You Can Resign, Gonzo & Karl, But You Can't Hide

Scott Horton, of Harper's Magazine is reporting on a weird case in Alabama connected to the Justice Department U.S. Attorney firings (and in this case about the kinds of people who KEPT their jobs because apparently they were willing to do the kind of political hit jobs the fired USA's weren't willing to), and this one might nail Karl Rove himself.

Here's what I gleaned from the report.

Seems that last year, the most powerful Democrat in the state, Governor Don Siegelman, was brought up on charges that he allegedly was bribed by HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy who wanted a seat on the state health board in 1999. Siegelman was very popular even with Republican voters, and had never lost an election. The GOP hated him.

They couldn't beat him on the issues, so what to do? Well play dirty tricks of course! What did ya expect?

Some interesting factors here:

• In May of this year, Jill Simpson a Republican lawyer, filed an affidavit stating that William Canary, a GOP insider and the head of the Business Council of Alabama, had told Ms. Simpson that, "He had talked to Karl, and Karl had spoken to the Department of Justice, and they didn't have to worry about Don Siegelman anymore. He was going to be taken care of."
• Who brought the case against Siegelman? Laura Canary, William Canary's wife, as well as Alice Martin, who herself is under investigation for perjury.
• HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy was a major funder of the Republicans in Alabama.
• The judge handling the case is Judge Mark Fuller, a former member of the Executive Committee of the Alabama Republican Party, and a Bush Appointee himself, who had a well-known grudge against.... Governor Siegelman. He previously served as a district attorney. When he left that position to take on his new role as a judge, Governor Siegelman was in charge of appointing his replacement. As a part of that process, a mandatory audit was done, which revealed a lot of sketchy expenditures that Judge Fuller had made. That case is still under investigation, but Fuller maintained that it was all "a political attack by Siegelman", even though the audit was a regular procedure the Governor had very little to do with.
• Judge Fuller -- who clearly had a conflict of interest and should have recused himself from the case -- denied bail pending appeal, so that Gov. Siegelman would be put in jail immediately -- compare that to the treatment of Scooter Libby.
• Not only that, but Judge Fuller also directed that Governor Siegelman be placed in manacles and handcuffs and taken before waiting television cameras to be shown on the evening news in Alabama. All during election season.
• Alabama was one of the main centers of the Abramoff scandal, with a mass diversion of funds and casino gambling money going into the coffers of the Alabama Republican Party.
• After the trial and sentencing, 44 attorneys general from around the country, Democrats and Republicans, submitted a petition to Congress saying there's something horribly wrong with this case, and requesting Congressional investigation.

According to Horton:

"This is perhaps the first well-documented case of deep involvement by Karl Rove in the prosecutorial process, in fact a stunningly corrupt involvement, I would say, using the prosecutorial machinery for a political purpose that is staggering.

I think, there was a double motive or maybe even a triple motive involved. It involved eliminating the most important, most powerful Democratic figure in the state from political contention. It involved... [a way of diverting attention from the] corporate corruption issue, because HealthSouth was big on the agenda, and Richard Scrushy had been a major funder of the Republicans in Alabama. It also involved redirecting resources, which in that state had been following the Abramoff case. They were taken off of that investigation, which promised to involve leading Republican politicians, and instead they were directed at Siegelman.

[The case] was dotted with gross irregularities from beginning to end. That is, the conduct of the prosecutors did not follow well-established Department of Justice guidelines. There was very clear evidence of involvement of political figures in Washington at the highest level, not just from the affidavit, but even from the way it was touted at the beginning with press conferences. In fact, there was a remarkable coordination between press conferences the Department of Justice gave, and statements that were released by the Republican Party in Alabama. So it was done for clear political effect.

People at the top of the Justice Department and beyond that were deeply involved tracking and directing this case from the beginning. At the end of the day, I think we're going to see that trail lead back to Karl Rove and his office."

It's being speculated now that this Alabama connection is the main reason why the White House is refusing to turn over Rove's email messages at the Political Office, because the smoking gun evidence on this Alabama corruption, AND its corresponding ties to the Abramhoff Scandal are in there, not to mention all of the election fraud information connected to Karl Rove's protege', Tim Griffin, and his activities in Arkansas that intentionally purged the homeless, the elderly, and African-American soldiers serving in Iraq from the voting rolls.

If Karl, or Torquemada Gonzales, or anyone else think that by merely resigning, the law will cease to pursue them for their crimes, they are SADLY mistaken.

There WILL be a moment of truth when you are made accountable for your many crimes. Indeed, compared to authoring the torture memo that allowed war crimes to be committed, and the treasonous outing of a NOC CIA agent during war time, election fraud and committing prosecutorial misconduct are merely the most MINOR of your crimes.

And should you escape the just sentence of living the rest of your lives in chains for what you have done, I can promise you, you will spend the next five lifetimes as a dung beetle crawling up an elephant's ass in punishment.

Then again, that's not all that different from what you do now... is it?