Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, a progressive Democrat in a very Red State, was a rising star on the national political scene when Karl Rove and clients, Alabama Republican Attorney General Bill Pryor and Bill Canary, campaign manager for Don's re-election opponent, instigated successive investigations designed to bring him down.
Within DNC circles, Governor Siegelman was being considered as a future candidate for the nation's highest office. Neither Rove nor his Alabama cronies would stand for that.
Almost immediately upon assuming office, Pryor (who now sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals) began a highly-publicized investigation leading to Don's indictment and subsequent acquittal in the Northern District of Alabama, a prosecution Presiding Federal District Court Judge U.W. Clemon called the greatest miscarriage of justice he had witnessed in his 29 years on the federal bench.
Governor Siegelman's subsequent prosecution in Alabama's Middle District, led by U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, Bill Canary's wife, resulted in his unjust conviction and resulting 7 1/2 year prison sentence. Disgraced Federal Judge Mark Fuller, a "judge with a grudge" since Don's investigation of him for Retirement Systems fraud while Fuller was a state district attorney, made sure the railroading was complete. You may know Mark Fuller as the serial wife-beating, philandering judge who has now resigned his judgeship in disgrace.
Don is now a federal prisoner in Oakdale, Lousiana, where he writes about reforming elections and the criminal justice system.
Follow Don on Twitter: @DonSiegelman
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Don's Labor Day message follows below the fold....
From:
SIEGELMAN, DON EUGENE
Sep 7, 2015 3:19 pm
Memories of Labor Days Past
For nearly 25 years, every year, every Labor Day weekend, I'd pack up, leave my family and head for
the northeast Alabama Quad Cities where Labor Day seems to have been born. President Carter thought so, he came too.
I'd always stay overnight with friends, for years my Yellow Dog friend Jimmy Hunt, also a mutual friend of Bill Baxley, a name seemingly synonymous with "Labor". Baxley was kind of a role model in politics for me. I admired his commitment to his friends and his unending populist messages.
Baxley had the record for the number of Labor Day events at Spring Park. I finally, in my later years in politics, broke Bill's record.
It would start the night before at a reception sponsored by the local labor council. If you were any kind of wishful thinking politician, you were there.
The next morning was tricky. An early morning breakfast in honor of Baxley turned into a "must attend" event, wonderful people hosting, and locals who could help in the next election. Later the Tuscaloosa Labor Council started having a reception the night before their big Labor Day parade, labor's version of Mardi Gras. Then there was the Lawrence County event.
I would speak early at Spring Park and haultail it to Courtland, in Lawrence County, sometimes in a speeding car, or helicopter with Baxley, a state senator's plane, or as Governor on the Public Safety chopper, my version of Trump's entrance. The people were the best.
All local country folk. I adored them. Old ladies with aprons and cotton print dresses, and farmers in their "Liberty" overalls, serving delicious homemade lunches to raise money for the local school. Farmers, local merchants, a few lawyers and local politicians who would always look after me. I wooed them and courted them and they responded. My brother, Les, suggested I move there. He had looked at the votes after my first few election. I was averaging in the high 70%.
Then, with food in my lap, on to the airport for a quick airlift to Tuscaloosa in time to line up for the parade. Locals had me in front in a classic car, once or twice with the local beauty queen. Nice. Lots of applause along the route. I knew they were cheering for her though. Once, when former Governor "Big Jim" Folsom was the honoree, I added Jackson County's event. It was just too much.
Back to the Tuscaloosa airport to make Blue Springs Park for the Wire Grass Labor Council celebration or to Birmingham? Always a dilemma. In the later years, I chose Birmingham, from there a straight shot to Mobile Labor Council's event in Saraland, so I could hammer Labor's worthless U.S. Senator Richard Shelby and our Klan Representative, Jeff Sessions, and to bust President Reagan for busting the Air Traffic controllers, allowing steel to be dumped, failing to enforce our trade agreements, which led to the destruction of tens of thousands of steel and apparel jobs. Then came Clinton's NAFTA, which I also campaigned against.
In the old days I'd be bumming rides to get to Mobile.
Once on a state rep's single engine which he piloted, loosing a nose cone after a bird strike right as we were landing at old Brookley AFB on Mobile Bay. We landed safely but the plane was grounded by the FAA. I got bumped up to first class on the way back. Congressman Walter Flowers of Watergate fame, a conservative Democrat who voted to impeach Nixon, gave me a lift to Montgomery on his twin engine Cessna. Ah, drinks too! As Governor, I talked the Alabama Business Council into buying a Cessna Jet and selling to the state for a dollar. Trump couldn't trump that deal!
As Governor, I kept that same pace every day. Up and at the "Y" before 5:00 and at my 7:15 morning planning session. I wanted to give every child the hope and dream of free higher education. I wanted every child to reach their potential and to have good jobs for them. A dream to keep them in school and out of trouble. A dream that was crushed by the "Republithugs"*, Bob Riley, the Canarys, Choctaw casino money and greed. I'll never forgive them for stealing our children's dream. I set out to recruit good jobs. By replacing portable classrooms with over 1,000 new school construction projects, and with a two billion dollar road and bridge construction project, the largest in Alabama's history, we created jobs, jobs, jobs. Building on Boeing and Lockheed Aerospace, transforming the state docks, bringing in two Honda plants, a second Mercedes plant, Toyota, Hyundai, a division of Fiat, and hundreds of automotive suppliers, there were over 72,000 good paying automotive jobs available all before my 2002 reelection was stolen by the "Republithugs".
Making it back home, generally too late for dinner, and most nights too late to say good night to Dana or Joseph. Lori, bless her soul, gave up so much so I could try to make a difference, and never once complained. Dana and Joseph I guess just thought all dads stayed busy. Sorry kids, I love you.
To all my Labor friends in every niche and cranny of Alabama, God Bless you and your families.
I love you all,
Don
* "Republithugs" is a term lent to me by my creative writer coach and friend, Carolyn Haines.
Click to watch our compelling documentary trailer & become outraged: Killing Atticus Finch - The Political Assassination of Don Siegelman