60 Minutes yesterday produced a solid report on the difficult-to-believe prison sentence meted out to Don Siegelman, the Alabama governor unseated in 2002 when 6,000 votes were changed in the middle of the night, and no one was permitted – ever – to see the ballots. When Siegleman launched a campaign to win back office in 2006, the Justice Dept, the Alabama GOP and Karl Rove launched trumped-up charges that led to his being locked away and silenced in a federal prison cell.

60 Minutes didn’t mention that the 2002 election was stolen, but I’d rather not be critical of a courageous, generally strong report. One is left outraged, and with no question but that the prosecution was a sham, a gross abuse of power, and that even a powerful man can be removed from office, branded, and whisked off to prison for seven years – simply for standing in the way of Bush & Company. 

See the 60 Minutes story at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml. For those who are interested in the rest of the story – of the 2002 election theft, see Election Integrity posts on the Siegleman case. 

   I don’t know why 60 Minutes couldn’t have at least mentioned “allegations” about election theft or some simple facts as above (They say only that “Siegelman lost his 2002 re-election campaign narrowly to Republican Bob Riley.”) Siegelman himself does not regard that theft as a side issue, but rather as a major crime, and one that is quite relevant to his whole story

Note a video made Sept. 13, 2004, a few months before the increasingly infamous Bush “Justice” department launched its personal destruction campaign. In the video, Siegelman describes the theft of 2002 election that deprived him of another term as Governor.