Know your BFEE: Siegelman Judge is a big-time War Profiteer

[Octafish]

6. DoJ has been very, very, very conservative for 32 years now.

Thus, going after liberals makes for good careers.

The Curious Case of Don Siegelman

Don Siegelman should be a star in the Democratic Party. Instead, he's a former elected official sentenced to prison by a right-wing judge in Alabama.

Siegelman had the temerity to be a popular Alabama Democrat who'd won every statewide office by 1998, when he first became governor.

Written by Mimi Kennedy | Huffington Post

With Jewish and Catholic roots, and empathic appeal to minorities, he threatened the GOP "southern strategy" for a dominant one-party Republican nation. To the GOP, Siegelman was potentially Another Clinton -- as repellent to them as Another Cuba.

U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, a friend of Karl Rove's, incited Siegelman's prosecution for bribery, destroying his political career and hurting his family. Read this letter signed by 113 former attorneys general and other national leaders, both Democrat and Republican. They assert that the prosecuted "bribe" wasn't one, and that, if this conviction stands, it threatens every public official and contributor at every level of government. Such routine transactions, if prosecuted, would choke our courts.

The "bribe"? Don Siegelman wanted to create a state lottery that would provide funds for Alabama youth to attend state college for free. Richard Scrushy, CEO of HealthSouth, donated $500,000 for a campaign to convince Alabamans this was a good idea. The lottery referendum went on the ballot. The half-million didn't benefit Siegelman's gubernatorial campaign or him personally -- unlike, say, the billions being poured into the current presidential race via the super PACS and individuals like Sheldon Adelson.

The referendum lost. It was opposed with money pouring in from nearby Mississippi, where Indian casinos, represented by Jack Abramoff, were threatened by the idea of Alabamans spending gambling money at home, for education.

CONTINUED...

http://www.pdamerica.org/news/item/723-the-curious-case-of-don-siegelman

For instance, U.S. Attorney and Siegelman prosecutor Leura Canary got to stay around -- almost four years after the arrival of Ron Holder.