Hot Potato Mash

BUSHED! Siegelman-Gate

UPDATE: More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case (h/t 99)

Don Siegelman Interview on 'Stolen Elections' and Karl Rove's Contempt

The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman interviewed former Alabama governor Don Siegelman at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday August 27, 2008. The excellent exchange (6:14) includes the following choice quotes:

On Rove: "If we do not vote the contempt citation, Karl Rove is simply going to get in his getaway car and thumb his nose at the Constitution, Congress, and the American people. It creates almost two systems of justice: one for the powerful, those connected to the White House, and then another system for you and me and the rest of the people."

On Democrats: "Democrats are so magnanimous in victory, as they were after Watergate, they did nothing. After the Iran-Contra scandal, they did nothing. But what Democrats are going to want to do is get on with positive programs, to fix the damage that has been done by the Bush administration...But I view this as part of that positive change. Finding out who hijacked the Department of Justice and who used it as a political weapon."

On his 'stolen' 2002 election: "I went to bed the winner. The media had been sent home. The poll-workers had been sent home. The party chairmen had been given their copies of the election results. And then after midnight a light went on in the basement of the capitol, the basement of the courthouse, in the sheriff's office, and 5,200 votes that were mine were shifted to my opponent."

See Hot Potato Mash's entire Don Siegelman coverage.

From Prison To Speaking At The Democratic Convention!

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman has accepted an invitation to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The Bush Administration Keeps Giving Favors To Don Siegelman

The Birmingham News, or "The unofficial voice of the Alabama G.O.P. throughout the entire Siegelman affair" according to Harper's Scott Horton, has a whopper of an op-ed in yesterday's paper about the "political pollution" in the Bush Justice Department:

THE ISSUE: A new report released this week found that partisanship clouded the critical work of the U.S. Justice Department.

Just when you think the Bush administration can't possibly do Don Siegelman any more favors, along comes more news of political misdeeds in the agency that prosecuted the former governor.

A report released Monday charges that U.S. Justice Department officials under Bush broke the law by using political criteria to hire prosecutors, immigration judges and other government lawyers.

That's right folks, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility found the Bush administration repeatedly broke the law by politicizing the Justice Department and The Birmingham News views it as yet another favor to former Governor Don Siegelman:

Siegelman has long blamed politics for the federal corruption case that ended with his conviction for bribery and obstruction of justice. The accusation would be almost laughable - were it not for other Justice Department antics like those mentioned above.

Right. Last year 44 former attorneys general petitioned Congress to look into the Siegelman case and then 54 former state attorneys general filed a brief in support of the former Governor's appeal. Then the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals took the extraordinary step of releasing Siegelman from prison pending his appeal due to "substantial questions of fact and law" in his case. But Siegelman's accusations are "almost laughable"!!!

The only thing laughable is that The Birmingham News thinks itself a legitimate news outlet. Legal Schnauzer, who has broken news on so many Bush administration malicious prosecution's that he was personally targeted and wrongly terminated from his job, has much more on the op-ed including a wonderful list of "favors" the Bush administration has done for Don Siegelman:

They caused Siegelman to spend nine months in federal prison for crimes he didn't commit;

They cost Siegelman tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of dollars and brought him to the edge of financial ruin;

Read the entire list

REPUBLICAN REP. CALLS FOR ROVE TESTIMONY IN SIEGELMAN CASE AND SMACKS BUSH!

Republican Representative Walter Jones not only calls for Rove to testify before the House Judiciary Committee but SMACKS President Bush while doing so...

“In the year 2000 when President Bush was a candidate he said many times in debate he would bring dignity to the White House. This would be a great start if Karl Rove would come before the Judiciary Committee and let him explain his involvement, if any, in the Don Siegelman case.”

Meanwhile Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez states that she “personally would love to see” Rove arrested and held in jail where there would be a trial in the House of Representatives.

But before anyone gets overly excited it is important to point out that it is now up to Nancy Pelosi to have a vote in the full House. And Sanchez was already hedging on the Speaker's behalf stating that it would depend on whatever else takes priority legislatively.

Further, Pelosi has changed her tune many times and by most indications will not act on this. Because in Nancy Pelosi's world the rule of law, Constitution, three equal branches of government and oversight must take a back seat to picking up a few more seats in the House and Senate and winning the White House. Of course, her strategy appears flawed since Congress under her leadership now has a 9% approval rating.

See Hot Potato Mash's entire Don Siegelman archives

Technorati Tags: Bush League Justice, Dan Abrams, Don Siegelman, Karl Rove, Linda Sanchez, Walter Jones

KARL ROVE INCRIMINATES SELF AND REPUBLICANS ADMIT DON SIEGELMAN CASE FIXED

In a new installment of Bush League Justice today, guest Julian Epstein, former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, stated that Republicans will admit, off-camera, that the case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was fixed.

The segment concentrated on Karl Rove finally giving written answers to questions, NOT under oath, about the Siegelman case. The questions, which were posed by Lamar Smith (R-TX), and answers can be read at Talking Points Memo.

While the general consensus is that the softball questions were a "pathetic attempt to save Karl Rove", the effort appears to have failed. In the video above, Epstein states that Rove actually appears to "incriminate" himself by refusing to answer a specific question about whether he contacted non-state officials.

Marcy Wheeler agrees with Epstein over at emptywheel:

In a classic non-denial denial, Karl Rove makes it clear that he did talk to people about Siegelman's prosecution--even while he denies that he spoke to anyone in DOJ about it.

And Larisa Alexandrovna thinks "This is getting to be rather fun" before proceeding to rip apart Rove's answer with the facts. She also poses six real questions she'd like to see asked of Rove.

SEND KARL ROVE TO JAIL

Sign the petition at Send Karl Rove to Jail.

Check out all of my Don Siegelman coverage which includes the most extensive video collection about the case on the web.

ROVE EXPLAINS HIS FAILURE TO ANSWER SUBPOENA IN REMARKABLE CONVERSATION WITH O'REILLY

This is an extraordinary exchange, on many levels, between Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove. For starters, Bill-o doesn't seem to know or at least pretends not to know, who Don Siegelman is. Introducing the segment, O'Reilly looks down at his notes and struggles to come up with Siegelman's name, and even calls him "Donald" which I have never heard any media personality use to refer to the former Alabama Governor. It would be quite remarkable if O'Reilly was truly unfamiliar with the Siegelman case. More likely O'Reilly was intentionally attempting to minimize the significance of the Siegelman case in an effort to make Rove's failure to appear before the House Judiciary committee appear more reasonable.

Next, O'Reilly clearly doesn't believe in oversight. At least during Republican administrations. House subcommittees are seemingly valueless, according to O'Reilly, since their purpose is merely to be a "dog and pony show" that tries to embarrass witnesses.

Meanwhile, O'Reilly claims that no one in their right mind would want to appear before a House committee. But the fact of the matter is that most witnesses voluntarily testify before House committees because they have information that might be helpful to our government and country. In right wing parlance, one could argue that it is often the patriotic thing to do.

O'Reilly then makes some kind of straw-man argument claiming that "they wouldn't" testify before a House subcommittee without identifying who is the "they" he is referring to. He goes on to say that "they" wouldn't even appear on his show before calling them "pinheads". Maybe O'Reilly is speaking about the TV critics or maybe he has the House committee in mind (Democrats only one supposes). Undoubtedly O'Reilly's audience understands "they" and "pinheads" to be code words for SP's (secular progressives), Democrats and the looney left.

Rove's answer is equally problematic. Note that Rove claims that the White House has invoked executive privilege which prevents him from testifying before the House committee but that he has also indicated "five times" that he would be willing to answer the same questions from House members, either by meeting with them or in writing. Thus, presumably the White House is not worried about Rove answering questions from Congress, but only answering questions under oath. Could anything be more absurd?

The transcript...

Bill O'Reilly: [TV critics] gave you a hard time about not wanting to go testify in front of a House subcommittee about Don, Donald Siegelman (looking at notes), you know. Now who in their right mind, and this is a non-partisan thing, who in their right mind would want to go in to a House committee - which is just a dog and pony show trying to embarrass whoever it is, you, me, whoever has to go - who in their right mind would want to do that? They wouldn't. They won't come on this program most of these pinheads, okay. So they give you a hard time about that and I guess they are giving you a hard time because you worked at the Bush administration and now you work at FNC.

Karl Rove: Yeah, well on the first one you know, well, in a lot of them the questions were polite but they were clearly ill-informed. They said why do you refuse to testify. I said look, I've not invoked any privilege. The White House has invoked an executive privilege - the Constitutional authority of the President not to have his aides drawn up to the Hill for any reason that they want. And I've said but I have been five times offered through my lawyer to meet with Democrat members, Democrat staff, Republican members, Republican staff or answer in writing questions that they may want to submit about this in order to preserve the President's prerogatives - separation of powers - while at the same time giving them information they supposedly want and not foreclosing any option.

O'Reilly: Yeah, but you know they don't want that.

Rove: Sure they don't. They want a circus.

O'Reilly: They want to get you up there and mock you and the TV critics want to see you disparaged.

Rove: Sure. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

O'Reilly: Now why in your opinion - I'm in journalism 35 years, you are in politics, I guess, about the same time - why is the print media particularly so left wing in this country in your opinion?

BUSH LEAGUE JUSTICE: Karl Rove Says White House Won't Allow Him To Testify In Siegelman Case and Attacks MSNBC's Dan Abrams

 

Karl Rove talks for the first time about his failure to appear before the House Judiciary to testify about his knowledge of the prosecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and says it is the White House that is preventing him from testifying. Rove also attacks MSNBC's Dan Abrams.

So what will Congress do about Rove?

a) huff and puff and do nothing

b) vote to hold Rove in contempt and then do nothing

c) go on TV and huff and puff in order to win points with their constituencies and then do nothing

d) give him yet another extension to testify and then do nothing

e) say that they are powerless to do anything despite always claiming that they are a co-equal branch of government and then do nothing

f) all of the above

e) ???

Technorati Tags: Bush League Justice, Dan Abrams, Karl Rove

BUSH LEAGUE JUSTICE: CONGRESSWOMAN SANCHEZ WANTS KARL ROVE IN JAIL

Representative Linda Sanchez says she wants to see Karl Rove in jail. A second segment follows with law professor Jonathan Turley. There does appear to be some confusion as to whether or not the White House has claimed executive privilege on behalf of Rove as both Sanchez and Turley state. Marcy Wheeler, on the other hand, makes a compelling case that executive privilege has not been claimed by the White House over at Empty Wheel.

Technorati Tags: Bush League Justice, congress, Constitution, Dan Abrams, Don Siegelman, Karl Rove, Jonathan Turley

BUSHED! Ignoring the Constitution-Gate & FISA-Gate

Technorati Tags: Bushed!, Don Siegelman, FISA, Karl Rove, Rachel Maddow

Bush Did NOT Invoke Executive Privilege For Rove

From Marcy Wheeler:

Notice how that executive privilege claim fell by the wayside? Now, perhaps the White House decided against invoking executive privilege because they didn't want to claim that anything Rove was doing with regard to the Siegelman prosecution related to the President at all. Perhaps they opted against it because they realized that, if they invoked executive privilege on this subject after Rove had spent the previous six months on TV blathering freely about it, it would turn the idea of executive privilege into the laughable principle of executive and TV privilege.

But for some reason, the White House chose not to invoke executive privilege with regards to the topic of Rove's involvement in the Siegelman prosecution.

Contrary to everything you're reading in just about every report out there, Bush did not invoke executive privilege for Rove.

Now, I'm harping on this distinction for several reasons:

Check out the rest of the post for the reasons.

BUSH LEAGUE JUSTICE: Karl Rove Officially Refuses To Testify Before The House Judiciary Committee

Karl Rove “remarkably says no to a lawful subpoena” to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday to testify about the Don Siegelman prosecution by claiming executive privilege despite previously stating that he had no discussions with the White House about the case. Will the House call Rove's bluff and hold him in inherent contempt? Apparently not if Nancy Pelosi has anything to say about it.

See Hot Potato Mash's entire Don Siegelman coverage.

lian epstein, congress, house, judiciary committee, michael waldman

Technorati Tags: Bush League Justice, Dan Abrams, Don Siegelman, Juilian Epstein, Karl Rove, Michael Waldman

SHOCKING! Pelosi Trying To Block Rove Contempt Charge

One wonders what the Republicans have on the Speaker of the House since she has continuously done the White House's bidding since the Dems took over in 2006...

From Pam Miles:

I have firm confirmation that Nancy Pelosi is urging the Judiciary committee NOT to go forward with contempt against Rove.

Congressman John Conyers and the Judiciary staff are battling for it but this has become an infight among dems.

Time to burn up the phone lines.

800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 toll free to congressional switchboard

PLEASE CALL. House Judiciary Committee:

Here are the direct phone #'s of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. They're all democrats, and they're all congressmen:

All their phone numbers begin with 202, next three digits are 225. I will list only the last four digits, to save time:

John Conyers, Michigan - 1-202-225-5126

Howard Berman, California - 4695

Rick Boucher, Virginia - 3861

Jerrold Nadler, New York - 5635

Bobby Scott, Virginia - 8351

Melvin Watt, North Carolina - 1510

Zoe Lofgren, California - 3072

Sheila Jackson, Texas - 3816

Maxine Waters, California - 2201

Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts - 3111

Robert Wexler, Florida - 3001

Linda Sanchez, California - 6676

Steve Cohen, Tennessee - 3265

Hank Johnson, Georgia - 1605

Betty Sutton, Ohio - 3401

Luis Gutierrez, Illinois - 8203

Brad Sherman, California - 5911

Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin - 2906

Anthony Weiner, New York - 6616

Adam Schiff, California - 4176

Artur Davis, Alabama - 2665

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida - 7931

Keith Ellison, Minnesota - 4755

A CASE OF POLITICS In The Case Of Don Siegelman

NY Times editorial today:

Don Siegelman, the former Alabama governor, is asking a federal appeals court to throw out his conviction on dubious corruption charges. His appeal has some surprising backers: a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general has submitted a brief on his behalf. Congress is also investigating charges that Mr. Siegelman was politically targeted.

Mr. Siegelman was the Democrats’ strongest candidate to retake the Alabama governorship, and Congress has uncovered evidence that the United States attorney’s office in Montgomery — with possible White House input — may have decided to prosecute him to undermine his campaign. The former presidential adviser Karl Rove, who has been accused of pushing to have Mr. Siegelman indicted, has been subpoenaed by both the House and Senate, but has refused to testify...

Even the highly partisan Bush Justice Department appears to be losing confidence in its case. It originally appealed Mr. Siegelman’s sentence, hoping to add more than 20 years. It recently withdrew the appeal without explanation.

Congress should compel Mr. Rove to testify. And it should keep investigating this prosecution and what role crass politics may have played. While it does, the 11th Circuit should cast a skeptical eye on this case, based on the law and the facts.

Read the entire editorial

Don Siegelman, Karl Rove