Governor Siegelman suggests it's time to clear the Rovian trash out of the Justice Department

In July 2008, several months after being freed from prison on an appeal bond, Don Siegelman attended the online activists' annual convention NetRoots Nation in Austin, where he observed to TPM-TV's David Kurtz, "We don't know who's covering up for whom at the DoJ." Earlier this month Siegelman found a lot of support at NetRoots Nation in Pittsburgh, where he appeared on the panel "Reporting DoJ Misconduct Scandals -- Why the Netroots is the Last Hope for Justice."

"The people who did the dirty work are still on the job right now because only a handful of the appointees have been replaced: just five of the 93 [U.S. attorneys] Bush put in place. That means Rove's clones are still calling the shots! They are a cancer on our system of justice and must be removed before our democracy can be healed."

-- Governor Siegelman, in a DailyKos

diary yesterday, "Fire Rove's Prosecutors"

by Ken

Well, with regard to the head I've put on this post, no, the governor didn't actually refer to the staggering number of Bush regime holdovers in the Obama Department of Justice as "Rovian trash." He referred to them as, simply, "Rove's prosecutors." (Same thing, no?)

But then, he would. The thing that always strikes me about Governor Siegelman is how poised and reasonable he seems, when by all rights he should be a raging inferno after all that's been done to him -- you know, being railroaded out of what looked to be a triumphant return to the governorship and into indictment, conviction, and prison by the squad of partisan enforcement goons that was the Bush DoJ. But no. While you always get that he's angry about what was done to him, he always seems to state his case calmly and respectfully.

Example: In March, when he got word that the appeal of his conviction on something like 7 of the 34 counts in his indictment (everyone seems to have slightly different numbers) had mostly been rejected (two counts of mail fraud were thrown out, and the case was accordingly returned to District Court for resentencing), he was reported in the head on his DailyKos diary to be "disappointed."

Disappointed by Today's Appeals Court Ruling
by Don Siegelman

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 12:32:33 PM PDT

The three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled. While they threw out two counts of my politically-motivated prosecution and conviction, they upheld several others and have sent the case back to the district court for re-sentencing.

Thanks to TPM and Firedoglake for blogging about this.

I am disappointed, but not discouraged. The fight will continue.

If you have a chance, I hope you'll consider contributing to my legal defense fund so we can keep up the fight.

My family and I are deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support and prayers, especially here on DailyKos and throughout the netroots community. Your words and actions keep our spirits lifted and our resolve strong. We will get through this, and we will win.

-- Don

Yesterday, in the wake of his appearance at this year's NetRoots Nation, the governor published the DailyKos diary from which the quote at the top is taken. In it he stresses the shocking fact that only 5 of the 93 U.S. attorneys are Obama appointees. (Some of the other Bush holdovers have left their jobs, voluntarily, but the assistants left behind to run the shop are of course other Bush holdovers.)

Fire Rove's Prosecutors
by Don Siegelman

Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 10:31:28 AM PDT

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to join many friends from here and all around the country at Netroots Nation and discuss some of the victories we have achieved together. Specifically, I mentioned the success we had seen in urging the House Committee on the Judiciary to force Karl Rove to testify and admit his role in the firing of U.S. Attorneys while issuing "non-denial-denials" about his role in my prosecution.

That's something we never could have achieved without the support of the netroots and the Daily Kos community. I can't thank you enough for your steadfast support. But, this fight is not over; not for me, not for Karl Rove, and not for our democracy.

That's why, at my Netroots Nation panel, I launched a new campaign, www.FireRovesProsecutors.com dedicated to seeing those Rove-vetted U.S. Attorneys and appointees still poisoning the Department of Justice removed from their positions — ending their ability to threaten our democracy.

Since then, more than 5,000 people have sent messages to the White House demanding these individuals be removed from power. I hope you'll join me by contacting the President's Senior Adviser, Valerie Jarrett, today.

This issue is anything but dead. The people who did the dirty work are still on the job right now because only a handful of the appointees have been replaced: just five of the 93 Bush put in place. That means Rove's clones are still calling the shots! They are a cancer on our system of justice and must be removed before our democracy can be healed.

To be clear, removing the previous President's appointees has been, until now, a simple matter of process. George W. Bush fired Bill Clinton's U.S. Attorneys the day after he took office. But even now, seven months after President Obama took office, my prosecution is still being led by the same Rove/Bush prosecutors at the Department of Justice and the same U.S. Attorney, who is married to one of Rove's closest political allies.

This is clearly personal for me, but my case is merely a symptom of a larger problem. Every day Rove's attack dogs remain in place is another day our nation fails to move past the crimes perpetrated under the Bush Administration. The time is well past due to remove them and move forward.

Visit FireRovesProsecutors.com to send a message to Valerie Jarrett now — and encourage her to tell the President it's time to remove Rove's clones from the Department of Justice!

As I told my friends at my panel in Pittsburgh, none of what we accomplished could have happened without you. That's why I'm asking you to stand with me again as we continue this fight for justice.

HAS THE GOP TAKEN EFFECTIVE CONTROL
OF THE STAFFING OF THE OBAMA DOJ?

Believe it or not, there is actually, as of yesterday, one (out of three) duly sworn-in U.S. attorney appointed by President Obama on the job in Alabama. AG Eric Holder traveled to Birmingham for the swearing in of Joyce White Vance (right), from the administration's initial group of five U.S.A. nominees, in the Northern District of Alabama. Until her resignation in June, famously vicious Bush hack Alice Martin, one of the U.S.A.s who participated in the Siegelman railroading, remained on the job.

Earlier this month the administration got around to naming congressional staffer Kenyen Brown to be U.S.A. for the Southern District of Alabama, a position that has been vacant since the resignation of Deborah Rhodes in mid-April.

Incredibly, the U.S.A. for the Middle District of Alabama is still none other than the infamous Leura Canary, who with her husband William Canary, a prominent Republican activist and longtime Rove crony, is generally assumed to have been at the center of the Bush administration's conspiracy against Governor Siegelman. Canary eventually recused herself from the Siegelman case, but it's her staff that continued to prosecute it. Astonishingly, after the 11th Circuit threw out two of the counts against the governor, the prosecutors petitioned to have his prison sentence increased. (The AP reported that one of his attorneys, Susan James, "said prosecutors based their request for a tougher sentence partially on charges that Siegelman was acquitted of in his trial and on the two mail fraud counts thrown out by the appellate court.")

With all the screaming the "We Lie Because We're" Republicans have done all these years over the incoming Clinton administration's quite normal and proper request for the resignations of all the G.W.H. Bush U.S.A.s, did they intimidate the Obama judicial brain trust into not doing so? Is it credible that an overwhelming majority of the U.S. attorney's office are still being run by G.W. Bush appointees -- with, of course, G.W.B.-appointed assistants?

Here I was thinking that cleaning out the rot of the Bush DoJ would have been among the new attorney general's first priorities. I don't suppose he was helped by the exercise in obstruction performed by the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee with regard to his own appointment. Still, the White House has been awfully slow in filling DoJ positions, and the Senate Democratic leadership if anything slower in seeking confirmation of the trickle of appointees, apparently afraid of being unable to break the Republican filibuster threat that has become the controlling reality in the conduct of Senate business.

Clearly the White House has had other things on its mind, like the economy. But the Executive Branch is supposed to be able to move on multiple fronts at once. (One has to hope it can!) Of course the DoJ command is itself only partially staffed with Obama appointees. An awful lot of the dirt on the political prosecution of Don Siegelman -- not to mention the ensuing cover-up -- is floating around the various compartments of the DoJ where the Bush regime was investigating itself.

It's time to do something about this whole mess.

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