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Karl Rove Destroyed My Life
QUESTION: What was prison like?
You can just imagine. But making it in prison depends on one’s level of tolerance. I’m used to mopping and sweeping floors in my wife’s kitchen. It was just a bigger floor and I had to mop it every day.
Seriously, all my life I’ve worked to try to correct and perfect our system of government to make it more fair, and here I was in the middle of something that wasn’t fair. If God had a purpose in this, it was for me to see how the system is flawed so I can do something about it. There are some things I’d like to see corrected—flaws in the system that can result in innocent people going to prison. When I get out of this situation for good, I’ll be back before the Judiciary Committee advocating changes.
QUESTION: You have claimed Karl Rove was a driving force behind your prosecution.
SIEGELMAN: We know from documentary evidence and from testimony that Rove was involved in the firing of the US attorneys [at the start of Bush’s second term] and he’s been identified at the scene of the crime in my case. We know that others worked with Rove to carry out his conspiracies to subvert our system of justice and to abuse the power of his office and to misuse the power of the Department of Justice for political purposes.
QUESTION: Some people believe Rove wanted your political career damaged because of your standing in the Democratic Party.
SIEGELMAN: I had endorsed Al Gore in 2000—the first governor to do so—and it wasn’t long after that that they started the investigation. I had made plans after my 2002 re-election—which I ultimately lost because of the bad press generated by these investigations—to hit the primary states. I had been secretary of state for eight years, attorney general for four years, lieutenant governor for four years, and governor for four years—I had all these friends around the country—so I thought I could gin up a campaign not for me but against George W. Bush, against his war, against his economic policies, and against his education policies.
There is no question in my mind that Rove played a key role in what happened to me. From the beginning, the investigation was started by Rove’s client, the state attorney general William "Bill" Pryor; then the prosecution was carried out by the wife of Rove’s best friend and his former business partner. [They had previously worked as political consultants together in Alabama.] We have a live witness who claims that Bill Canary—Rove’s partner—said Rove had taken my case to the Department of Justice. Now it’s up to Congress—and the House and the Senate judiciary committees—to bring Rove before the House Judiciary Committee.
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Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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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.
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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.
Flashback
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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