Don Siegelman Must Have Spewed When He Read This

Wish I could have been with Don Siegelman when he read the editorial titled "Political Pollution" in this morning's Birmingham News.

Get a load of the first paragraph:

Just when you think the Bush administration can't possibly do Don Siegelman any more favors, along comes more news of political misdeeds in the agency that prosecuted the former governor.

If Siegelman had a mouthful of coffee when he read that, he must have spewed it clear across his kitchen. I make that assumption because when I read it, I spewed a mouthful of orange juice across our kitchen.

This is Alabama's leading newspaper folks, and here's how it frames the story:

THE PROBLEM WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS THAT IT KEEPS DOING FAVORS FOR DON SIEGELMAN!

Let's consider the "favors" the Bush administration has done for Siegelman:

* They ignored evidence that votes in the 2002 gubernatorial election were electronically manipulated, costing Siegelman an apparent victory;

* They brought a bogus case against him in Birmingham that was so weak a judge promptly booted it out of court;

* They brought an equally bogus case against him in Montgomery, but with the help of a corrupt prosecutor and a judge with a clear axe to grind (and both with strong ties to the Republican Party), they managed to get a conviction that is not supported by fact or law;

* They caused Siegelman to miss a chance to unseat Republican Bob Riley in the 2006 gubernatorial election;

* They caused Siegelman to spend nine months in federal prison for crimes he didn't commit;

* They cost Siegelman tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of dollars and brought him to the edge of financial ruin; and

* They put Siegelman's family through untold anguish.

I'm sure I'm leaving out some of the many "favors" the Bush administration has done for Siegelman. Perhaps alert readers can add to my list.

But you get the general idea: According to The Birmingham News, the big problem with the Bush Justice Administration is its tendency to grant numerous "favors" to Democratic officeholders and supporters!

I need to get on the phone and call Mississippi attorney Paul Minor and former state judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield. It might take a while to reach them, seeing as how they are in federal prison. But I want to make sure they know about the "favors" they are receiving from the Bush Administration.

And I've got to call Alex Latifi, the Huntsville defense contractor who saw his prosperous company ruined by a bogus investigation from "loyal Bushie" Alice Martin. I'll be darned, I bet Latifi had no idea that Martin was doing him such a "favor."

Heck fire, come to think of it, I guess I'm the recipient of "favors" from the Bush administration. The evidence is overwhelming that people with connections to the Bush machine have stolen my rights to my own house and cost me my job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

I didn't even stop to thank them for granting me so many "favors." How could I have been so thoughtless?

And get this: The entire tone of the editorial suggests the News brain trust is amazed, amazed I tell you, that political considerations have ruled the day in the Bush Justice Department.

Ah, Alabama journalism. Just can't beat it.