In the News
Siegelman case political? Ask the state GOP
March 31, 2008
Tuscaloosa News, Stevenson, 03/30/08
TUSCALOOSA | I thought state Rep. Mike Hubbard, the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, had more class -- and sense -- than to react as he did to former Gov. Don Siegelman's release from federal prison.
In a brief statement issued by the state GOP within the hour of the announcement that an appeals court was ordering Siegelman released late Thursday afternoon, Hubbard said that "the former Governor's release pending appeal does not change the conviction by a jury of his peers. It would be premature to turn this development into anything other than a formality."
Formality? Tell that to Siegelman and his family who should be joyously reunited after nine months Friday. And what is a political party official doing issuing a statement that also said he was "disappointed" in the appeal court's decision?
I don't have the legal chops to hazard a guess about whether or not Siegelman will prevail in his appeal of a seven year sentence on corruption charges, but I am certainly relieved that he will be a free man as he pursues that appeal. I've known Don for more than 30 years, covered his career as he was elected secretary of state, attorney general, lieutenant governor, and finally governor and consider him a friend. And while he may indeed be guilty, and if so should take his medicine, I always wondered why you would wait until you got to the governor's mansion to turn crooked. In Alabama if you really was to rake it in, the best place to do it is as lieutenant governor, who presides over the Alabama Senate and controls what legislation is passed and can easily shake down every lobbyist in Montgomery.
Thursday's ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta said Siegelman's appeal had raised "substantial questions," about his case and that he should be released from the federal prison in Louisiana where he has already served nine months of his sentence. I read over the four-page ruling on the New York Times website and while it is full of legalese, it seems to have been written by some judges who think there has been an injustice done.
The federal case was politically charged from the beginning and followed an earlier failed attempt by a Republican United States attorney to put Siegelman behind bars that was thrown out of court for its complete lack of credibility.
Most of the really explosive politicization came, however, after Siegelman was hauled out of a Montgomery courtroom in shackles -- extremely unusual for white collar criminals who are normally allowed some time to get their affairs in order before reporting for incarceration -- with Karl Rove and the whole scandal in the U.S. Department of Justice implicated.
An appeal, of course, will not take any of that into account -- it must be based on what happened in the courtroom -- and, as Hubbard so sneeringly pointed out, Siegelman's release on bond does not mean he is innocent.
But if you want proof that politics, at least on a stupid, superficial level, surrounds this case all you need to do is consider the GOP's sour grapes.
