Guest Column
by Roger Shuler

Is there hope for Alabama’s largest newspaper?

The Birmingham News opines today about the Justice Department report issued this week showing political considerations played a role in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. The firings were “weird,” the News determines. No, it seems clear, the firings were corrupt. But our local metro daily doesn’t want to go there.

Where else does the News not want to go? To “Don Siegelman Has Been Right-All-Along-Land.”

The News acknowledges — and it appears to pain them — that the report raises questions not only about the unlawful treatment of some prosecutors but also about the treatment of those who were prosecuted. That would include Siegelman, Alabama’s former Democratic governor who was prosecuted and convicted in a case that was dripping with conflicts of interest and political motivations from those in the Bush Justice Department:

Consider: If some U.S. attorneys were fired for not prosecuting people that suited Republican interests, were other U.S. attorneys able to keep their jobs by prosecuting the “right people”?

There were U.S. attorneys who were considered “mediocre” who didn’t end up on the firing list, apparently because they had political favor. That begs the question: What kind of cases did they bring that kept them in good standing with the party? Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman would certainly love to argue that U.S. Attorney Leura Canary kept her job in Montgomery by prosecuting him.

Were some U.S. attorneys able to keep their jobs by prosecuting the “right people?” The News, laughably, seems to be pondering this question for the first time today. Where have you been folks?

And the paper doesn’t want to mention that the entire Justice Department scandal, to a great extent, has its roots in Alabama, not only because of biased and unqualified U.S. attorneys Leura Canary in Montgomery and Alice Martin in Birmingham but because of Karl Rove’s deep connections to Alabama, which started with his campaign efforts in state-court races in the 1990s.

Finally, the News would have us believe that Siegelman is fighting a lonely battle to show that Canary kept her job in Montgomery because of her willingness to bring a bogus case against him. In fact, Siegelman hasn’t been lonely at all. Harper’s magazine, The New York Times, 60 Minutes, and Time magazine are just a few of the media outlets that have reported extensively on the issue. And the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has spent considerable effort investigating the case, issuing a subpoena for Rove to testify about his possible role in the Siegelman prosecution — a subpoena with which Rove steadily has refused to comply.

Will the News get off its collective duff and start investigating a story that is right under its nose? We won’t hold our breath. But today’s editorial indicates the blinders might be loosening just a little:

It’s true, U.S. attorneys are political appointees and can be fired at will. But their job is to serve the public’s interest, not a political party’s interest. If they can be fired because they don’t prosecute people of the opposite party, or because they prosecute people of their own party, how can the public really trust that cases are being brought or are being dropped for the right reasons?

“For department officials to recommend the removal of U.S. attorneys even in part because they do or do not have political support undermines the public’s confidence that Department of Justice prosecutive decisions are based on the facts and the law and not on political considerations,” the report said.

Simply put, U.S. attorneys can’t play favorites with the cases that come into their offices and expect to have any credibility with the public. The same rule applies to the Justice Department.

Are scales beginning to fall from a few eyes down on Fourth Avenue North in Birmingham?

Originally published in the Legal Schnauzer Website under the headline:
Will The Birmingham News Remain Clueless to the End?

Secretary of State Agrees to Provide List by 5 p.m. Thursday

In an emergency court hearing Thursday morning, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge William Shashy indicated that he will sign an order to give the Alabama Democratic Party a copy of the registered voter list statewide, based on an agreement reached between the party and Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman.

The order, following a lawsuit filed by the party last Friday to gain access to the list for the Nov. 4 General Election, will immediately grant Alabama Democrats access to the latest voter file, ending a month-long fight over the party’s right to be granted a free copy of the file for the General Election of 2008.

Chapman will provide both the Democratic and Republican parties with an updated copy of the official registered voter list by close of business Thursday.

According to the agreement, Chapman must make free copies of the list available to both parties before each primary and general election held within the state. Both the Democratic Party and Secretary Chapman agreed the statute needed revision and will attempt to craft a bi-partisan solution in a future session of the Alabama Legislature.

Until that change in the law is made, Secretary Chapman agreed she will provide a free copy to the state parties for a primary and general election in the same year.

The ruling comes after Chapman’s attempt to collect a penny a name from the parties for the list, which would have amounted to more than $28,000 from the Alabama Democratic Party in exchange for access to the list. It had been provided free of charge to the parties in prior elections for the entire history of the state. It is not clear why the Republican Secretary of State wanted to charge for the list.

“We need to know who’s registered and who isn’t registered, so we can contact these people that aren’t registered in the next 30 days and encourage them to register to vote,” Democratic Party chair Joe Turnham said when he addressed the media in a press conference held at the party headquarters in Montgomery last week. “Our candidates need the latest and best lists so we can conduct an election.”

In a statement released today, Turnham said he was relieved the impasse was over and thanked Judge Shashy, Beth Chapman, and attorneys James Anderson and Jean Brown for their efforts to settle the matter.

“Alabama Democrats will fight every day to make sure that all eligible voters are empowered by the electoral process,” Turnham said. “We feel that we won a victory for the people of Alabama today.”