Uh huh. I don’t know much about Don Siegelman - maybe he’s cartoonishly awful for all I know - but I have read up on the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of Don Siegelman, and they were ludicrously corrupt and unjust, and nakedly partisan. He was, in the end, prosecuted by the wife of his opponent’s campaign manager, and convicted of having reappointed to a fourth term on the state hospital regulatory board a rich political donor who had, in this instance, donated to a referendum campaign intended to funnel state lottery revenue to the poor.
I have family there, though I don’t pay close attention, maybe it was a setup since there certainly was a lot of partisanship in nailing him. But he was found guilty of trading political favors for money and obstruction of justice, which has been the status quo for governors in Alabama from time immemorial, regardless of political party (the Dems. in Alabama are members of the party, but tend more towards being fairly regressive and fairly conservative Dixiecrats). I was mostly commenting on the fact that political party doesn’t indicate virtue, and that Alabama’s always been run by bribery, graft, kickbacks, and corruption.
I miss the old school Republicans. Bill Clements was a Republican governor of Texas from '79 - '83 and again '87 - 91. He drove himself around in a station wagon. He’d oftentimes decide he was done with his work in Austin, load up the car and drive home to Dallas, without telling staff. Sometimes, on the way to Dallas, if he was hungry, he’d stop at a Dairy Queen for a burger. No big deal.
In '95 George W. Bush comes along, and it’s motorcades of black SUV’s. Same with Rick Perry.
I’m sure if Clements forgot his wallet on the way to Dallas, he’d either turn the station wagon around and go get it, or skip the burger and fix himself a ham & cheese sandwich when he got home.
Thank god that Alabama is around to make GA look good. Add SC into the mix, and we look positively progressive (well, as long as you ignore the NW corner of the metro area and much of the rest of the state!).
Looks like Alabama and Illinois have something in common - governors in jail. Four out of our last seven governors has ended up in jail. We also have a recent Speaker of the Illinois House (Dennis Hastert) who has been convicted of illegally moving money between bank accounts which was done to pay off someone he had molested while Hastert was a wrestling coach. Fortunately, he now “acknowledges his transgressions”. There are a lot of really evil bastards in the world
