Will Real Campaign Manager Please Stand Up?

One of many interesting questions raised by the Montgomery Independent's stories on Bob Riley's flirtations with Alabama's campaign-finance laws is this: Who in the heck was Riley's campaign manager in 2006?

One of the Independent's stories says Riley's son, Rob Riley, managed both his 2002 and 2006 campaigns.

But it has been widely reported on the Web that Montgomery-based GOP "consultant" Dax Swatek was campaign manager for Riley's re-election bid in '06.

So which is it? Is Rob Riley trying to deflect attention away from Swatek for some reason? Did Swatek puff up his resume in order to get a short-lived position with the John McCain campaign? Did Bob Riley have more than one campaign manager in '06?

Dax Swatek, of course, is the son of Pelham, Alabama, attorney William E. Swatek, who filed the fraudulent lawsuit against me that led to numerous unlawful rulings by Republican state judges in Alabama--and to the blog you are now reading.

If Dax Swatek did not fall far from the tree, one has to wonder about his ethics. William E. Swatek has a 30-year record of unethical behavior in his law career. He has been disciplined three times by the Alabama State Bar, including a suspension of his license for acts of fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, etc. He also has been tried for perjury in criminal court.

We will be going into Bill Swatek's sleazy history in painstaking detail here at Legal Schnauzer. And keep this point in mind: This dirtbag attorney has been repeatedly protected by GOP judges in Alabama, both at the trial-court level in Shelby County and at the appellate level.

Even the Alabama Supreme Court, the same Republican-packed body that screwed the state out of a $3.6 billion ruling against oil giant ExxonMobil, has made unlawful rulings in order to protect Bill Swatek from being held accountable for filing a lawsuit that had no basis in fact or law.

Is that because Bill Swatek is Dax Swatek's daddy, and the Daxter has close ties to the Bob Riley camp? We'll lay out the story, and you be the judge.

After all, it will be interesting to see if Dax Swatek winds up in the middle of Riley's campaign-finance mess. Given his father's history, it shouldn't be surprising if Dax Swatek winds up connected to something sleazy.

In fact, the Daxter's fingerprints already have been found in some interesting places. Scott Horton, of Harper's.org, has noted the Daxter's connections to Jack Abramoff. And it was the flow of Abramoff money to the Riley campaign that might have led to the latest allegations involving use of planes and improper reporting of campaign finances.

Will Dax Swatek wind up adding mud to his family's already less-than-stellar reputation? Stay tuned.