I am hearing from three different news groups suggestions that each is close to breaking a significant further lead in this case. The new information, it was suggested, will show that prosecutors in the case used evidence that they knew, or had substantial reason to know, was simply false, and will link Karl Rove much more closely to Alabama Governor Bob Riley and to the plans to “get” Siegelman using a false corruption charge. The journalists in question are pushing for further corroboration before going with these stories, but I am still expecting more by the end of the year.
Another thing I keep hearing from the network folks who have researched the case: what’s up with these two Alabama newspapers? Their coverage is absolutely bizarre. As if they existed in some alternate reality. Exactly.
For those who haven’t heard of Leura Canary, the loyal Bushie US Attorney in Alabama and husband wife [oops. – ed.] of career Republican activist Bill Canary, or GOP’s Clinton-like drive to bring down Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman, take a minute to scan through Horton’s archives on the topic. Scott compares it to Inspector Javert, I see the Jena Six writ large. And if you look at the ludicrously imbalanced focus of the DOJ – 77 percent of publicly reported Bush-era Grand Jury investigations targeted Democrats and 6 percent targeted Independents – the Canary case won’t be the last.
It’s important to remember that the backstory behind behind the US Attorneys scandal, the coverup of which eventually scalped Attorney General Alberto “abu” Gonzales, centered on the dumping Attorneys who wouldn’t play ball the GOP way. Quite a lot of Attorneys weren’t fired, and numbers don’t lie. They played ball. This story isn’t over by a long shot.
TenguPhule
The Republicans will do their best to kill it though.
Because it ‘happened in the past, so let’s move on.’
ec1009
Lets hope this Canary won’t die in a coal mine.
You bad pun for today :)
Gus
Unfortunately about 10,000 people in the whole country will be aware of what’s going on. American Idol starts in a month.
demimondian
OK, great. Another corrupt gulf state Democrat pol joining William “Cold, Hard Cash” Jefferson in whining about getting what he deserves.
Zifnab
I just want to see heads roll. If high ranking thugs actually touch a concrete prison slab by the end of this, maybe it’ll mean something.
cleek
how many letters can a Senator write
before he breaks down and cries ?
yes, and how many hearings can a committee hold
before it’s heard all the lies ?
yes, and how many meetings can a Congressman hide
before she’s complicit in the crimes ?
the answer my friend is more than you can imagine
the answer is more than you can imagine
ec1009
Lets hope this Canary (story) doesn’t die in a coal mine.
Your bad pun for today :) FIXED
Post first then proof-read. I also cut wood first, then measure.
dslak
That’s funny, cleek, in a depressing kind of way. With no new episodes of “The Daily Show” to be had however, I’ll take what I can get.
ec1009
cleek gets my vote for comment of the day.
Tax Analyst
So politically motivated prosecutions based on evidence that the prosecuting attorney KNOWS TO BE FALSE is AOK with you?
I really don’t like to call people “Asshole” but I just can’t think of a more accurate description off the top of my head..
Punchy
Yes, it is. “Happened in the past”, “fair trial”, “convicted using our greatest assest, a fair trial”, “convicted by a jury of his peers”, “partisan Democrats”….
And when it finally DOES get reversed…ACTIVIST JUDGES!!!!!
jcricket
Who are you, Rambo? It’s only not over if everyone gets wise to the facts. Republicans will stop at nothing to destroy anyone or any agency that stands in the way of their party line.
Scientists, judges, doctors, lawyers, aid relief workers, fireman, policemen, the military – all pawns in the Republican game these days, and dissent is no longer tolerated.
If more people start acting like the attornies and aides that resigned and/or fought back or the government workers in NASA, FEMA, FDA, FCC, etc. that are blowing the whistle on Republican partisan interference – then maybe this kind of thing won’t happen again.
Otherwise, Republicans will just keep on doing it. Look at the Vermont/NH phone jamming scandal. Have we even come close to a full reckoning on that? I doubt it. And they already did similar things in Ohio.
This is why Democrats need to focus on getting the WH and then state level positions like AG, DA, etc. into “D” hands. It’s prosecting Republican malfeasance across the nation that will finally stop this, not wishing and hoping that Waxman writes a strongly-worded letter.
Jen
O/T but I thought you guys would like to know that at lunch, I saw Ron Paul’s blimp.
In a related story, my co-workers now think I am insane. (“Who’s Ron Paul?” 4 out of 5)
Pb
Tax Analyst,
Check the batteries in your snark detector.
That’s often my reaction to Demi anyhow, though, so don’t hold back!
John Thullen
“Canary”?
Who names these people, Thomas Pynchon?
Tax Analyst
Pb, you know, I just checked those batteries like you suggested and, lo and behold, I found out that I actually DO like calling people “Asshole”, at least this morning.
So…Yes, Demi, I think you are an Asshole.
There, that’s better.
Jon H
“Leura Canary, the loyal Bushie US Attorney in Alabama and husband of career Republican activist Bill Canary”
A wife named Bill? In Alabama?
Zifnab
Snark is traditionally less difficult to detect when you compare a framed crook to an actual crook. Although, after revelations like this, I almost have to wonder if William “Cold, Hard Cash” Jefferson did, in fact, actually get totally set up.
This is the problem when one side gets so vastly, horribly, obnoxiously corrupt. You actually have to question every ounce of evidence that passes under your nose whenever the opposition gets smeared.
I miss the good old days when both parties could be counted on to reliably rat out each other with full integrity. (Did those days ever exist?)
Robert Johnston
There’s a good point here: the real scandal lies at least as much in the U.S. attorneys who weren’t fired as the ones who were. And I hate to imagine what’s happened to the DOJ at the level of career hires; the next President probably is going to have to fire everyone hired by Bush in the DOJ, not just routinely fire everyone appointed by Bush to the DOJ, if he or she really wants to clean things up.
It’s going to take at least several years after the next election to replace politicized hires at the DOJ and get the agency running as a government agency rather than as an arm of the Republican party, and if the next President doesn’t act aggressively it’s going to take several decades instead. Aggressive action will make the DOJ seem more politicized in the short run, but a strict policy of not politicizing new hires will allow that perception to abate once the DOJ is up and running again, and firing the Goodling types who’ve been hired to career positions is absolutely necessary for the long run depoliticization and competence of the DOJ.
Punchy
Wow…Michael Moore changed parties?
demimondian
And that’s just the start of why this is such a bad scandal. Even deeper, what if Siegelman is guilty of some of the crimes alleged against him, but the prosecution is shown to have been tainted? How will we ever know that? What if he was completely innocent? How will we ever know that?
The US Attorney scandal is an utter catastrophe, and it’s one which ought to lead to impeachments and consequent bar to government service for everyone involved.
Jen
Nah, it was Jonah Goldberg.
Cindrella Ferret
That same thought had crossed my mind, after the USA firing debacle. But I am pretty sure the FBI did find the cash and it wasn’t a set up. However, your skepticism is not without merit. It is one thing to have a DOJ that focuses on different prosecution priorities based on the Presidents directives. It is an entirely a different matter to prosecute or manufacture cases based on political ideology.
We have a case here in NM, that if it had been brought at any other time would have not surprised anyone. But the revelations in the USA scandal do make it easier for defenders of the Democrats involved to yell: “It’s a political thing!” As far as I am concerned, and from what I have read the former New Mexico pols are most likely guilty. But Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson making phone calls to the USA (David Iglesias) did not help the case. I am acquainted with our former USA and according to him it has always been the case that defense attorneys in Federal cases claim the prosecution is politically motivated. Particularly when the accused is from the other party. Unfortunately, we now know that this defense may actually shed doubt (rightly or wrongly) on the case being prosecuted.
Jen
Well, Sadly, No, took more notice of my blimp story, but I still like y’all.
Bruce Moomaw
Still more evidence of why we desperately need a Constitutional amendment to departisanize the DoJ by requiring a Congressional supermajority to confirm — and periodically reconfirm — the Attorney General. This may be the first administration to go this far, but it will by no means be the last one — and the Constitution, as currently written, provides no check against such abuses by one party.
bob
All republicans are criminals and their supporters are accessories before, during and after the fact. The difference in the parties is clear: SOME in fact MANY Democrats suck, but ALL republicans suck.
Robert Johnston
Sorry, all Democrats suck. But when you’re forced to choose between having unprotected sex with a syphilitic whore and using a live hornet’s nest with a population tainted by ebola as a masturbatory device, that whore looks like a good choice. At least with therapy and medication you can probably fix the damage resulting to your psyche after voting Democrat, but voting Republican permanently breaks a person.
Zifnab
I guess you could always choose to abstain from sex (ie, flee the country). I’m going to Switzerland. Who’s with me?
mclaren
Yes, it is over. Karl Rove is untouchable. He could sodomoize infants in public on videotape, and he couldn’t be indicted or charged or arrested.
Karl Rove can murder people on public streets and no police officer will even notice. Rove could cannibalize people in church and the pastor wouldn’t even stop his sermon. Rove in invincible. He can murder, torture, steal, rape, do anything to anyone, and no one anywhere can stop him or arrest him or indict him.
If he decided to become a serial killer he could depopulate America and no one could touch him.
Atlantaflash
The three largest newspapers plus the Internet site al.com in Alabama are all owned by Advance Publications, INC. They literally print nothing but lies about all Democrats in the state. They will not allow their investigative reporters any access to these cases. If they would have investigated and printed the truth about Don Siegelman like the locally own papers done the Canary’s would have been run out of the state by its citizens before now.
It has taken a few months, but most Alabamians now know the truth about their good friend Don Siegelman, about the conspiracy that removed the most popular Democrat in Alabama by Bush’s appointees and how his elections were taken from him.
These three newspaper instruct their writers to start every article that they write about Siegelman with this statement, “our newspapers endorsed Riley and we believe Siegelman to be a crook” then they twist every sentence after that to sound negative.
Many of us are dropping our subscriptions and are switching to locally owned newspapers.