Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D) was released from prison today so he can testify to the House Judiciary Committee about the controversial prosecution that led to his incarceration. In an interview shortly after his release, Siegelman singled out former White House aide Karl Rove’s involvement in his case:

In a telephone interview shortly after he walked out of a federal prison in Oakdale, La., Mr. Siegelman said there had been “abuse of power” in his case, and repeatedly cited the influence of Karl Rove, the former White House political director.

“His fingerprints are smeared all over the case,” Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case.

(HT: TPMMuckraker)

Last year, former congressman J.D. Hayworth faced intense scrutiny from federal investigators over his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. On his blog, Hayworth now states that he has outstanding legal fees of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and asks for donations:

A false charge of corruption is more than “political dynamite”; it is also “personal kryptonite.”

Your humble blogger speaks from personal experience. [...]

As a result, I still have outstanding legal bills that total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That’s why “The Freedom in Truth Trust” has been established. Its name comes from holy scripture (”You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”–John 8:32), and its acronym (FIT) is accurate, since this entire episode has given us fits!

As a congressman, Hayworth was less willing to embrace the blogosphere, claiming that terrorists used “cheap shots” in the blogosphere “to their own advantage.”

The right wing has been jubilantly celebrating the fact that ThinkProgress made an error in claiming John McCain had plagiarized a speech by Adm. Timothy Ziemer. Drudge, Weekly Standard, National Review, and Instapundit have all referenced our mistake. On its “political grapevine” segment this evening, Fox News reported our error as well. Fox host Bret Baier said, “The left-wing blog ThinkProgress has had to eat its words.” Watch it:

The actions we took in the wake of our mistake demonstrate this site’s commitment to maintaining credibility and transparency. Unlike many of our critics, we took responsibility for our actions once we realized that it was Ziemer who had plagiarized McCain. We immediately issued a correction, apologized for our error, and expressed our regret to the McCain campaign.

At the end of the segment, Fox News referenced this website as “ThinkProgress.com” in an on-screen chyron. Note to Fox: we’re actually ThinkProgress.org. It’s ok — we all make mistakes.

The Washington Post reports that the “Marine Corps today dismissed all charges against one of the Marines who was accused of killing women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in late 2005.” This is “the third time the service has decided not to pursue a criminal trial in one of the most notorious episodes of the war”:

Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, who has admitted shooting civilians inside their homes as part of a pursuit of insurgents, was exonerated and granted immunity to testify in further hearings related to the Haditha investigation. The move leaves just one Marine — Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich — facing charges in connection with the shootings Nov. 19, 2005. As many as two dozen civilians were killed that day after a roadside bomb hit the Marines’ convoy and killed a member of their unit.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Grover Norquist’s weekly “powerhouse gathering.” One GOP operative noted that the only reason high-ranking officials go to the right-wing meeting is to “secure” their political futures. At that meeting, Rice never publicly stated whether she was interested in the vice presidential spot.

But Newsmax reports that privately, Rice has indicated to prominent conservatives that she is very interested:

Despite saying she wants to return to Stanford University, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has let it be known in Republican circles that she would consider running for vice president if asked.

One source told Newsmax that she expressed interest in the possibility when Rudy Giuliani was running for president. Another source said she has more recently let her interest be known discreetly within top Republican circles, presumably including John McCain’s camp.

Is Rice actually interested in running for vice president, or is this just a stunt to grab the media’s attention? After all, the media have largely lost interest in Rice’s activities lately. In 2005, an “unprecedented 19 reporters” accompanied Rice on her first overseas trip as Secretary of State. But on her most recent trip to the Middle East, just three wire services and three newspapers joined her. None of the networks even sent a camera crew.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Rice has embarked on a PR campaign to improve her public image. Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler reported that shortly after Rice became Secretary of State, she directed an aide to “plant a question” asking if she would run for president in order to help “negate American memories of her very direct role” in invading Iraq. The move was intended to give Rice the “aura of someone who might have presidential aspirations” and “make her seem more powerful than she was.”

Earlier this month, Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern drew well-deserved criticism for an outlandish rant against the gay community, in which she compared homosexuality to “toe cancer” and said “it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.” Now, Kern is saying that she is the target of a “hate campaign” as result of of her comments. “They haven’t just attacked me – they’ve attacked my family, they attacked the Bible, they’ve attacked Christianity,” Kern told CNSNews. Kern claims that her words were distorted:

“They made it sound like I was spewing hate and talking in one long rant against homosexuals,” Kern told Cybercast News Service. “I would never do that. I have never done that.”

One supporter of Kern, Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, has “accused Kern’s attackers of being ‘terrorists.’”

Bob Casey, Jr. doesn’t make much sense to me as a potential VP pick for Barack Obama. Conventional wisdom says you need to be pro-choice to be on a national Democratic ticket, and I think that CW is correct. Among other things, I assume that in a general election Obama’s going to want to make the point that John Paul Stevens is even older than McCain, so if he wins then all your reproductive freedoms are belong to Sam Alito. On top of that, Casey doesn’t seem like an especially skilled politician. He has no real virtues relative to Jim Webb, some of Webb’s flaws, plus some additional flaws.

So Webb continues to be tempting, I think Sherrod Brown would make a lot of sense, and I also have a soft spot for the ballsy (metaphorically speaking!) idea of Janet Napolitano.

There are no coincidences in something like a presidential campaign ad, so, no, I don’t think it’s reading too much into things to think that John McCain claiming to be “the American president Americans have been waiting for” is designed to imply that a certain opponent might be less-than-fully American.

Given what a mess the Republicans have made of things, it’ll be mighty hard to actually argue on the merits that a souped-up Bushism is what the country needs to improve its national security but the foreign policy hawk can always take refuge in the idea that we have a patriotic obligation to follow an all-war, all-the-time course no matter what the results. Mix in Barack Obama’s funny name, and the stage is set for the conservative critique of Obama as allegedly “post-American.” Note that it’s not just the tag line of McCain’s ad — the whole focus is on the idea that McCain really thinks America is a swell place and Americans are awesome people. Sure, he wants to bankrupt those people and get their kids killed in senseless wars, but he really likes ‘em! Not like that whatsisname the Democrats are running.