The World Around You

The pressure was finally too much and Judge Lynwood Smith, the federal judge in the case against former Governor Don Siegelman and second cousin to current Governor Bob Riley, has officially removed himself from the Siegelman case.

U.S District Judge Lynwood Smith said he was confident he could be fair, but he had “no desire to contribute to the prevailing level of cynical distrust of pronouncements by public officials.”

Smith’s decision will almost certainly force a delay in Siegelman’s trial, now scheduled for Aug. 2, defense attorney Jack Drake said.

Smith’s departure came a week after U.S. Attorney Alice Martin recommended he step down after revealing he attended campaign events for his second cousin when he was running against Siegelman in 2002.

Martin issued a statement saying she trusts Smith’s decision “will eliminate any concerns of the public in our judicial process.”

**Crossposted at Polstate.com

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I’ve found it interesting over the past few months that people have continued to post responses to a very old post about Russ and Dee Fine, morning talk show hosts in Birmingham (radio and simulcast on TV). I have deleted some of the more profane posts, but have been somewhat entertained by the creativity in some of the insults.

Today, I see in one of the comments that the page was mentioned on their show this morning. Evidently they threatened to sue the person who runs the site. I would love to see them try. Not that I want to get into a court battle, but I would just find it hilarious and it would be great publicity for the site. You may notice that the only thing I wrote was the initial post and one comment later on. Everything else was posted by random individuals visiting and revisiting the page.

Has anyone else had a lawsuit threatened against them for comments made on their site?

It also appears that someone may have taken down their official site in retaliation. Does anyone know anything about that?

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We had some very close races in Autauga County last night, so shame on you if you didn’t get out to the polls.

In the District 4 Republican runoff, Commissioner Michael Morgan won a place in the general election by just eight votes over challenger Benny Harris. Morgan will face Democrat Debbie Murphree in the Nov. 2 general election. Murphree was unopposed in the primary.

District 3 county Board of Education member Jerry deBin was defeated by political newcomer Art Wilkerson in the GOP race. Wilkerson collected 58 percent of the vote to deBin’s 41. There is no Democratic challenger in the fall, so if no independent candidate comes forward, Wilkerson takes the seat.

In the District 5 commission runoff for the Republican nominee, Aaron Ricky Albert bested “Big Jim” McCarley 65 percent to 36 percent. Albert will face two-term Democratic incumbent Carl Johnson in the fall. Johnson was unopposed in the primary.

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I could not be more disappointed in any of the election results from last night than I am by this one:

327 of 327 boxes reporting

Stephanie Bell 10,332 56.3%
John Draper 8,015 43.7%

Stephanie is clearly the wrong choice for the people of Alabama, but the people of the 3rd District have spoken. Turnout was fairly low, but certainly could have been worse. Stephanie has a lot of friends and they obviously came out to the polls.

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Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley is expecting record turnout in the primary run-off today, record low turnout.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. around the state, but in many jurisdictions there will be little or no runoff activity because area party nomination contests were settled on June 1. On that date, about 16 percent of the state’s 2.7 million registered voters cast ballots.

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Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley is expecting record turnout in the primary run-off today, record low turnout.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. around the state, but in many jurisdictions there will be little or no runoff activity because area party nomination contests were settled on June 1. On that date, about 16 percent of the state’s 2.7 million registered voters cast ballots.

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Governor Riley will name James Scott Main state finance director today in a 10am press conference.

Main, 59, worked as chief of staff and legal adviser for then-Gov. Fob James in 1997-99.

Before that, he practiced law for 25 years in Anniston and Montgomery. He was a shareholder in Beasley Allen, a high-profile firm in Montgomery, in 1991-97.

**Crossposted at Polstate.com

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Two interesting robberies were reported in this morning’s Montgomery Advertiser. The first was two teenagers causing $300 worth of damage to steal $7 worth of candy. Idiotic, but not highly unusual.

The second was really bizarre.

The theft of hair from a Montgomery beauty supply store has placed two women behind bars.

Eloise Curry, 44, and Laquinda Jenell Hall, 22, where charged with property theft after reportedly taking $30 in assorted hair used for weaves from Beauty & Beyond on 4107 Norman Bridge Road.

Zahi Abdelazin told police that Curry and Hall attempted to leave the business without paying for the items, which were concealed in a handbag. They were arrested for third-degree theft of property and taken to the Montgomery City Jail.

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A new poll by the Mobile Register seems to indicate that Alabamians are seeing the reality of our activities in Iraq.

Less than half the 407 people surveyed said the war has made the world a safer place, a stark difference from April 2003, after the successful invasion, when more than three-quarters of respondents said the same thing.

“Many people were optimistic the war would make the world a safer place,” said Keith Nicholls, a political science professor at USA who conducted the poll. “That optimism was shattered by the reality of our experience in Iraq.”

Meanwhile, the latest poll results suggest that the number of Alabamians who believe the war on terrorism and Iraq should be the federal government’s top priority has increased since a similar survey in January.

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The Birmingham News makes an effort today to flesh out some of the issues that appear to be involved in the latest grand jury investigation into the administration of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

An education lottery has been Siegelman’s signature campaign issue throughout his political career. He promoted a lottery for Alabama back before Georgia established one. It was the main plank of his gubernatorial campaign in 1998, when he traveled the state vowing the measure would revolutionize public education for Alabama’s children, and he resurrected the issue in his unsuccessful 2002 re-election bid.

Beginning in the summer months of 1999, he was told by Alabama Ethics Commission Director James Sumner not to personally solicit contributions. The problem, Sumner said, is that no one who does business with the state wants to turn a governor down when he asks for money.

“It’s fine for anybody to be making those calls on his behalf, but it’s much more difficult to say no to the governor,” Sumner said then. “When the governor calls, you want to respond. You want to give an affirmative answer.”

**Crossposted at Polstate.com

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Governor Siegelman’s attorneys indicated they had no problem with the judge in his case, but the prosecuters are now asking for his dismissal.

A transcript, entered into public record Wednesday and released Friday, shows U.S. Attorney Alice Martin asked U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. to step aside.

“We believe that there’s enough issues that have been raised, and this is simply an issue that doesn’t need to be out there, so that the public questions, the process in this, which will be a very highly publicized case, we think it would simply be in the best interest of justice if the court were to recuse itself,” Martin said.

But in a Friday filing, Siegelman’s lawyers reiterated their claims that there is no reason for Smith to step aside because of his ties to Riley. The filing said any effort by the government to disqualify Smith is merely “a matter of judge-shopping.”

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We’re beginning to see the outline of the grand jury investigation in Montgomery, involving former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman’s Education Foundation, which helped fund the effort for a state lottery.

Birmingham lawyer James Hawkins said his client, retired Kimberly-Clark Corp. CEO Wayne Sanders, had been subpoenaed to testify in the closed-door session. Asked if prosecutors were asking about the lottery foundation, Hawkins said, “Yes.”

He declined to answer any more questions.

Kimberly-Clark is among several companies that donated to the Alabama Education Foundation, a nonprofit entity created to fund the campaign for Siegelman’s 1999 lottery proposal and later reorganized with the stated goal of improving education in the state.

Executives from the Alabama Farmer’s Federation, commonly called Alfa, have said Siegelman personally solicited money for the fund after the lottery defeat, while not disclosing to donors that the money was being used to repay debt from the campaign.

Thursday’s three-hour grand jury session — the fourth consecutive day the panel has gathered at the Frank M. Johnson Courthouse in Montgomery — continued what has become a wide-ranging probe into events spanning over Siegelman’s 1999-2003 term atop state government.

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It appears that the Alabama State Board of Education may forego a national search for a new permanent superintendent and instead hand the job to interim boss Dr. Joseph Morton. The search will cost upwards of $100,000 and a majority of the Board appears to believe it is not worth the expense when a qualified candidate is ready to step in.

I believe this is extremely unfortunate. Dr. Morton is a very good administrator, but he does come with the baggage of the previous regime. To my mind, the system would benefit from some new blood.

**Crossposted to Polstate.com

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This is a priceless bit from The Smoking Gun.

JUNE 24–While seated on the bench, an Oklahoma judge used a male enhancement pump, shaved and oiled his nether region, and pleasured himself, state officials charged yesterday in a petition to remove the jurist. According to the below complaint filed by the Oklahoma Attorney General, Donald D. Thompson, 57, was caught in the act by a clerk, trial witnesses, and his longtime court reporter (these unsettling first-hand accounts will make you wonder what’s going on under other black robes). Visitors to Thompson’s Creek County courtroom reported hearing a “swooshing” sound coming from the bench, a noise the court reporter said “sounded like a blood pressure cuff being pumped up.” Thompson, the complaint charges, even pumped himself up during an August 2003 murder trial. The AG’s petition quotes Thompson (pictured above) as admitting that the pump was “under the bench” during the murder case (and at other times), but he denied using the item, which was supposedly a “gag gift from a friend.”

**UPDATE: Submitted to OTB’s Beltway Traffic Jam

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Well, Stephanie Bell is finally feeling a little heat in the seat of her pants. She is going down next Tuesday and she knows it. What’s really hilarious is what she claims the reason behind her impending defeat is,

Bell said Draper’s ties to these corporations through CLAS has resulted in a war chest that’s more than twice the size of her remaining $8,557 budget and a network of supporters that will be a challenge.

“He has a natural organization in place, and I have to go through the grassroots level,” she said.

John Draper is being endorsed by the third and fourth place finishers in the Republican primary and I strongly endorse John as well. He will bring a level of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to the board. Yes, there are issues surrounding any conflicts of interest that may arise, but I am confident those can be dealt with in a reasonable manner.

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Former leaders of the Alabama Democratic Party were the latest to testify before a federal grand jury in Montgomery yesterday. It appears that this investigation may include resource swapping between former Governor Don Siegelman’s lottery campaign and the state Democratic Party, there also were a copule of businessmen called to testify this week,

On Tuesday, the grand jury heard from a former senior vice president of IPSCO steel company, another lottery contributor. The man declined to identify himself, but his name, Bob Rzonca, was listed on the court sign-in sheet. Rzonca was the senior vice president of the steel company in 1999, according to corporate reports.

…

IPSCO donated $25,000 to the lottery campaign about three weeks after the issue was defeated. The donation was not included in the lottery campaign’s initial filing but was added in an amended report.

Others who have appeared before the grand jury include officials with the state Certificate of Need Review Board, which decides if hospitals and health care providers can add equipment or facilities. Documents subpoenaed by the grand jury included a hospital’s equipment request that was fought by HealthSouth, which donated $250,000 to the lottery campaign after it was defeated. Staff writer Stan Bailey contributed to this report.

**Crossposted at Polstate.com

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One of the beauties of minor league baseball is that we wipe the slate clean in the middle of the season. Everyone is 0-0 again and the Biscuits have a chance to be more competitive right out of the gate.

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Harvey Jackson tells us all about his book today, entitled The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera, and all the research he must do each year to complete it.

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After a great deal of poking and prodding, the press may finally have found something that would force Judge Lynwood Smith Jr. to step down from hearing the case against former Governor Don Siegelman. The Birmingham News reports this morning,

U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith Jr. attended a Huntsville fund-raiser for Republican Gov. Bob Riley during the 2002 campaign, according to event sponsor Linda M. Maynor, though he did not make a contribution.

The Code of Conduct for United States Judges says they should refrain from political activity, including that “a judge should not … make a contribution to a political organization or candidate, attend political gatherings, or purchase tickets for political party dinners, or other functions.”

Smith is the presiding judge over the government’s charges that Siegelman, a Democrat, and two others conspired to rig bids for a Medicaid program to help poor pregnant women.

Earlier this month, Smith disclosed that he was a distant cousin of Riley’s and asked prosecutors and defense lawyers to weigh in if they had a problem with that relationship.

**UPDATE: Mac believes this all has a real “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” feel to it.

**UPDATE: Submitted to Outside the Beltway’s Beltway Traffic Jam.

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Auburn basketball star Marco Killingsworth, who had declared his intention to leave the University, appears to be headed to Indiana University. The Indianapolis Star is reporting that he will sign a letter of intent on Wednesday.

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Former Governor Siegelman’s aide and convicted felon, Nick Bailey testified before a federal grand jury on Monday. There were no comments from Bailey’s attorneys or prosecuters regarding the subject of his testimony, but we’re all assuming they are putting their ducks in a row for additional charges in the ongoing probe into the Governor’s dealings.

**Cross-posted at Polstate.com

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I am the newest Alabama contributor at Polstate.com. Come check it out!

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As reported over the weekend by the Tuscaloosa News. Governor Riley will hold a press conference tomorrow to name his finance director, Drayton Nabors to be Roy Moore’s replacement as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. According to AP:

Nabers, 63, has a law degree from Yale and practiced law in Birmingham before joining Protective Life Insurance in 1979. He retired in 2001 as chief executive officer but continued to serve as chairman of the board until resigning to join Riley’s Cabinet in January 2003.

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The LA Times is providing an excellent tool to track the electoral votes for the 2004 election and play out possible scenarios.

(Thanks to Brad DeLong.)

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