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Friday, February 22, 2008

"60 Minutes" to report on Karl Rove's quest to ruin former Alabama governor

This Sunday, the CBS news show "60 Minutes" will report on an alleged five-year secret campaign spearheaded by former White House advisor Karl Rove to bring down Don Siegelman, who served as Alabama's governor from 1999 to 2003 after previous stints as Secretary of State, Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.

Rep. Bob Riley defeated Siegelman for re-election in November 2002 by about 3,000 votes. A voting machine glitch in a single county put Riley over the top, with votes in no other races affected. Coincidentally, all of the elections officials in that county were Republicans, and they conducted the recount after midnight when the Democratic Party observers had gone home. Democrats' requests to repeat the recount were rejected by Alabama courts and then-Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., who were all Republicans or appointed by Republicans.

In 1999, Alabama's U.S. Attorneys began a criminal investigation into controversial accusations of corruption involving Siegelman. He was indicted in 2004, convicted in 2005, and is now serving a seven-year federal prison sentence. Click here for more details on the case from TPMMuckraker.com.

But last year, Dana Jill Simpson -- a Republican attorney and political activist from Rainsville, Ala. -- signed a sworn statement that she had been on a Republican campaign conference call in which she heard GOP operative Bill Canary say not to worry about Siegelman because his "girls" and "Karl" would make sure the Justice Department took care of him. His "girls" allegedly included his wife, Leura Canary -- the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. Simpson has said that she spoke out because Siegelman's prosecution and imprisonment bothers her conscience.

For more on the upcoming "60 Minutes" story -- including a clip of Simpson talking to reporter Scott Pelley, as well as Pelley's discussion of his report -- click here.

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posted by Sue Sturgis at 4:21 PM | Email this post | Post a Comment
2 Comments:
Blogger mooncat said...

Strange coincidence, but WHNT, the local CBS affiliate in Huntsville AL which covers the northern part of the state, had "technical problems" during the Siegelman segment of 60 Minutes tonight. They showed a black screen for the first 12 to 13 minutes of the show, including most of the Siegelman story.

They caught a lot of flack from viewers and did rebroadcast that segment in its entirety at about 10:20 pm.

2/25/2008 12:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"60 Minutes Done A Great Job"

The Bush’s elete group of corrupt GOP’ers are scared to death that Don Siegelman may be on the streets before the election. Especially with Slick Bob so nervous that he is combing his hair and spraying his mouth and under arms every Five minutes for two reasons: He's hoping that the next president will be John McCain a republican and that he will asked to be his running mate. If a Democrat wins as the next president he/she will probally appoint new U.S. Attorneys in Alabama. Riley along with most of the top GOP operatives could get Federal charges filed against them for taking millions of dollars from Michael Scanlon and Jack Abramoff to defeat Siegelmans lottery campaign and for Riley's election campaigns.

2/25/2008 3:48 AM  

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CHRIS KROMM blogs three days a week for Facing South. Chris is Executive Director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of the Institute’s award-winning magazine, Southern Exposure.

SUE STURGIS blogs four days a week for Facing South. Sue is the Institute’s Editorial Director and a former reporter for The Independent Weekly and The Raleigh News & Observer.

DESIREE EVANS blogs four days a week for Facing South. Desiree is a Research Associate at the Institute and former policy analyst for TransAfrica.

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