove all over this."

bushco 101

use the U.S. attorneys as "button men" to rig elections and or phony criminal charges
against the "other side"

use the NSA to spy on everybody

use the media to get out "the mesage" you want

let the military industry / complex use the U.S. treasury as their piggy bank

use Blackwater and others to take care of any "problems"

[Hepburn]

6. What shocked me was the conversation that is reported....

...I mean they were so fucking up-front about doing this kind of evil and illegal crap. If this is what they are open about....it scares the heck out of me about what they are covering up!

[Botany]

11. These people think they are above the law

hell after stealing the 2004 election bush attacked Fallujah and
we burned people alive with white phosphorous .....

I read someplace that they moved Don S. to keep him from talking
to the press.

[cali]

23. In GD, L. Coyote has written

thread after thread on this in the last couple of weeks, and he's done some real digging.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Since Siegelman was indicted and convicted

under these fraudulent charges we on the internet have know all about it. How come it has taken this long for ANY of the MSM to come forth with it. If the media had been doing their job it would never have happened. And we see here that stealing the presidency is not the only elections the republicans have done. I will bet that all over this country you will find that there are cases of election fraud where votes have been manipulated and republicans have come out on top. I THINK MINNESOTA IS ONE OF THEM. Phewlenty's come from way behind in the republican Minneapolis are is very very suspect. And how in the hell did Bachman a absolute butt win in Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

[madrchsod]

3. looks like this woman has the goods on these guys...

oh it`s going to be an interesting autumn

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. In the NYT no less! k/r

[enough]

7. k&r

[jhain]

8. Hey Botany,

Did I ever tell you.............

This is EXACTLy the kind of crap I have been waiting for... It WILl all come out *someday*. I just hope I live so long.

[Botany]

9. This story will be killed ASAP ....

.... gotta have some more missing white blond girls stories in the pipeline.

BTW .... i guess you tell everybody that I am ...... :rofl:

[Pirate Smile]

10. Some Corp media coverage finally - good but I'm afraid the story

isn't going to get any play because it is on Patraeus day during 9/11 week.

edit to add - hopefully the Congressional Hearing will get a lot of attention.

[AX10]

12. This smells of Rove!

:puke:

We had a similar case here in southern CT. Chris Shays ended up winning by 5,000 votes in last years election against Dianne Farrell. Many of the towns on the coast and up county that usually vote Republican did not register their votes until the next morning. Those towns included the coastal/lower county towns: Darien, New Cannan, and Wilton, Trumbull and Monroe in the upper county region.

I wonder if their was foul play there because the Republicans control the electoral process in these towns.

[Botany]

15. In central OH

in the House race between Mary Jo Kilroy (D) and Deb Pryce (R)
Kilroy had a 12 point lead, Pryce never polled above 44%, and Fox News
called the race for Kilroy @ 8:30 PM but by a miracle Pryce pulled
50.1% and "won" again.

[AX10]

28. She "won" alright.

Thief!

[bunny planet]

13. Thanks for this Botany.

I think this case is the reason the Pillsbury Roveboy had to resign very suddenly. I hope they've got the goods on him this time.

[Botany]

16. Did I ever tell you that you are my Fav?

Please don't tell the others ...... Rove & Gonzo both had to get out of town
PDQ.

Sadly even if "we" have the goods on Rove it goes to Courts that are packed
with right wing night balls that see it as "God's work" to protect these crooks.

[bunny planet]

19. Awww, thanks for the bunny

I must, for my sanity, still believe that these crooks will be held accountable (in my lifetime please, preferably sooner rather than later).

[flashl]

14. More info about Gov. Siegelman in DU post

Relief for jailed Dem Gov. Siegelman?

[madfloridian]

17. Don't forget Rove started work in Alabama over a decade ago.

He started to work on the judges there in 1994.

Karl Rove's ruthless tactics helped a judge win in Alabama in 1994. Involved a recount.

"All that changed in 1994. Rove brought to Alabama a formula, honed in Texas, for winning judicial races. It involved demonizing Democrats as pawns of the plaintiffs' bar and stoking populist resentment with tales of outrageous verdicts. At Rove's behest, Hooper and his fellow Republican candidates focused relentlessly on a single case involving an Alabama doctor from the richest part of the state who had sued BMW after discovering that, prior to delivery, his new car had been damaged by acid rain and repainted, diminishing its value. After a trial revealed this practice to be widespread, a jury slapped the automaker with $4 million in punitive damages. "It was the poster-child case of outrageous verdicts," says Bill Smith, a political consultant who got his start working for Rove on these and other Alabama races. "Karl figured out the vocabulary on the BMW case and others like it that point out not just liberal behavior but outrageous decisions that make you mad as hell."

[DeepModem Mom]

18. K&R

[in_cog_ni_to]

20. O-M-G! I so hope Ms. Simpson is under protective custody and stays off

small airplanes! THIS IS HUGE!!!!

[althecat]

21. Way cool....

:kick:

[last_texas_dem]

22. K and R. Very interesting piece. nt

[hedgehog]

24. Kick - more people need to know about this political prisoner.

[Totally Committed]

25. kick

:kick:

TC

[DeeDeeNY]

26. K & R

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked, too late to recommend.

Thanks for the thread Botany.

[L. Coyote]

29. Links to research/compilation threads in General Discussion and Research Resources

I tuned in to this thanks to a DU post about the Time magazine article, and started these research/compilation threads:

Jun-01-07 Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1023111

Jul-01-07 GO TO JAIL NOW: Former AL Dem Governor gets 7 years despite ROVE frame-up claim.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1224046

Aug-31-07 Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: Obstruction Of Justice Accusation Unclear = TPM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1704777

Sep-09-07 Political Prisoner Don Seigelman: Republican Lawyer Set To Speak With House Judiciary Under Oath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1770148

Sep-10-07 ****** Official Thread Siegelman = "KARL ROVE WAS DEEPLY INVOLVED" *******
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1777924

===========================
Archive for Researchers, Media and Scholars = Sponsored by Friends of Don Siegelman 2007
http://www.donsiegelman.org

I only recently discovered the leading journalist covering this, Scott Horton at Harpers.
Scott Horton's Siegelman articles: http://www.harpers.org/search?q=Don+Siegelman

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Sept. 10, 2007.
Scott Horton on the strange case of the railroaded governor, Don Siegelman.
Listen to Podcast: http://atlanticfreepress.com/loudblog/index.php?id=131
Download MP3: http://atlanticfreepress.com/loudblog/get.php?web=AFP-2007-09-11-30686.mp3

TPMmuckraker has a great Don Siegelman Archive: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/cats/don_siegelman /

Democracy NOW Aug. 24th, 2007: Political Prosecution? Justice Dept Holds onto Docs in Case of Jailed Alabama Governor Siegelman
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/24/1322201