Former Ala. Gov. Don Siegelman Out Of Prison!

http://www.realitycatcher.com "It's a sweet day. He's an innocent man and he's been in prison for nine months," said Siegelman's attorney, Vince Kilborn. Siegelman has maintained that certain Republicans targeted him after he was elected governor in 1998 in an attempt to derail his political career. Don's political imprisonment at the hands of the Bush Administration (courtesy of Bush attack dog Karl Rove) is one of the most shameful stories in recent political history. He is the highest-ranking public official to be held as a political prisoner by the Bush regime. Can you believe the timing of the Governor's release -- just hours after his testimony had been requested by the House Judiciary Committee? Is this a coincidence? That seems unlikely. Siegelman said he had confidence that the federal appeals court, which will now consider his larger appeal, would agree with his view of the case — that he was convicted for a transaction that regularly takes place in American politics. Otherwise, Siegelman said, "every governor and every president and every contributor might as well turn themselves in, because it's going to be open season on them." His case has become a flash point for Democratic contentions that politics influenced decisions by the Justice Department, fueled by testimony from an Alabama campaign operative that suggested Mr. Rove may have had some involvement. In Alabama, the Siegelman case has inflamed partisan passions, with Republicans insisting that Mr. Siegelman's term from 1998 to 2002 was deeply corrupted, and Democrats furious over what they depict as a years-long political witch-hunt. Before his release earlier in the day, the ex-governor completed his prison chores for the day — mopping a barracks area — and waited for his wife and son to pick him up for the eight-hour drive to his home in Birmingham, Ala. "It feels great to be out," Mr. Siegelman said. "I wish I could say it was over. But we're a long way from the end of this."