The Permanent Repub Majority-Part 1-How Repubs Sent A Governor To Jail-By: Larisa Alexandrovna

[kpete]

The permanent Republican majority:
Part one: How a coterie of Republican heavyweights sent a governor to jail
Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday November 26, 2007


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

Part one: Don Siegelman, political prisoner

Governor Don Siegelman was a popular Democratic politician in a largely Republican state and was the only person in Alabama history to hold all of the state's highest posts. He served as Attorney General, Secretary of State, Lieutenant Governor and finally as Governor from 1999 to 2003.

On Election Day in November 2002, when the polls had closed and the votes were being counted, it seemed increasingly apparent that Governor Siegelman had been victorious in his re-election bid against Republican challenger Bob Riley. But then -- just as in the infamous Florida election of 2000 -- something strange happened in the tallying of the votes.

- Click here to see a timeline of the case.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/timeline_don_siegelman_1126.htm

As CNN reported at the time, there appeared to be two different sets of numbers coming through for one particular Alabama county:

“The confusion stems from two sets of numbers reported by one heavily Republican district,” the network stated.

“Figures originally reported by Baldwin County showed Siegelman got about 19,000 votes there, making him the state's winner by about two-tenths of 1 percent,” its reporter added. “But hours after polls closed, Baldwin County officials said the first number was wrong, and Siegelman had received just less than 13,000. Those figures would make Riley the statewide winner by about 3,000 votes.”

"Sometime after midnight, after the poll watchers were sent home, a small group there decided to recount the votes a third time," Siegelman told a news conference at the time. "No watchers legally entitled to be present were notified -- and then a different total was established."

The following morning, Alabama saw a new governor declaring victory in the election. But the story didn’t end there. It was only the beginning of a case that would turn the politics of dirty tricks into something far more sinister.

Riley's electoral victory rested on a razor-thin margin of 3,120 votes. According to official reports, Baldwin County conducted a recount sometime in the middle of the night on Nov. 6, when the only county officers and election supervisors present were Republicans. It was during this second recount that the shift in votes from Siegelman to Riley appeared. Although various computer “glitches” and technical anomalies occurred across the state, it is widely acknowledged that the Baldwin County recount is what decisively delivered needed votes to the Riley camp.

State and county Democrats quickly requested another Baldwin County recount with Democratic observers present, as well as a state-wide recount. But before the Baldwin County Democratic Party canvassing board could act, Alabama’s Republican Attorney General William Pryor had the ballots sealed.

Unless Siegelman filed an election contest in the courts, Pryor said, county canvassing boards throughout the state did not have the authority “to break the seals on ballots and machines under section 17-9-31” of the constitution.

But at the same time, other, more embarrassing questions involving the Riley camp and Alabama Republican officials appeared to have fallen off the radar.




much more at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html

[blm]

1. Why did the DNC and powerful Dems not get behind Siegelman on this in 2002?

Where were they and WHY would they let this happen to a fellow Dem being railroaded by the Bush machine like this?

[madfloridian]

2. They were too busy giving Bush his agenda.

There was no time for Siegelman.

[blm]

4. The powerful Dem names gave Siegelman NO SUPPORT AT ALL. Where was the DNC then

while so many of the 2002 Dem candidates got their elections stolen and some like Siegelman, were targeted with trumped up charges to assure they couldn't fight for the fairness of the 2004 elections, or the 2006 elections.

THIS group of thugs would do ANYTHING - and some of our top Dems and most powerful names have showed they were willing to LET them go this far in order to preserve their own future stakes.

[MinM]

6. To be fair to the Congressional Democrats..

at that time .. The Republicans were still in charge of Congress .. And the U.S. Attorney-Gate was not blown wide open till a few years later. So there were no dots to connect at the time:

They do have the power to investigate this now.

[blm]

7. You think Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe didn't NOTICE that Siegelman's vote totals

went down after the original count had him up? And then the trumped up charges made against a GOVERNOR?

You think McAuliffe couldn't figure out that machine fraud figured in Georgia's reversals of a popular Governorship AND a senate seat?

Why didn't they even QUESTION the outcomes and give support to further inquiries since THEY were the heads of the party at the time?

The RNC certainly had their marching orders, didn't they? What were McAuliffe's marching orders - to look the other way unquestioningly? Because that's exactly what he did.

[Supersedeas]

5. good question

[MinM]

3. Larisa explains it all..

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/11/raw-story-the-p.html

Or more precisely Larisa Alexandrovna and Scott Horton explain it all

here's more of Scott Horton's coverage of the U.S. Attorney Scandals in general and the Don Siegelman case in particular starting with a June 1, 2007 blog post.
http://www.harpers.org/subjects/ScottHorton/WriterOf/BlogEntry

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001359
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001569
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2208473

[blm]

8. Part3 should be how Powerful DEMS let the RNC send an innocent Governor to Jail.

Let's get REAL about what happened in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

The RNC stole those elections and pulled every trick in the book to do it - including putting innocent lawmakers in jail - for ONE REASON - the powerful elite in the Dem powerstructure LET THEM DO IT.