Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Rebekah Caldwell Mason becomes first major casualty of the sex scandal enveloping Alabama Governor Dr. Robert Bentley; who will be next to hit the exits?


Rebekah and Jon Mason
Rebekah Caldwell Mason resigned this afternoon as senior political advisor to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, almost exactly seven months after we broke the story of her extramarital affair with the governor.

Mason becomes the second major Alabama political figure to step down in the past year in the wake of investigative reporting that originated with this blog. The other was former U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, known mainly for causing former governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to be unlawfully sent to prison,

Fuller formally resigned on August 1, 2015, after revelations that he had beaten his second wife in an Atlanta hotel room. That came not long after our reports that Fuller's divorce from his first wife included allegations of domestic violence and substance abuse. Once wife-beating stories surfaced, the earlier reports about Fuller's first divorce probably sealed his fate because they showed a pattern of abusive behavior in his personal life.

As for Mason, she stepped down with her version of the classic "I want to spend more time with my family" bit:

I have resigned as Senior Political Advisor to Governor Bentley and will no longer be paid from his campaign fund. I have also ended my work with the Alabama Council For Excellent Government. My only plans are to focus my full attention on my precious children and my husband who I love dearly. They are the most important people in my life. Thank you for your prayers for our family.

No word if Mason's future plans include allowing a non-spouse, who happens to hold a powerful public position, to caress her breasts and explore her nether regions. Imagine what she and Bentley would have done if their relationship had been "physical."

Where does the Bentley scandal go now? For the answer to that question, we turn to Birmingham attorney Donald Watkins, who has more than a little knowledge about high-level criminal-defense work. Watkins also knows how low Bentley can go when threatened. According to reports earlier this week, Bentley targeted Watkins and me for law-enforcement attention in an effort to halt our reporting on the Mason affair.

Watkins' thoughts can be found via a Facebook post titled "Bentley will not resign; feds must indict him." Here are highlights:

It's official. Alabama Republican Governor Robert Bentley is not resigning. Instead, he is throwing political consultant/swinging partner Rebekah Mason and her husband Jonathan under the bus. Bentley is also expected to sacrifice chief legal advisor David Byrne in a desperate bid to save his job.

Bentley is privately telling a few trusted friends that Rebekah and Byrne are to blame for everything involved in his "sex for power" scandal and public corruption activities because he simply trusted them and relied upon their professional advice. He is also claiming that Rebekah started flirting with him early on in their professional relationship and eventually seduced him around 2014. According to Bentley, he gave in to Rebekah's charm, but has now come to his senses.

Remarkably, Bentley thinks the public will forgive him if he distances himself from Rebekah. The governor is implementing the deal he struck with AL.com in exchange for their editorial board support. He is forcing Rebekah to resign.

Bentley must be hoping Mason doesn't notice the bus that just steamrolled her. But Watkins has other ideas:

If I were Rebekah's lawyer, I would strongly recommend that she contact the federal agents who are investigating this matter ASAP because Bentley has already decided his course of action. Rebekah should tell federal investigators all that she knows.

That sounds like wise counsel to me; it's the same approach indicted House Speaker Mike Hubbard should have taken months ago with Bob and Rob Riley. Hubbard was not smart enough to follow that path. How smart will Rebekah Mason be in making her next move?

After all, resigning will not free her from the scrutiny of criminal investigators.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wednesday, march 13,2013
The Speaker routinely travels with an entourage and personal body guard, many times in two black suv's with tinted windows.
Wednesday,march 30, 2016
...its the same approach indicted House Speaker Mike Hubbard should have taken months ago...

Anonymous said...

Bentley will resign.
Hubbard will follow.

Anonymous said...

Roger writes his article and shows us a pretty heifer and yet, not a single person takes her hand.

JusticeForMinors said...

Watkins is innocent when it comes to Rebekah. While Bentley was a monster and a fool here, Rebekah is a pro at manipulating men to her will. Were she better looking, she would have probably gone to D.C. and been influential as a paramour on a Presidential level. But, she has a history of this behavior , nit just with Bentley, but even with Jon Mason.

JusticeForMinors said...

As she had an affair with Jon Mason at WJRD before they were and fanagled becoming the news director somehow.

Anonymous said...

Alabama is in peril.

legalschnauzer said...

I'm not sure I get your point, @5:26, and I suspect others are confused. Could you elaborate?

Anonymous said...

5:26 here
When you wrote the article March 13,2013 everyone thought the body guard and suv's were the perks of office. It could be the Federal witness protection.

Anonymous said...

I took the comment @526 to be something like

The attractive young woman suddenly has an empty dance card (other than the husband which apparently hasn't been an impediment in the past) but she has no one interested in dancing with her. Formerly she was rumored to be the kingmaker and defacto governor of Alabama, yet suddenly there isn't a lobbyist or 501c(4) or a state vendor willing to call her or get close enough to her to make any kind of a donation or a deal.

In the future she may be able to count on her political and financial associates to feel her all over for possible wires and recording devices.

e.a.f. said...

She would be smart to be the first to "spill the beans". she has been "thrown under the bus", she no longer has the salary and may find it difficult to defend herself in a court of law. I'd suggest, to assist her in recouping her financial losses, she write a "tell all book", "print or perish". Just another e.g. of why women should not tie their wagons to a powerful man, if you really want an independent career. Ah, well this is the south, ..........