The permanent Republican majority:Part one: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor

Source: The Raw Story



The permanent Republican majority:
Part one: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail


Part one of a Raw Story Investigates series on the architects and the execution of backroom Republican politics

For most Americans, the very concept of political prisoners is something remote and exotic, familiar in the context of third-world dictatorships but alien to the American tradition. They might acknowledge that a few radical trouble-makers and foreign terrorists have been imprisoned by the United States for crimes against the system. But the idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that included undeniable procedural irregularities and hauled off in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable.

But there is such a politician: Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. As the result of an investigation launched by his political opponents just a few weeks after he took office, and escalated from the state to the federal level by Bush Administration appointees in 2001, Siegelman was charged with 32 counts of bribery, conspiracy and other crimes just as he began to attempt a political comeback in 2005. He was convicted the following year on seven of those charges.

Last summer, Siegelman was sentenced to seven years in prison and immediately whisked off to a series of out-of-state jails, even being denied bond while his appeal was under way.

Shortly before the sentencing, however, suspicions expressed by Alabama observers that there was something "fishy" about the case -- as Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine would later put it -- began to reach the national stage. What initially appeared to be merely a whiff of possible political corruption became something stronger, with allegations that Karl Rove and the Bush Justice Department had been operating behind the scenes. And yet, despite these suspicions and the attempts of a few journalists to bring them to greater notice, Siegelman's case remains virtually unknown to most of America.

As a result, RAW STORY Investigates has decided to focus a series of reports, interviews, and investigative pieces over the next several weeks on Siegelman’s case. At the very least, the investigation will illuminate an incestuous pool of corruption in Alabama, with government officials, lobbyists, attorneys, and even judges behaving in ways that breach the public trust.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html

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A Raw Story Investigative series by Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane. Timelines included.

-Diane

ALMOST. From the day President Clinton was sworn in, the republicans started a campaign to chase him out of office. Thing is the investigation finally turned up the fact that what the so called investigation proved he had done nothing wrong. But then of course he shot him self in the foot with this BJ.
It seems when ever the republicans get in the position of owning the judges, the courts and the rest of the justice system, they use it to get rid of their competition.

They can't win...so as usual they cheat. I just don't understand why something hasn't been done about this before. If you remember, two republicans politic ans were doing the same so called thing and they got to walk away "scott free"..what gives.

The Corrupt Bastard's Club in Alaska is interesting, and Scotty's retracted accusation was a blast, but this is where the crime family is exposed. The connections to Washington and the Department of Just Us make this story explosive, and thus ignored. Scott Horton of Harpers has done excellent reporting on this, too. Here's a link to one of his:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000509

Carry on! This gives me hope.

From firing AGs for political reasons to prosecuting a governor on trumped up charges. I said it in my own thread earlier - is there ANYTHING the Bush Admin will not do? Any level the won't sink to?

I fear it will go down a memory hole never to be seen again. Clearly the M$M is uninterested.

You've got Rove, Gonzo's DoJ, Abramoff, bush, election fraud, missing transcripts... y--a--w--n...crickets...

I'm sure we'll hear about it every now and then.

From the OP:

"According to official reports, Baldwin County conducted a recount sometime in the middle of the night on Nov. 6, when the only country officers and election supervisors present were Republicans. It was during this second recount that the shift in votes from Siegelman to Riley appeared..."

So, was Siegelman a threat, or did they just want to get their guy in... or was it a Repo twofer?