Leura and Bill Canary: The Marriage of a GOP Power Couple Is on the Rocks

Leura Canary

The marriage of Leura and Bill Canary, a Republican power couple with connections to several scandals of the Bush/Rove era, is on shaky ground. Sources tell Legal Schnauzer that the Canarys might be headed for an acrimonious divorce. If that happens, it could have implications for several justice-related stories from the past decade or so.

Leura Canary was the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama until she announced her retirement on May 27, serving throughout the Bush administration and for more than two years of Barack Obama's term. She was at the helm for the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, perhaps the most notorious politically driven case in American history.

Bill Canary is president of the Business Council of Alabama and has long-term ties to GOP guru Karl Rove and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue. Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer and whistleblower, stated under oath before Congress that she participated in a conference call in which Bill Canary outlined a plan to prosecute Siegelman, with the apparent knowledge of Rove and the Bush White House.

Both Canarys have strong ties to former Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who "defeated" Siegelman in a 2002 election that almost certainly was determined by vote fraud, with votes for Siegelman mysteriously disappearing overnight in Baldwin County.

Bill Canary

A thirst for power in conservative circles seems to have fed the Canary marriage. But now it is on the rocks, sources tell Legal Schnauzer. Could the Canarys wind up like two snakes, coiled and hissing at each other? That's what we are hearing. Could the question become: Who will strike first? If it does, consider some of the dirt they probably have on each other:

* Leura probably knows about Bill's role in planning certain political prosecutions;

* Bill probably knows about Leura's role in executing certain political prosecutions;

* Leura probably knows about Bill's efforts, along with Rove and Donohue, to essentially buy state supreme courts in the Deep South;

* Bill probably knows about the massive GOP corruption to which Leura turned a blind eye;

* Leura probably knows how former BCA executive Ralph Stacy really died--and why.

If the Canarys go down the divorce path, our guess is that heavily monied interests will try to keep the dirt from slinging too far and too fast, making sure it stays out of the public domain.

But if that containment effort fails, and the Canary marriage continues to crumble, it could become a story of national significance.