Quin Hillyer
“It is like the difference between heaven and hell.” So said former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, about the difference between being in the federal prison in Atlanta where he was until just a few months back and being in Mile High Stadium on Thursday night, a free man pending appeal of the corruption charges for which he was convicted in 2006. Siegelman spent nine months in the pen, and said the first month was in “solitary confinement.” The rats in the kitchen, he said, were as long as his arm from wrist to elbow.
Siegelman, whose case has become a cause celebre for the American left, said he had high hopes that Barack Obama would be elected and “inspire world peace and preserve justice.” Blaming his own prosecution on the White House, Siegelman said: “I think Karl Rove’s abuse of power and misuse of the Justice Department as a political weapon has threatened our democracy.”
Siegelman has yet to present any evidence of Rove’s involvement.
If he wins his appeal next spring, what plans does he have? “I’m not interested in a political comeback,” Siegelman said emphatically.
