NYT goes to bat for convicted Democrat governor

By Ed Lasky

Adam Nossiter writes a shockingly sympathetic article on former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat.

Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, tried to paint a bigger picture, saying he was a victim of Karl Rove, the senior political adviser in the White House.

"The origins of this case are political," Mr. Siegelman said. "There's no question that Karl Rove's fingerprints are all over this case, from the inception."

His words, in turn, have been fueled by an affidavit that seems to link his prosecution to high government circles, which has given the case a serious jolt.

Mr. Siegelman was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud last year after being accused of persuading Richard M. Scrushy, then the chairman of the HealthSouth Corporation, to pay off $500,000 in debt from a lottery campaign the governor had initiated, in exchange for a seat on a state hospital licensing board. Mr. Scrushy was also convicted.

It was a small part of a voluminous Justice Department bribery-and-racketeering case, most of which - 25 out of 32 counts - was dismissed by the jury. Nonetheless the government is urging a sentence of 30 years and is asking Judge Mark Fuller of Federal District Court to even weigh charges on which Mr. Siegelman was acquitted.

Recall, how the Times ran a front-page article on the Republican Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher He was indicted over hiring practices (patronage). The paper did a media lynching. These charges were later dismissed, with nary a mention of the dismissal in the paper, so far as I saw it.

Now the paper makes excuses for the conviction of an Alabama Governor, Don Siegelman, who is a Democrat in an article buried deep in the paper's pages. Even within the article, the paper prominently gives play to his absurd charges that you-know-who was behind his conviction and that he was a victim of government overreach (a Democrat criticizing an activist government... now that is rare). The paper then finds some critics who basically label the conviction "garbage"; or a "joke" and that such play for pay schemes are just a part of governing.