Buh bye, KKKarl

The thing is, I think we haven't seen the worst of him yet. He's just going to San Antonio County, Texas, to plot the theft of the '08 elections in unobstructed peace and obscurity, and for an excuse not to answer Congress' subpoenas.

Who knew Alabama was so intriquing?

Yankee news scrubbed this, but I find it interesting that, after Alabama attorney Jill Simpson last month told all about how Karl Rove manipulated the U.S. Department of Justice prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, Simpson's house burned clean to the ground. Alabama blogger Robby Scott Hill, in a take off Eugene Debs' famous speech, gives his courageous take on it.

Until Jill Simpon's (sic) house is rebuilt, I am homeless. So long as my attorney colleagues are made into political prisoners and placed in the criminal element, I am in it and as long as Don Siegelman, Larry Sutley and Steve Russo remain in prison, I am not free.

Who would want to be a member of a Bar Association that allows prosecutors to tread upon The Bill of Rights, inflict these injustices and go unpunished? We fought a war against Great Britain to be free from such tyranny. National Security is the age old cry of the tyrant and is just another way of depriving us of our liberties. These men have been framed like my mother.

New York lawyer Scott Horton wrote a good recap on the whole Siegelman case this month at Harper's magazine, but you have to subscribe to read it all.

And speaking of fascism, Scott Horton also wrote a fascinating piece July 16 about philosopher Leo Strauss and the media for Balkinization, a legal blog I like a lot.

And speaking of Leo Strauss, the guru of fascism was the impetus for the hysterically funny play, "Embedded," that Oscar winner Tim Robbins wrote, directed and acted in on off-Broadway a few years back. "Embedded" now is on DVD -- not as crisp as the real thing on stage, but very well worth the $18.

N.J. joins the Resistance

Former N.J. Attorney General Robert Del Tufo is among a bipartisan group of 44 former AGs who asked the Senate and House Judiciary Committees July 13 to investigate the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman for its "potential inappropriate political interference in the offices of United States Attorneys," Wayne Madsen (subscription only) is reporting. Our radar honed in on Siegelman June 1 and also here.

The evidence that Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff to George W. Bush, used the U.S. Department of Justice to orchestrate the prosecution from the White House for the National Republican Committee so Siegelman would lose the election, even though it seems as if he actually won, is growing. Madsen reports it turns out a "dinner party" at Rove's D.C. home March 7 and his Florida vacation home on another date actually included others on the Siegelman prosecution team. It's not a stretch to assume these were partisan strategy sessions.

Madsen further reports:

We have also learned that a number of FBI field agents have been deterred in investigating the interference by the White House in the Siegelman case. That has resulted in a schism between FBI field offices and politically-motivated U.S. Attorneys offices, particularly federal prosecutors who are considered "loyal Bushies." The interference is reportedly being directed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove.

Upon sentencing, Republican federal judge Mark Fuller denied Siegelman bail pending appeal and did not even grant the ex-governor the cusromary 45-day window to report to jail�in order to put his affairs in order. Furthermore, Siegelman was ordered handcuffed and shackled in leg irons as he was immediately taken to prison after his sentencing.

Yet, Bush deigned jail too harsh for poor little I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to spend even a day there on his conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice in the conspiracy to leak the name and cover company of highly classified CIA NOC Valerie Plame Wilson and Brewster-Jennings Co. Siegelman's crime must be terrible if Bush didn't also commute his sentence, right? His crime was that as governor, he reappointed a hospital executive to an unpaid state health care panel, as did the three governors before him, coincidentally to the executive giving money to a charity so loosely tied to Siegelman that I can't remember how. What a danger to our national security, right?

DoJ made political hay

The U.S. Department of Justice shouldn't, but does, operate as an extension of the Republican National Committee, through or around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The RNC pulling DoJ strings to turn Alabama's gubernatorial race last fall demonstrates it.

And what's this got to do with New Jersey, Molly, you ask? Bear with me, please.

It looks like a former Democratic governor there would have won -- despite Karl Rove to the rescue to ensure a criminal investigation of him -- if it weren't for a single polling district's electronic black box that Republicans alone "recounted" and found Bob Riley narrowly won. Fancy that. But that's another story. Time magazine this week reported about that "federal investigation" (deja vu yet?):

William Canary reassured others on the conference call ... that he had the help of a powerful pal in Washington. Canary said "not to worry — that he had already gotten it worked out with Karl and Karl had spoken with the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice was already pursuing (former Gov. and Dem candidate) Don Siegelman (portrait at left), the (Dana Jill) Simpson affidavit says. Both U.S. attorney offices subsequently indicted Siegelman on a variety of charges, although Leura Canary (Canary's wife and U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama) recused herself from dealing with the case in May 2002. A federal judge dismissed the Northern District case before it could be tried, but Siegelman was convicted in the Middle District on bribery and conspiracy charges last June. ...

Siegelman was convicted of appointing (former HealthSouth CEO Richard) Scrushy to a hospital regulatory board (egad! how unqualified!) in exchange for a $500,000 contribution to a campaign for a state lottery to fund education (to fund education? the cad!). Defense lawyers have argued that Siegelman drew no personal financial benefit from Scrushy's donation to the lottery campaign, and they note that Scrushy had served on the hospital regulatory board under three previous governors, before Siegelman reappointed him (REappointed?). The reappointment, they have argued, offered little of value to Scrushy except more work.

Funny that, according to Simpson, one of the men in the conference call said, "Siegelman's just like a cockroach, he'll never die, what are we going to do?" (creeeeepy!) before offering reassurance Rove was having the DoJ take care of the governor's race. Canary is the one who seems kinda "cockroachy":

Canary was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to serve in the White House as special assistant for intergovernmental affairs, and then named chief of staff of the Republican National Committee. Later in the 1990's he also worked closely with Karl Rove in a successful series of campaigns to get Republicans elected to Alabama's state courts.

So, what about New Jersey?

The New Jersey Republican State Committee seems to insist on beating a dead horse until it can squeeze nothing into something to political benefit from Gov. Corzine's personal emails with Carla Katz, one of the state labor unions' presidents who had a two-year romantic relationship with Corzine ending in 2004. An independent ethics panel of ex-judges, after reading the ex-couple's emails from personal, nongovernment computers, reported they did not collude in labor negotiations. Now the RSC wants a judge to order Corzine and Katz to hand their personal emails over to the GOP.

How long do you think it'll be before the RSC insists U.S. Attorney Chris Christie join its salacious voyeurism? I don't see Christie resisting too hard, given he created the fodder for the RSC's fibs about Robert Menendez being "under federal investigation" in last fall's Senate race here. But maybe Christie sees the unsinkable USS Karl Rove going down like the Titanic.

And, really, is any of this any more corrupt than the investigation into New Jersey State GOP Chairman Tom Wilson's lobby company receiving $2.5 million from Burlington County Bridge Commission? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Update, more glass in Wilson's house: Seems the RSC and legislative campaign committees paid Wilson's wife, Lysa Israel, more than $550,000 for "fundraising" in the past 30 months while her husband was state GOP chairman, a bit of a conflict. In all, about $850,000 of New Jersey GOP donors' money has gone straight into the Wilson family's bank accounts, NJpolitics.com says is shown in reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission and the Federal Election Commission.

That's not including Wilson's salary, which the RNC refuses to divulge. He wants every aspect of Corzine's and Katz's personal lives on public record, but he's not so keen on his own being out there. Hmmm. The report says it appears to be more than $150,000 a year, though. GOP donors probably thought their money would go to candidates.