From forgotten scandals to "The Last Dick," read the entire Daily Beast Farewell to Bush Chronicles.
Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman blames Republican dirty tricks for the nine months he spent in prison. He talks to the Daily Beast’s Paul Alexander about clearing his name, anger at Rove—and mopping prison floors. Plus, read Scott Horton’s piece on What the Justice Department is Hiding.
Last week, Al Gore sent an email message urging supporters to give money to Don Siegelman’s legal defense fund. Gore is the latest in a string of high profile supporters to suggest Siegelman, the former Governor of Alabama, was the victim of a Republican plot when he was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and fraud in 2006, and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, Siegelman is trying to win back his freedom—not to mention his good name—in a courtroom in Atlanta. Earlier this year, an appeals court granted his release after he had served nine months, saying the Governor’s appeal had raised “substantial questions” about the case against him. Siegelman’s cause was helped by a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general from across the country who filed a federal appeals brief supporting his bid to overturn the conviction. Republican insiders have also come forward to say Siegelman was unfairly targeted by Rove and his circle.
Making it in prison depends on one’s level of tolerance. I’m used to mopping in my wife’s kitchen. It was just a bigger floor.
Siegelman’s appeal was heard earlier this month and the verdict will determine whether he returns to prison to finish out his sentence, or goes free.
How did a former governor—and a rising star in the Democratic Party—end up in a situation like this?
On June 29, 2006, Siegelman and Richard Scrushy, the CEO of HealthSouth, a chain of medical rehabilitation services with facilities both in the United States and abroad, were found guilty by a jury in Montgomery, Alabama, of federal bribery charges. A year later, Judge Mark Fuller, who had clear conflicts of interest in the case—a company in which he holds a major stake received a $175 million government contract at one point during the legal proceedings—sentenced Scrushy to almost seven years in prison. Siegelman got 88 months.
There was one central transaction that sent these men to prison for all this time. Not long after Siegelman had been elected governor in 1998, he convinced Scrushy to contribute $500,000 to a political action committee, which was supporting the establishment of a lottery in Alabama to pay for higher education. At the same time, he talked Scrushy into serving on a state hospital regulatory board on which he had already served three times—appointed by both Democrats and Republicans—and from which he had recently resigned. To US attorney Leura Canary, the wife of William “Bill” Canary, the close friend and former business associate of Karl Rove, the act constituted bribery, for which she charged the two men. Among the many other charges, dismissed by the jury, this was the one that stuck.
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Mernie Madoff, "Kennyboy" Lay, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Nixon, Hank Paulson, what a great bunch of guys?
Whoops, that should have read "Bernie" Madoff. And, what was the name of that other Bush guy, Neil? You know, the one that was involved with the Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980's? A truly fine bunch!
I do wonder how we could impeach Clinton for lying about sex, but this administration is held legally accountable for nothing. Personally, I would love to see Rove wearing a striped suit and mopping floors, along with a few others.
Democrats and the media stood by while Republicans used these tactics against the Clintons in Whitewater. There was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Clintons in the Whitewater pseudo-scandal, but the media kept pushing it. They even ignored the fact that two separate investigations by Republicans (Jay Steven of the RTC and Robert Fiske, the Whitewater special counsel). Susan McDougall was treated the same way as Scrushy in an attempt to coerce her into testifying falsely against the Clintons but Dems didn't complain. It is not surprising that Republicans are still using these tactics since they have been allowed to get away with it in the past.
Republicans make it a policy to identify up-and-coming Dems and trash them before they can get too far. These tactics were developed by Lee Atwater and are practiced by his acolyte, Karl Rove. Bush was also close to Atwater, so you can bet he knows what is going on. (See the Frontline documentary on Atwater.) They missed the boat on Obama, most likely because he rose so fast and also they believed a black man couldn't win.
coming soon from Paul Alexander: "Karl Rove Pays my Rent"
The damage done by this administration to our country. My God.
It seems that for us here in the States it takes nothing short of catastrophe to shake us out of complacency. The economic meltdown has certainly gotten our attention now. I fear that untangling that mess will provide enough distraction to prevent punishment of people like Rove, Cheney, Gonzales and the entire wicked gang--George W. Bush included.
I hope I'm wrong.
This is a frightening story. I pray that as many Bush scandals as possible are prosecuted. However, I'm not holding my breath. I worry that Dems fear that multiple investigations will either distract from other work they need to do OR will reflect badly on them - for one reason or another. But, personally, I feel that if they do nothing about them, then they are complicit in turning away. That's like saying, "It's OK."
On his first day in office, Obama should pardon Siegelman, appoint him to a federal post, and ask the new attorney general to investigate the case. If, after the investigation, Rove and his Alabama compatriots are found to have broken the law, they should start mopping the floor where the governor left off.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I think he is guilty, the real damage is about to start with Obama
@ jerbear1
The combined response of my roommate and me: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Ah-hahahahahahahahaha! Gasp, gasp. Cough. "Great guys!" Bwaaaaaah-hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Have you even paid attention to ANYTHING in the last 8 years?
Susan McDougall was also sent to prison because she would not cave in to FBI efforts to get her to finger Clinton. They sent her to prisons all over the country, often before a holiday. That way she could not have visitors on the holiday and see her family.
At one prison she was put into a glass box in the middle of the room, which is usually reserved for the most dangerous criminals. And this was during a Democrat administration.
The FBI and Federal prison system routinely use cruel and unusual practices to punish political prisoners who are citizens.
And what will the Republicans say? Typical Liberal Media Bias.
Rahm Emanuel had it right: The Republicans can go frak themselves.
It's almost like the strategy is to interweave so many crimes that there's never time to gather evidence and prosecute. The case either collapses from its own weight or it's just too incredible to believe. Just as soon as someone starts gathering support to actually take action, an even more grievous violation comes up.
There's no way for Gov Seigelman to "clear his good name" -
he did not have one to begin with.This was one of the most corrupt administrations in Alabama history. And yes, they
were Democrats.
Hey jerbear I am not sure you noticed but you are the only one on this blog who thinks Seigelman was guilty. I wonder did you read the article? I have been following this story for sometime now and I am with the majority that believes he is innocent and that Karl Rove should be in a prison somewhere being someones b@#$tch. One can only hope and pray for justice to finally come to those that have subverted justice for 8 long years!
I wonder who you are jerbear a right wing neocon?? Or just a right wing christian bent on making everyone follow your rules and laws. Right wing christians are no better then muslim extremists. You are one and the same trying to make everyone follow your religious doctrine! You people scare the @*$# out of me and in our own country! What is this country coming too???
Education lottery?! Does anyone think lottery proceeds, aka stealing from the poor, find their way into education? The man is a fountain of menacing, good intentions. Can we not find a humane way to keep Mr. Siegelman out of public life?
does the name lee atwater ring a bell !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is any of this going to stick on Rove? I am hopeful that the Dems will appoint a special prosecutor to look into the many roles/projects of Karl Rove during the last 8 years of mess and divisiveness. He is evil incarnate...and still active for the GOP. So much for a comeback of the Repubs if Rove is allowed to stink up their messaging and tactics.
If the Justice Department were doing it's job, there would be a huge growth industry in building and staffing federal prisons to house these (primarily) Republican crony crooks.
Unfortunately, under Bush, the Justice Department has been in cahoots with these criminals in circumventing the law, advocating and defending torture and prosecuting innocent people like Don Siegelman.
Our country is in serious trouble. It is time for the American people to demand that justice be done by bringing corruption charges against those in charge of perpetrating these crimes.
It's kind of hard to prosecute Rove when a possible key witness, Michael Connell, an experienced pillot who was scheduled to testify and told people how fearful he was, mysteriously ran out of fuel and crashed. It reminds me of all the deaths (all accidents and sucides) shortly after the accidental US overfly with armed nuclear bombs. It just doesn't pay to know too much.
Sending our children far away to die for empire and the Big Lie was just the start. Stealing trillions and giving hundreds of billions to banks also seemed like a good idea at the time. Turning Justice into a lynch mob, filling the air with mercury, the riverbeds with wasted mountaintops, diverting water from salmon rivers to corporate farms, series of suspicious deaths from plane crashes and suicides, cutting school lunch money, leaving wounded veterans homeless in the street, cutting levee maintenance funds so that Katrina could create new real estate for hotels and kill thousands of residents of New Orleans, instituting the security theater of the absurd at airports, enabling obsolete industries to control science, helping Enron make grandma destitute, privatizing prisons for profit, committing mass murder, violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and telling the American people to "..go f--- yourself..."
Gosh, can they be prosecuted? Justice for them would be sending them on long-range recon in Afghanistan with no armor.
Yet they appear to be the best thing that ever happened to somnolent progressives. The GOP finally showed its hand.
The sad truth is that Bush & Company including Rove are without question guilty of so many dirty moves that it is impossible to believe they are innocent when connected with yet another dirty move.
Thank you.
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