The Stolen Election & Trial of Governor Don Siegelman

the story of the hurricane the man the authorities came to play for something that he never done put in a prison cell but one time he could have been the champion of the world

Hey, and welcome to episode one of Me and the Gov.

My name is Nick, and you are about to meet a fascinating man who I call the Gov.

Governor Siegelman and I have known one another for about 11 years now, and you're in for a treat.

You're about to meet an extraordinary man with an extraordinary background and an extraordinary story.

Let me just give you a little bit of a biography here about who this man is.

brought up in a middle-class family during segregation.

He goes on to go to the University of Alabama, then studies law at Georgetown, and eventually goes on to Oxford in the United Kingdom for post-doctorate work.

So, you know, you think, what does somebody do with all of this education? Well, he decides to go and help people.

First Secretary of State, That's number one, that's a statewide office.

Number two, attorney general.

Number three, lieutenant governor.

And number four, eventually turns into the governor.

Why is that crazy? Well, he's from Alabama.

And you all know that Alabama is a conservative state.

And Governor Siegelman was the first person elected to all four statewide offices that has ever happened.

It hasn't been done since.

And what makes it so extraordinary is that he is a progressive.

still manages to win four statewide races in a conservative state.

So that right there leads you to believe that this is an extraordinary person that can reach by both sides of the aisle and find some sort of a consensus with people.

Done so much for Alabama.

Brought over a thousand new jobs to Alabama over his first term.

And as he goes to seek second term, something funky happens.

The Kiplinger letter, which is a very famous political letter, names him as a dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2004.

That gets the attention of Karl Rove.

And so Karl Rove and his bandits – to send on to Alabama and make it a national battleground state for fear that this man might become the 2004 Democratic National, the Democratic nominee.

Why is that important? Well, he's a southerner.

That's one.

And if you go back to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, they were able to break the stronghold of the South.

They were able to actually get electoral votes, enough so to actually win the presidency.

This isn't just a normal threat.

If this man wins reelection in 2002, he was elected in 1998.

If he wins election in 2002, you have a formidable opponent to George W. Bush.

That's where things start to get a little hairy.

We're going to get into that.

So

without further ado, my friend, the governor of Alabama from 1998 to 2002 on Siegelman.

Let's jump into that now.