Are Alabama GOPers Losing It?

With the 60 Minutes story on the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman set to run on Sunday, we are seeing reports that make you wonder if higher ups in the Alabama Republican Party are about to go over the edge.

Larisa Alexandrovna, of at-Largely and Raw Story, reports that several progressive journalists and a central character in the Siegelman drama are going to be targets of a printed smear campaign.

The targets include Scott Horton of Harper's, Glynn Wilson of Locust Fork News, Alexandrovna herself, and Republican whistleblower Jill Simpson.

Writes Alexandrovna:

My understanding is that the whistle-blower, Dana Jill Simpson, Scott Horton of Harper's, Glyn Wilson of Locust Fork, and possibly (this I have only heard from one person) 60 Minutes are going to be smeared from here to eternity. I don't know the exact form the slander will take, but what I do know is that this will constitute an act of political war using an Alabama publication, possibly two - willingly I might add - to attack reporters.

I am not going to name the publication(s) at this point. I am hoping that they have some sense of ethics and refuse to run the hit piece. But, I will say this and openly, any publication that acts as the personal attack dog of a group of corrupt politicians needs to be run out of business. Or let me put it another way, none of us are going to stand by and allow slander as intimidation.

I ask that everyone - who believes in a free press; who depends on publications like Harper's, Raw Story, and TV shows like 60 Minutes for truth; everyone who believes in whistle-blower protection; everyone who does not want Soviet style justice in this country; and everyone who believes that this is still a country of laws - to please be ready to shame any publication that prints this hit piece into non-existence.

Defend your reporters people, because they are all you have standing between you and an all-powerful authoritarian state. You want a free press? Fight for it. So, I ask you to ready yourselves for this assault. If any Alabama publication runs this hit piece, I want to know you will stand with me - with us really.

I will keep everyone posted on what happens. Let's hope there is still some integrity left in the two major newspapers in Alabama. Certainly the citizens of Alabama deserve honest brokers in the news business.

Meanwhile, Glynn Wilson at Locust Fork News reports that legal sources in Montgomery say U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, a Bush appointee, plans to issue and serve more indictments on Democrats in the Alabama Legislature in the days after the 60 Minutes report airs.

Wilson's sources say perhaps nine Democrats will be dragged from the floor of the Legislature in handcuffs, and that the Alabama Bushies hope to include one Republican lawmaker to make it appear that the two-year college investigation is non-partisan.

If Alabama GOPers are indeed feeling unstable, I hope I can add to that feeling when I present firsthand written proof that Alice Martin indeed conducts her office in a partisan fashion. We already have begun to lay the groundwork for that report, which should be starting in the next week to 10 days.