Louisiana Voice

He’s baaaaack!

• He’s been linked to JACK ABRAMOFF and almost went to jail along with the corrupt lobbyist who ripped off the Mississippi Choctaw Indians for $85 and the Louisiana Coushatta Tribe for another $32 million.
• He also narrowly avoided serious jail time for his role in exposing CIA agent VALERIE PLAME (it’s a federal crime to reveal the identity of a U.S. spy). The person who actually leaked her identity was Dick Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted of perjury in 2007 but granted a full pardon by Donald Trump in April 2018.
• He also played a key role in the persecution of former Alabama Gov. DONALD SIEGELMAN. Details or that scandal are particularly nasty. Rove used his influence with President George W. Bush and Bush’s Justice Department to conjure up charges of bribery against the Democratic governor who some considered a potential candidate for president.

So, now we learned that Senate Republicans have called upon KARL ROVE once again. This time, he’s being asked to oversee their fundraising program for the Georgia runoff elections. It seems the Republicans just never learn their lessons.

He will serve as national finance chair for the Georgia Battleground Fund, a joint fundraising accounted put together by the National Republican Senatorial Committee formed to benefit Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Effective as he no doubt is, Rove is damaged goods, tarnished by a string of political scandals. He also is exceedingly lucky. Any one of those aforementioned political SNAFUs could have – should have – resulted in jail time for Rove.

The Siegelman case is especially egregious.

While governor during his first term, Siegelman had visions of creating a lottery to create funds to pay for the college education of every Alabama child who wanted to go but could not afford the costs, a noble program, to say the least. Siegelman, who had held every statewide political office – secretary of state, attorney general, lieutenant governor, and governor, was an announced candidate to again run for governor.

But when a large donor was reappointed to a state board, Rove and U.S. Attorney Leura Canary invented an elaborate bribery scheme even though Siegelman never received a cent of the contribution, the money going instead into a special fund used to promote the election to approve the lottery. The real irony was the donor was already on the board but did not desire to continue serving. He did so only at Siegelman’s urging. Did I mention that the board paid nothing to its members, who volunteered their services?

Canary, was the wife of Rove associate Billy Canary who, coincidentally, was campaign manager for Siegelman’s opponent. Officially, Leura Canary recused herself, but in reality, she took a firm hand in guiding the prosecution of Siegelman.

Add to the mix a hostile judge who had been investigated by Siegelman during his term as attorney general, and you have the perfect storm. (The presiding judge, Mark Fuller, would later be forced from office after brutally beating his wife in Atlanta’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.)

Siegelman served most of his prison sentence at the federal detention center in Oakdale, Louisiana, the same facility where former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards served. The two became close friends there.

Dozens of current and former state attorneys general petitioned the justice department for clemency for Siegelman, to no avail, and 60 Minutes did a lengthy piece on the persecution of the former governor, courtesy of Karl Rove, the man credited with the rise of George W. Bush first to governor of Texas and later to president, only to be forced out by Bush in the wake of the Valerie Plame scandal.

For the complete story of the Siegelman-Rove saga, I would invite you to read Siegelman’s book, Stealing Our Democracy: How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation.

To learn more about Rove’s role in Plame’s exposure, you should read her book, Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government. (The title comes from Rove’s own assertion that she was “fair game.”)

For more on the Abramoff-Grover Norquist-Tom DeLay affair, you’re invited to wade through the final report of Gimme Five, the Congressional Investigation of Tribal Lobbying Matters by clicking HERE.

Karl Rove is bad news anywhere he pops up but he is an effective fundraiser. He also is an extremely dirty player and wherever and whenever he is, whatever he is involved with, you can expect underhanded dealings. His track record is clear evidence of that.

Just ask Valarie Plame and Don Siegelman.