Beyond Skullduggery

There is an interesting story developing out of Alabama, where some are beginning to wonder if the former governor there, Don E. Siegelman, was wrongly prosecuted by an overly politicized Justice Department. The erstwhile Democratic governor is currently serving out an 7-year sentence in federal prison for bribery. His alleged crime is rewarding a donor to his pet project with a seat on a hospital board (the pet project: a state lottery program that would raise revenue for education).

Besides the unusual severity of a federal bribery charge for a transaction that did not net the governor any personal gain, there is a whole host of red flags surrounding the case (10 min. 60 Minutes clip here). Fifty-two former attorneys general from 40 states have asked Congress to investigate wrongdoing on the part of the Justice Department.

If the prosecution really was as flawed and politically motivated as it looks--and after reading about the details I think that it was--then this story, I predict, will blow up pretty quickly. The reason I think is simple: there is a big difference between torpedoing an opponent's political career and sending an innocent man to jail for the better part of a decade. The first can be unseemly but it falls within the boundaries of "acceptable" hardball politics and large numbers of political operatives will phalanx up to deflect the ensuing charges of skullduggery until people stop caring. The second, though, is enough to test the conscience of even the most cynical party hack--at the end of the day, being able to sleep at night will win out over keeping a Democrat from occupying the statehouse. Expect the whistles to keep on a'blowin'.