Siegelman: "Rove provided umbrella of protection over those people who were operating to abuse DOJ"

Don Siegelman: And other members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and those actions by those people who listen to the show have (1) I think had an impact on, directly on my case, but more importantly has inspired the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and Chairman Conyers to dig in and to look for the truth, and my, I believe, as we heard on your show just a minute ago, all roads lead to Rove.

Thom Hartmann: Yes.

Don Siegelman: And when they dig up the evidence that was buried when Alberto Gonzales and Rove left the White House, they're going to find evidence of abuse of power and misuse of the Department of Justice, using it as a political tool to win elections, subverting our democracy and they're going to find that, I believe, that Karl Rove provided an umbrella of protection over those people who were operating to abuse the Department of Justice and because it just doesn't make sense why these people would violate the law with impunity unless they knew that their bosses or someone higher up had given the green light for them to do so.

Thom Hartmann: Right. They knew that their backside was covered, and when this whole 'who's being fired in the Justice Department among the prosecutors' scandal broke, my comment was, 'I'm not so concerned about the guys who got fired because they wouldn't get along and go along; I'm concerned about the ones who are staying in power'. And, in fact, if I understand this correctly, you were being prosecuted by a woman whose husband was the campaign manager for the Republican who ran against you for governor and in the middle of the night in one county because of a voting machine malfunction after the election had apparently already been called in your favor, suddenly in the middle of the night when there were nobody expect Republicans standing around, they discovered a couple thousand more votes and said 'Oh, yeah, no no, Don Siegelman actually lost'. Do I have that right?

cross talk

Don Siegelman: You have it right. They electronically shifted votes from my column to my Republican's column.

Thom Hartmann: To Bob Riley's column.

Don Siegelman: I believe, yes, to Bob Riley's column. And oddly enough, it didn't effect a single down-ballot race. They took five thousand or six thousand votes of mine and shifted it over to Bob Riley and when they counted everybody else's votes, the shift at the top which logically would have made a difference at the bottom...

more at:
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/04/thom-hartmann-i.html

:hi:

Thanks for the thread, kpete.