Nothing unusual about that, right? Well, here is the strange part. According to a guest article at The Wayne Madsen Report, Davis is consulting Alabama senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, both Republicans.
Why would two Republicans have input into a nomination for a Democratic administration? The article says it appears to be part of Davis' effort to gain support from pro-business forces in his run for Alabama governor in 2010.
How far will Davis go to curry favor with groups such as the Business Council of Alabama (BCA)? The article says Davis might actually push for Bush appointee Leura Canary to stay on as U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.
Canary, the wife of BCA president William Canary, is best known for leading the prosecution of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman. States The Madsen Report:
Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, the current favorite to become the state's Democratic nominee for governor in 2010, reportedly advocates retention of Republican Middle District U.S. Attorney Leura Canary to woo business and Republican support for his candidacy.
Sources report that the plan to let Canary keep her job at least temporarily is gaining traction among Washington's Democratic power brokers as a brilliant centrist strategy to help the Harvard-educated Davis win election as the state's first African-American governor.
Does this plan come with risks? Oh yes, says The Madsen Report:
Critics believe the plan would ultimately doom the Davis campaign and further erode confidence in Alabama's already disgraced federal court system. Perhaps even more important, it would create a national embarrassment for Democratic leaders who would end up snookered yet again by the master Republican strategist Karl Rove, whose Alabama ties run deep and dark. This is because retention of Canary--wife of Rove's close friend Business Council of Alabama President William Canary--would inflame Alabama's progressive community.
Progressives regard her as a central villain in the 2006 federal conviction of former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman on hoked-up corruption charges that made his seven-year prison sentence an international disgrace. Many of the state's progressives and outside legal experts have since rallied around Siegelman, helping to make Siegelman's case the most controversial U.S. criminal prosecution of the decade.
When The Madsen Report contacted Davis' office for comment, the response was curious, to say the least:
Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for Congressman Davis said that she's authorized only to say that Alabama's Republican Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby have rejected the congressman's two initial nominees, Michel Nicrosi of Mobile and Joseph Van Heest of Montgomery.
U.S. attorneys traditionally serve at the pleasure of the president. And last time our crack Legal Schnauzer investigative team checked, the current president is a Democrat. So why would the Obama administration care one iota what Shelby and Sessions thought about a U.S. attorney nomination? Answer: The Obama should not care and maybe does not care. Is it possible that Artur Davis is acting as a "lone ranger," more interested in his own political future than the needs of the U.S. Justice Department?
Could this wind up being a huge embarrassment for Davis and Obama--and the Democratic Party, if it lets Davis operate in a short-sighted, self-centered manner? The answer, according to The Wayne Madsen Report, is yes. And it has to do with Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy, who both have filed motions for new trials in recent days:
Just last week, two events helped illustrate explosive potential of any continuation of Leura Canary's role as a federal prosecutor. First, Scrushy filed an 85-page motion on Friday seeking a new trial. In it, Scrushy alleged that newly discovered evidence showed misconduct by federal prosecutors and the trial judge. For example, Scrushy cited evidence from whistleblower Tamarah Grimes in Leura Canary's office that Canary continued to monitor and indeed oversee Siegelman's prosecution even though she claimed to be recused because of her husband's longstanding friendship with Karl Rove. Bill Canary and Rove sought to eliminate Democrats from elected office in Alabama throughout the 1990s. During that time, they worked with Alabama's Republican Party Executive Committee.
Also last week, retired Chief U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of Alabama's Northern District told a National Press Club audience in Washington, DC that the Justice Department's 2004 prosecution of Siegelman on corruption charges was the most unfounded criminal case that Clemon had presided over in nearly 30 years on the federal bench.
Alabama blogger Glynn Wilson has been on top of these developments at Locust Fork News-Journal. Wilson was at the National Press Club event last Friday, and his report focuses heavily on the words of U.W. Clemon. Wilson also provides insights on the strange dance Artur Davis and Jeff Sessions are performing, focusing on how it plays out against the backdrop of the Sonia Sotomayor U.S. Supreme Court nomination.
The bottom line? Evidence is mounting that Leura Canary is corrupt, but Artur Davis might actually push for her to stay on the job?
If that proves to be the case, Alabamians should ask themselves if Artur Davis is fit to be governor--or to hold any other office, for that matter.
thought you'd enjoy (best, Biloxi):
ReplyDelete"... The rustic judge, a candidate for re-election, has postured the yokels like a clown in a ten-cent side show, and almost every word he has uttered has been an undisguised appeal to their prejudices and superstitions. The chief prosecuting attorney, beginning like a competent lawyer and a man of self-respect, ended like a convert at a Billy Sunday revival. It fell to him, finally, to make a clear and astounding statement of theory of justice prevailing under fundamentalism. What he said, in brief, was that a man accused of infidelity had no rights whatever under Tennessee law...
Darrow has lost this case. It was lost long before he came to Dayton. But it seems to me that he has nevertheless performed a great public service by fighting it to a finish and in a perfectly serious way. Let no one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the country that Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of sense and devoid of conscience.
Tennessee, challenging him too timorously and too late, now sees its courts converted into camp meetings and its Bill of Rights made a mock of by its sworn officers of the law. There are other States that had better look to their arsenals before the Hun is at their gates."
"--H. L. Mencken, "THE MONKEY TRIAL": A Reporter's Account
existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com"
Davis has never really been an impressive figure in my eyes. I understand this is Alabama, but there's no reason the representative for a district like his should be such a blue dog.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to edit this post...
ReplyDeleteIn two paragraphs, I found several errata, and since the gist of the piece is very important, you might want to touch it up.
So why would the Obama administration care one iota what Shelby and Sessions thought about a U.S. attorney nomination? Answer: The Obama ________ should not care and maybe does not care. Is it possible that Artur Davis is acting as a "lone ranger," more interested in his own political future than the needs of the U.S. Justice Department?
Could this wind up being a huge embarrassment for Davis and Obama--and the Democratic Party, if it lets Davis operate in a short-sighted, self-centered manner? The answer, The Wayne Madsen Report writes, is yes.
Respectfully, Wayne Madsen is not a credible source, and in taking work from his site seriously you damage your own reputation.
ReplyDeletehttp://unknownnews.org/WayneMadsen.html
really guys. your worried about obama's credibility???
ReplyDeletehas this clown kept a single campaign promise???
remember the legislation website???
transparency??? you goobs pass legislation not only that you don't read, hasn't been written.
lgbt's are pissed because they've been dumped on. (again)
unemployment's now in double digits and where's the stimulus???
(kinda like where's waldo)
i know it's got to be tough on you guys after branding bush as a liar but back to the real world:
politicians lie.
artur isn't going to embarrass the liar-in-chief.
they're old fannie/freddie buds.
they know how to roll.
I've found Wayne Madsen to be right on target about a number of Alabama-related stories.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHowdy Schnauzer ...
If you don't already have the following link, a video presentation you may wish to have for your archives on the railroading of Siegleman.
C-SPAN: Event Date: 06/26/2009
Last Airing: 07/10/2009
"Participants talked about allegations of political misconduct at the Justice Department during the Bush administration. Many speakers related personal experiences with Justice Department policies and investigations and the potential impact of policies used during the Bush presidency."
Fast Forward to 01:18:00 for U. W. Clemon's presentation.
If the above link does not open directly to the video, you may wish to find it at this page link.
~DK~ @ Silly as it Seems