by Glynn Wilson

The first woman Speaker of the United States House of Representatives came to Birmingham this week to try and bolster an Alabama Democratic Party that has been rocked by scandal in recent years.

Glynn Wilson

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Birmingham

Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco addressed a packed HealthSouth conference center and gave powerful lip service to the “disrupters” in American history, from the founders of the American Revolution to the leaders of the Civil Rights movement.

Yet her remarks were anything but revolutionary or particularly disruptive.

She talked bad about the war in Iraq, the foundering economy and how the Bush administration has turned the Justice Department into a political arm of the White House and the Republican Party’s election apparatus, and she received the strongest response when she recognized former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, recently released from prison, to a standing ovation.

But her address was couched in the most politically safe terminology possible, lest she offend some Alabama mother who might see her on the evening news.

She offered very little to the true progressive community in the country or this state.

As I commented to Siegelman after the main show, I considered showing my own disruptive nature by going up to the Speaker and asking her this:

If the Iraq War is so bad, why haven’t you led the fight to de-fund it in the Congress?

If the Bush administration is so bad and corrupt, why have you not led the fight to impeach Bush in the House, where impeachment proceedings must begin according to the Constitution?

But I figured I didn’t want to come off looking as disruptive as that liberal bastion of the Web, Raw Story, or the latest crazy man in Alabama journalism, Eddie Curran of the Mobile Press Register. And I figured our own Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham, who introduced Pelosi, wouldn’t appreciate it, since he seems to be trying to inch his way through a minefield to run for governor in 2010.

Of course Ms. Pelosi was for health care for children and veterans and pro-education, giving a nod to the Alabama Education Association’s Paul Hubbert at one point. Aren’t we all (well, except the Bush and Riley administrations and the Birmingham News).

She is for rebuilding America’s infrastructure and against deficit spending.

“Words have power,” she said, and she wants every voter to remember two of them: Iraq and Katrina.

She avoided mentioning the Bush administration’s massive domestic spying operation still under consideration in Congress, or Bush’s plan to grant retroactive immunity to the telecom giants. She has been at least half way on the right side of that fight so far, but we still don’t know where Davis stands on that issue. He and Pelosi embraced warmly, but he’s yet to take a public stance on whether he agrees with allowing the telephone companies such as AT and T - with offices here in Birmingham - to monitor the phone and e-mail communications of innocent American citizens, as well as their Web browsing habits.

One of the most interesting and newsworthy comments of the night came when Ms. Pelosi told the story of how Condoleezza Rice - now Secretary of State, then Bush’s National Security Adviser - called her one hour before the invasion of Iraq to tell her “we” were “going in.”

She claims to have said all the diplomatic options had not been exhausted, and that the president had no plan and the cost would be in the trillions. Maybe some of that was hindsight?

In any event, Alabama Democratic Party chair Joe Turnham said the dinner was a successful fund raiser for the party in its goal to stave off Republican Gov. Bob Riley’s campaign to raise millions of dollars to capture the Legislature by 2010.

We may have more to say about this later, but to be amused and confused, read the AP dispatches from tonight. I’m tempted to run the photo I snapped of ole Bob Johnson, who actually greeted me by name after the event. Maybe later.

Siegelman Given Hero’s Welcome by Alabama Democrats

Pelosi Questions Northrop Grumman Tanker Project

Glynn Wilson

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wows the Democratic Party crowd Friday night in Birmingham

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the keynote speaker Friday, May 2 at the Alabama Democratic Party’s 2008 Jefferson Jackson Dinner. She is the first female Speaker of the House and the first sitting speaker to visit Alabama since Sam Rayburn in 1960, according to the party’s press release.

A reception begins at 5:50 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30 at the Cahaba Grand Conference.

Reservations can be made on the phone by calling 800-995-3386 or online at http://www.aladems.org/events/JJ08.

by Glynn Wilson

MONTGOMERY, Ala., March 1 - Alabama Senator Roger Bedbord, D-Russellville, blasted Governor Bob Riley Saturday for putting his office up for sale due to his plan to raise millions of dollars to try and take over the legislature by 2010.

“Why is the governor going out there and saying he is going to raise $8 million to take over the Alabama Legislature and why is he charging Republicans $40,000 to hang out with him,” Bedford asked, raising his voice at a meeting of Democrats at the Madison Hotel.

“He’s supposed to be the governor of all the people,” he said. “The governor’s office should not be for sale. It should be for everybody.”

Bedford also criticized Riley for constantly attacking the work of teachers and the Alabama Education Association and its director Dr. Paul Hubbert.

“Why is he always attacking teachers?” he asked. “It’s just wrong.”

Investigation Called For

The State Democratic Executive Committee also approved a resolution calling for an investigation of Siegelman’s conviction and demanding that the former Democratic governor to be freed from federal prison while the investigation is conducted.

The resolution, passed by a voice vote on Saturday, was proposed by committee member Vi Parramore of Birmingham. It calls for “a full investigation into the mishandling of evidence in Don Siegelman’s case” and the prosecution of anyone who played a role in jailing Siegelman for political motives.

Delegate Skirmish

A major behind the scenes skirmish erupted between two factions of the state party when a representative for U.S. Senator Barack Obama announced he was changing his slate of delegates, a move sources say he’s doing in states across the country in order to, ostensibly, “protect the integrity of the process.” About 40 people who paid $50 to run as delegates for Obama were bumped from the convention slate in favor of Alabama Democrats with more money and higher profile names.

Joe Webb, 21, of Huntsville, said he was one of the Obama delegates who got bumped. He said he was “disappointed” in the Obama campaign’s move to choose people with more name recognition and money.

Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign left open the delegate selection process, leading to speculation that she could end up with more delegates at the convention from Alabama than Obama even though Obama won the state’s primary with almost 56 percent of the popular vote.

Dr. Paul Hubbert, the long-time head of the state teachers’ union, said the Obama campaign’s move is too bad.

“A lot of people who paid their money are going to be disappointed,” he said. “It came as a surprise.”

But they are left with no recourse, he said, because the state party rules and the Democratic National Committee rules allow each candidate to pick their delegates to represent them at the national convention, which will be held this summer in Colorado.

Joe Turnham, executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, responded to complaints into the afternoon from delegates who were bumped from the convention slate.

“The state party followed the rules to the letter,” he said. “Each campaign has the privilege under the rules to choose.”

Under the Democratic Party’s complicated formula of assigning delegates by Congressional district, in addition to the 28 delegates assigned each candidate during the primary by voters, 10 more delegates had to be picked for Obama and Clinton. Since 65 Democrats paid the $50 qualifying fee to run for the 10 Obama spots, and since his campaign organization used the party’s rules to cut the list to the 10 it wanted, the rest were removed from the ballot by the executive committee.

Some of those bumped from the convention ballot were mad as hell.

“It’s just not democratic,” said party activist Pam Miles of Madison.

For Clinton’s 10 delegate spots, 44 Democrats paid the qualifying fee and, after campaigning for the spots at the microphone in the basement of the Madison, the executive committee elected eight.

Vice Chairman Nancy Worley from Montgomery, U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer from Huntsville and Turnham, from Auburn, who are automatically delegates to the convention because of their offices, have not yet endorsed a candidate. Ms. Worley rallied the necessary votes to stop an effort by an Obama supporter to require them to vote for Obama - due to his big win in the state primary Feb. 5.

The following persons were selected as delegates pledged to Barack Obama even though many of them had actively supported other candidates.

Hank Sanders, Giles Perkins, Ginger Avery, Amy Burks. AT LARGE: Katerine Baker, Janet Buskey, Doris Crenshaw, Tammy Fleming, Patricia Henderson, Roger Bedford, Stewart Burkhalter and Frank McPhillips.

Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham called on Governor Bob Riley today to cease raising funds in his capacity as Chairman of the Republican Party’s Campaign 2010 until he signs a bill that requires disclosure of those who are lobbying his administration.

The governor vetoed legislation last year that requires individuals who lobby the executive branch to register with the Ethics Commission. Only those who lobby the legislative branch of state government are required to register as a lobbyist and submit quarterly reports as the law stands now, according to a press release from the Alabama Democratic Party.

The bill Riley killed was sponsored by Rep. Marcel Black and unanimously passed both chambers of the legislature. Riley talks the talk of reforming ethics in government, but failed when it came time to walk the walk, Turnham said.

Riley was quoted in the Mobile Press-Register earlier this week saying he was leading an effort to raise $7 million through the Alabama Republican Party to oust Democrats in the 2010 legislative elections. Campaign 2010’s highest level of giving is $40,000 over a four year period.

“Few Alabamians believe someone giving that much money does not expect something in return from the Governor,” Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Spearman said. “Of course we cannot truly know if any of those in the ‘Governor’s Circle’ are lobbying on behalf of special interests because there is no disclosure thanks to Riley’s veto.”

“This initiative being led by the Governor is particularly troubling when we are only two weeks away from a new legislative session, and we are seeking to avoid the same partisan rancor that bogged down the State Senate last year,” Turnham said. “Therefore I think it is imperative that Governor Riley tone down the partisan rhetoric about taking over the legislature and instead give the people a transparent executive branch. He should commit himself to the passage and signing of Rep. Black’s ethics bill in 2008.”

The GOP’s track record of ousting Democrats in the Alabama legislature has not been a good one, according to Turnham, as they were unable to gain any seats in the last general election and have lost four of the last five special elections.

Strong Democrats like Tammy Irons, Butch Taylor, and Pebblin Warren all won their contests despite saber-rattling by Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard and the personal involvement of Riley.

During last year’s race to replace late Rep. Albert Hall, Hubbard claimed “the Democrats are scared to death about House District 22.” Democrat Butch Taylor went on to win that race by a wide margin of 16 percent.

“If history is any indication,” Turnham said, “the Republicans face an uphill battle if they think money can trump Democratic ideas in the public debate.”