Email I received from Don Siegelman:
So sad.
Dear trof,
This may be my last chance to email you for some time. I am going back before U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller to be re-sentenced this Friday, August the 3rd at 9:00 AM (CST) at the federal courthouse in Montgomery.
Your friendship and support throughout this incredibly long, painful, and costly ordeal has meant so much to my family and me.
This battle for justice within the court system comes to a close. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear my last appeal even though 113 former state Attorneys General and many of the nation's top Constitutional Law Professors joined in my appeal saying that the law is so unclear that any contributor and candidate is "at risk of being indicted and convicted..."
I served nine awful months in federal prison, thirty days in total isolation in solitary confinement, three weeks in a maximum-security prison side-by-side with hardened criminals. Every step of this fight for justice over the past nine years has been devastating to my family and me.
I have lost my livelihood, most of my assets, and my freedom.
I am now a “felon” and have lost my right to vote and run for public office. I can no longer practice law. Regardless, I remain committed to our system of justice; flawed though it may be, it is still one of the best. It is up to us to make it better.
Thank you for your encouragement, which keeps my spirit strong. Please continue to keep in touch with my family as this journey for justice continues.
May God bless you and your family.
Sincerely,
Don
= new reply since forum marked as read
shouldn't escape prison, just because they're "on our team". I remember the cries from a handful of DU'ers who were insisting that the president pardon John Edwards in the event he was convicted. I've read, with amusement, some of the posts in this thread. People who think the president can't do anything right, declaring that they've had it, and this is their proverbial last straw. What's even more amazing is that some seem to be admiring Bush's commutation of Libby, but at the time they were outraged, I tell ya.
I think progressives need to be consistent. A common complaint, of the left, is that there's no difference between Obama and (*), but there seem to be certain instances where they think he should be more like Bush? 
It's just too rich, and one might say, hypocritical? 
many young minority men & women sit behind bars, because they don't have the high celebrity profile of a Don Seigelman, or Bradley Manning, or Julian Assange. Why is it Pres. Obama's job to make a "national case" for Seigelman, when so many Black and Latino are rotting away in prisons, nationwide? You can dance around this issue all you want, but at the end of the day, Pres. Obama would be doing the same as Ford and Bush. As I've stated, I'm hopeful that Seigelman will be pardoned, but timing is everything IMHO.
I know the president's constant critics could care less about "political risks", but his "supporters" want him reelected. With the election mere months away, I want him to concentrate on getting retaking the WH. Perhaps, in his second term, he can afford to be even more controversial. But your unsubstantiated swipe at the president's "aversion" to political risks is unwarranted, and hyperbolic, and unworthy of further debate. 
and then there's "The Right Thing", the two are in no way synonymous. 
On the other hand, it would only further alienate those who are already against him.
It breaks my heart to see what has happened, and been ALLOWED to happen to this good man.
I feel a special bond with Don because we were fraternity brothers at the University of Alabama.
Not at the same time, 10 years apart.
This guy's life is completely ruined, and just because he happened to be a Democratic super-star in a state that was rapidly going repug.
The federal prosecutor 'on his case' (in every sense of that phrase), Leura Canary, was the wife of the then head of the state repug party and a die hard repug herself.
The entire 'investigation', trial, and conviction still stink to high heaven.
Commutation would keep him out of jail.
Then what?
How will he earn a living in his 60s?
Disbarred, can't practice law.
Greeter at Walmart?
Again, many thanks for your comments. and recs.
trof
We were living there during his first campaign and went to hear him speak at Birmingham Southern College(?).
After his speech he was outside shaking hands. I had my 5 year old daughter on my shoulders so she could see over the crowd. When she saw him she yelled "HEY JIMMY CARTER" and he made his way through the crowd to shake her hand.
We might have been Ships That Passed in the Night.
Seriously, this is making me very angry. What downside? I'd like to know what the downside could possibly be.
This is an outrage.
Cher
