Karl ‘Turd Blossom’ Rove Signs Books in Birmingham
April 27th, 2010Guess Who Showed Up?
by Glynn Wilson
About 20 people showed up at the Brookwood Mall Books-A-Million in Birmingham Tuesday to get a signed copy of former Bush political aide Karl Rove’s book, Courage and Consequence, a memoir of his time in the White House designed to try and repair the legacy of a president some scholars are already calling about the worst in American history.
The most prominent person to show up for a signed copy was none other than William “Bill” Pryor, the former Alabama attorney general who first started trying to investigate then-Governor Don Siegelman in 1998.
As a political payoff, Bush appointed Pryor to a judgeship on the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in 2004 while Congress was in recess, although he was later confirmed by the Senate after a deal was negotiated by Senator John McCain’s “Gang of 14.”
Yes, that’s the same Bill Pryor Rove tried to deny knowing before the House Judiciary Committee, although Rove’s political consulting company ran his campaign for attorney general in 1998. When Pryor walked up and Rove saw him, he smiled real big and said, “Hey, Bud!”
Outside the mall and across the street, about the same number of people, about 20 by my count, showed up to protest Rove’s visit, sporting T-shirts with the slogan “Free Don Siegelman” and carrying signs indicating Rove is the real criminal who should be spending time in federal prison for his participation in high crimes and misdemeanors against the country and the Constitution by the administration of George W. Bush and Vice President Dick “Shotgun” Cheney.
Frank Mathews, a former radio talk show host and aide to jailed Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, led the protest with his group the Outcast Voters League.
Inside, reporters were allowed to take pictures and ask questions for about 10 minutes before Rove started the book signing.
A broadcast reporter for WAKA in Montgomery asked a question about Siegelman and got a fairly lengthy non-answer from Rove, about the same thing he told the House Judiciary Committee and what he’s said on TV before, denying any knowledge of the Siegelman prosecution and saying the former governor should make his claims under oath.
Siegelman is out of federal prison on an appeal bond awaiting word on a motion for a new trial in Montgomery and to find out whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the appeal.
When the broadcast reporters seemed to be out of questions, I jumped in and asked the final question that set Rove back on his heals and basically ended the press conference.
Since Rove once made the claim that as Bush’s so-called “brain” and “architect” he would deliver an American majority to the Republican Party for “a generation,” and since that didn’t quite work out after he was forced to resign from the White House along with then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in August, 2007, and since a black guy from Chicago named Barack Obama sort of stomped the Republican Party in the presidential election of 2008, I asked: “How does it feel to be an utter failure?”
Rove refused to answer the question.
When I identified myself as the editor and publisher of The Locust Fork News-Journal, Rove at first said, flippantly, “Never heard of it.” Then he changed his response to, “Oh, yeah I have. That little Website.”
Yeah, that little Website that got your ass fired from the White House for being the one to flesh out the Jill Simpson allegations here and in The Nation magazine.
[Those stories, by the way, were totally ignored by former Mobile Press-Register reporter Eddie Curran in his little book on Siegelman being circulated now without an editor or a publisher. A fan in Mobile sent me a copy the other day and I should have a critical review ready to go by the weekend].
Meanwhile, when I said to Rove, “You know, formerly with The New York Times,” Rove muttered something like, “Yeah, here’s what I think of the New York Times,” and turned around and walked off…
Rove was scheduled to make an appearance later in the evening at The Club, a ritzy exclusive restaurant on Red Mountain looking out over Southside under the statue of Vulcan, for a Republican Party fund raiser.
The protesters showed up there too…
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April 28th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Well, Glynn, who is that? I’m serious. Who is that with Rove?
I doubt that very many showed up to buy his book. We protested right in front and went inside a couple of times to see how things were going and nobody reported any hordes of people scrambling to get in.
Who would buy a liar’s book?
Oh, I almost forgot. Republicans would.
April 28th, 2010 at 12:11 am
i was wondering the same thing
April 28th, 2010 at 12:14 am
Friggin’ Bill Pryor. Nice. Seedy travels in pairs.
I hope that bruise on his finger came from his own shabby gavel.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Outstanding job of REAL reporting, Glynn, and a truly GREAT final question for KKKarl. Woo, that total stranger to Rove, Bill Pryor showed up too and got a “Hey, Bud!” greeting from “Bush’s Brain.” Wonder why the Birmingham “Noose” didn’t report those things?
Maybe we can correct those ommissions by writing letters to some of the editors of our local newspapers amd telling them where we go to get the REAL news in Alabama.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Why is it that at election time Rove shows up in Alabama?
We all know what they are doing with the BINGO BILL, seems to be the same agenda that they used with Don.
When are the people going to realize what they are doing to gain control more and more in Alabama and the nation?
We are not under a Communist rule….keep these people out of office and FREE DON!
April 28th, 2010 at 8:49 am
As Rachel Maddow says, “Just one more thing.”
I wish someone had told KKKarl to his fat, smirking, face that Jill Simpson DID TESTIFY UNDER OATH before Congress about his and other Republican’s involvement in the Siegelman persecution.
He, to my knowledge, has never SWORN UNDER OATH he had nothing to do with the political prosecution of Gov. Siegelman.
True, Gov Siegelman was convicted by an Alabama jury … at a trial presided over by a Judge with a grudge against him, by a jury that was “tainted” and who heard “coached” testimony, which was later retracted in part by the witness for the Prosecution.
Rove LIES. Yesterday he thumbed his nose at all Justice loving Americans one more time.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Good on all ya’ll from Billings, Montana.
Propaganda and ideologue pimp Rove, will someday wear prison attire.
April 28th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I noticed a man and his wife walking to a parking structure at a hospital in Newport Beach, Ca….He was carrying Rove’s big fat book…It was all I could do to bite my tongue…Typical Orange County, Ca….brain dead FAUX “news” idiots.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:28 am
An observation about the media over morning coffee: I’m sure the entire Alabama press and media corps went home laughing at the protesters last night, since they happen to be Democrats.
Compare their coverage to the way the press and the broadcast media in this state and country cover the Tea Party crowd. Right-wing wackos are covered as if they are “mainstream, real Americans.”
Right…
April 28th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Great Story Glynn
Keep on keeping on.Karl Rove is truly a turd!
April 28th, 2010 at 11:20 am
I know this is not nice but then who wants to be nice when it comes to Karl Rove (Notice the Nazi spelling of his name). I keep hoping that this worm has a fortunate (for us) plane crash or gets run over by an 18 wheeler. I don’t understand how any one person can be so vile, vindictive, mean, hateful & corrupt and continue to get away with it for such a long time.
April 28th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Yep, That was Bill “The Beaver” Pryor and The Usual GOP Sycophants. All sold their Souls to the Devil.
Some people don’t think God exists but, when you show them The Devil, they will “believe”.
April 28th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Thanks for the excellent coverage and the zinger question to Rove. I read Chuck Dean’s story in the News just before reading your column. Quite a difference. Bill Pryor was a joke as AG, as was Sessions. Both were part of the GOP agenda for Alabama developed by Rove. I always imagine Rove in a Nazi uniform. I always imagine him in a Nazi uniform at Nuremburg saying, “Yes, I was in the SS but I was only a cook.”
April 28th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Howard Zinn, wherever he is, must now be sporting the widest of smiles, and saying, “Keep up the good fight, Glynn! The truth WILL out!”
Yeah, Esther and Diane, a few Republicans WILL BUY this excuse for a book, but, they WON’T READ it. Only elitists read. They’ll wait for Faux News to TELL them what it says.
April 28th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Even they won’t do it. He doesn’t even have a book deal…
May 1st, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Just as those people who were “good people” in Germany did nothing about the evil encroaching on their door-step, so those of us Americans who do nothing will also face the same outcome.
However, we need a voice and so thank you Glynn.
And to add a personal point of view: Rove is a lying, traitorous, treacherous person whose existence personifies those aspects of many of us that need to be guarded against.
Gov. Seigelman is literally one person who represents all of us and what we do (or don’t do) for him, we do for ourselves or our children.
May 1st, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I wish I had been in Alabama just to be among the 20 that were outside with a big sign: JAIL ROVE THE BIRDBRAIN’S BRAIN.
Glynn, such a great last question, it should be noted by all and asked anytime upon seeing TURD BLOSSOM. Would it be appropriate if I get a chance of buying the book, getting him to sign it, and then upon leaving taring a few pages and blowing my nose on them?
May 1st, 2010 at 9:29 pm
I read that Attorney General Holder had read the transcripts of the Siegelman trial and agreed with the verdict. Seems strange that the prosecutors are still working for this administration. Rove still free and never testified under oath, from what I hear, and still a major voice in the GOP. What really is going on in the halls of Justice ?
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:57 am
I notice from the picture of Turd Blossom and wipe that the book is already discounted. Not enough. He and it are worthless as human beings. I doubt he’s an organ donor…certainly he has no heart.
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm
GLYNN WILSON, LIKE JOSEPH WILSON AND VALERIE PLAME is a REAL PATRIOT. ACTING LIKE A REAL PATRIOT AGAINST GREAT ODDS.
WISH WE HAD MORE GLYNNS AND FEWER OLD CRUSTY WHITE MEN WHO THINK THEY CAN behave like KARL ROVE AND LIE, STEAL, CHEAT AND KILL WITH IMPUNITY.