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Signing a copy of, "The Governor of Goat Hill," at the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery. |
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On February 24, 2008, “60 Minutes” delivered a bombshell – claims that President Bush’s political advisor Karl Rove had assigned an Alabama woman to tail Governor Don Siegelman and take photos of him having extramarital sex.
The piece also presented an open and shut case that powerful Republicans – including Rove and Bob Riley, Siegelman’s successor as Alabama’s governor – had somehow ordered the Justice Department to prosecute Siegelman.
In this book, Eddie Curran -- the investigative reporter whose stories initiated the criminal investigation -- delivers a far different portrait of the one-time golden boy of Alabama Democratic politics.
Curran leads readers on a first-person account of his discoveries, including Siegelman’s use of his office to collect more than $1.3 million in legal fees while governor; the sale of his home through a straw man for twice its value; and a host of scandals involving the likes of Waste Management Inc., and Richard Scrushy, the deeply corrupt HealthSouth Corp. chairman prosecuted along with Siegelman.
“The Governor of Goat Hill” is both a scathing portrayal of a New South governor gone bad and an indictment of some of the top names in American journalism, who bought into a bogus conspiracy for no reason other than it led to Karl Rove.
Video Interview with,
"Mod Mobilian"
During the Arts Alive program mid-April in downtown Mobile, a nice young guy bought a copy and asked if I would talk about it for a new arts and culter web-zine called, "Mod Mobilian." The results, for better or worse, are here.
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NY Times:
A Political Hit, or misguided hyperbole based on flimsy evidence?
“It is extremely disturbing that Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was hauled off to jail this week. There is reason to believe his prosecution may have been a political hit, intended to take out the state’s most prominent Democrat, a serious charge that has not been adequately investigated. The appeals court that hears his case should demand answers, as should Congress.”
-- From, “Questions About a Governor’s Fall,” an June 2007, editorial in the New York Times, and the first of three times for the paper’s editorial staff to apply the phrase “political hit” to the Siegelman case.
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Need a Speaker?
I recently gave the address at the Alabama Press Association annual conference, and also spoke at the Alabama Writer's Symposium in Monroeville. I'm available to speak to groups in Alabama, including Kiwanis, Rotary or similar clubs, political organizations, book clubs, lawyer groups, high school and university students, etc.
If interested, I can be reached at 251-454-1911, or at: eddiecurran.com@gmail.com.
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"Gov" on sale at
Books-A-Millions throughout Alabama
Go to "Regional" section
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When the product's not moving, it's time to put your kids to work. Below, my daughter Eva, at right, with her friend, Alex Jenkins, outside the Ashland Gallery on Old Shell Road. The gallery, one of Mobile's coolest stores, has autographed copies of the book for sale.
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Buying the Book
In addition to Books-A-Millions, "The Governor of Goat Hill" has recently become available on e-book (Kindle, etc.) through Amazon.Com.
Books purchased through me, whether at signings or for delivery or by mail (see, Buying the Book), cost $25, tax included, and come with personalized signings and messages to the buyer or, if a gift, the recipient.
The link also lists stores in Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham that are carrying the book.
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Cast of Characters
The Index
Book Excerpts
You Tube and Videos
Rappin' on Rove
The Travails of Richard Scrushy
DonSiegelman.Org
The Siegelman stories from the Mobile Register
New York Times Siegelman Page
Two of Alababama's Best Political Web Sites
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Excerpt about Waste Management from chapter, "Lanny Landfill"
From 1996 to 1999, Waste Management paid Lanny about $8 million for his
labors in Cherokee County. The largest chunk came first, after Lanny’s company,
Alabama Waste Disposal Solutions, received a permit to build and operate the
landfill. Lanny, though, never built much less operated the landfill. Instead, he
sold the permit to Waste Management, which built and continues to operate what
is one of Alabama’s busiest landfills.
His and Waste Management’s next target was Lowndes County, which sits to
the west of Montgomery county. At the Siegelman trial it was revealed that Lanny
gave $10,000 to a close friend of Lowndes County commissioner Charlie King.
As incentive for corruption, it’s hard to top Waste Management’s secret
contracts with Young. Here’s the breakdown of the Lowndes County deal:
$4 million. Amount Waste Management was to pay Lanny after he won the
permit to build and operate the landfill, then sold/transferred it to the company.
$500,000. This sum would be Lanny’s on the second anniversary of the
permit.
$500,000. On the third anniversary.
$1 million. Amount Waste Management was to pay Lanny when the landfill
began receiving an average of 550 tons of garbage per day.
$1 million. When the average climbed to 750 tons.
$1 million. If and when the average reached 1,000 tons a day.
$2 million. Due Lanny if he could convince the Lowndes County commission
to decrease its “host fee” from $2 per ton $1.25.
Total, with incentives: $10 million.
Waste Management wasn’t just paying for the right to own landfills. It was
also paying for a protective layer between the acts the company had to suspect
Lanny might commit to make his millions and the repercussions should he be
discovered.
Plausible deniability. We don’t pay bribes. And if someone else does, we
naturally disapprove.
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“It’s much like a puzzle. It started with this one voice saying somebody needs to
look into this G.H. Construction matter.”
-- Montgomery-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin, during October 2005 press conference announcing indictment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, former HealthSouth Corp. chairman Richard Scrushy, and two Siegelman cabinet members.
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Summer is
READING TIME
Here's my e-mail ad for the book
In this June 2006 cartoon by J.D. Crowe, one of several in the book, the Mobile Press- Register's comic in residence captures the surprise of Siegelman and Richard Scrushy upon being found guilty. J.D. skewers the defendants -- and especially Scrushy's -- failed attempts to use race to win acquittal from the jury with seven blacks.
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The Hoax
That Suckered Some of the Top Names in Journalism
"There’s no question that Karl Rove’s fingerprints are all over this case, from the inception.”
-- Siegelman, to the New York Times, which actually believed him.
"(I) suspected from the circumstantial evidence that Karl Rove was deeply involved in my prosecution. I mean, it was just so obvious that it was easy for me to put two and two together and connect those dots.”
-- To “Ring of Fire” radio host Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after Kennedy asked Siegelman why he'd never mentioned Rove's role until after Jill Simpson's affidavit, which came years after the investigation began. Until then, Siegelman always blamed Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who defeated him in 2002.
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Dan Abrams, who at the time had a nightly show on MSNBC, was among
the most fervent backers of the "Rove ordered the Siegelman prosecution" farce. Simpson, shown on the right, appeared on Abrams' show the night after the "60 Minutes," piece, and managed to expand on what she'd told Scott Pelley.
Dana Jill Simpson
The Rainsville, Ala., lawyer, sold herself as a prominent figure in Alabama Republican politics. In truth, party figures weren't even aware of her existence. With the help of Siegelman, Scrushy and their lawyers and operatives, Simpson birthed the conspiracy that Karl Rove engineered Siegelman's prosecution on behalf of Bob Riley and other leading Alabama Republicans. The "Governor of Goat Hill" presents evidence to support its position that The New York Times, Time, "60 Minutes," MSNBC, Harper's, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and others willfully ignored reality and mountains of evidence to the contrary to re-write history by essentially accusing Rove of directing the Justice Department to prosecute Siegelman for purely political reasons.
I challenge anyone (including the reporters and editors at the offending publications) to read the final section of, "The Governor of Goat Hill," called -- "The Hoax that Suckered some of the Top Names in Journalism" -- then defend the national media's performance on the Siegelman case.
Simpson's tales grew over time, the wildest being her claim to "60 Minutes" that the senior advisor to President Bush gave her several "intelligence" assignments, including orders that she surreptitiously tail Siegelman for months in an effort to photograph the then-governor having extramarital sex.
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Worst Piece of Investigative Reporting
by a Major Network News Magazine
Ever?
Above, a CBS News Internet report its reporting, on "60 Minutes," about the Siegelman prosecution. With the possible exception of the New York Times, no one deserves more scorn for its coverage of the matter than Scott Pelley and "60 Minutes." For the full story on the show's laughably bad investigative work on Jill Simpson and the Siegelman prosecution, read the chapter in my book called, "60 Minutes Kicks Karl Rove's Ass."
Here is copy from the promo, published on "60 Minutes" web-site days before the show's Feb. 24, 2008, airing:
A Republican operative in Alabama says Karl Rove asked her to try to prove the
state’s Democratic governor was unfaithful to his wife in an eff ort to thwart the highly
successful politician’s re-election.
Rove’s attempt to smear Don Siegelman was part of a Republican campaign to
ruin him that finally succeeded in imprisoning him, says the operative, Jill Simpson.
Simpson spoke to Pelley because, she says, Siegelman’s seven-year sentence for bribery
bothers her. She recalls what Rove, then President Bush’s senior political adviser, asked
her to do at a 2001 meeting in this exchange from Sunday’s report.
“Karl Rove asked you to take pictures of Siegelman?” asks Pelley.
“Yes,” replies Simpson.
“In a compromising, sexual position with one of his aides,” clarifies Pelley.
“Yes, if I could,” says Simpson.
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Excerpt from chapter,
"60 Minutes Kicks Rove's Ass"
Viewers who trusted “60 Minutes” based on decades of award-winning
journalism had no reason to doubt the conclusions presented them. They had
no way of knowing how much the show’s producers elected to conceal. One
supposes that most of the audience believed – and were appropriately outraged –
to learn that a posse led by Karl Rove in Washington and the Rileys and Canarys
down in Montgomery had been able
to apply the awesome power of the Justice
Department to destroy the only Democrat
left standing in Alabama.
Several months before the show, Rob Riley provided “60 Minutes” with detailed,
fact-based refutations of Simpson’s many “under oath” tales (the KKK deal, etc.)
and also gave CBS newsmen the affidavits by himself, Terry Butts and others.
At this point in the show it was time for Pelley to present that side of the story.
And he did.
“Rob Riley told ‘60 Minutes’ he never talked to Jill Simpson about this.”
That was it. Base covered.
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No Comment
The author's letters to the New York Times, Time, "60 Minutes" and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
During the final stage of the writing the book I sent letters to Time magazine, "60 Minutes," the New York Times, both editorial and news side, and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. None of the recipients answered the questions or were otherwise willing to discuss their coverage of the Siegelman case.
Click the following to read the letters:
To the New York Times, news side.
To the New York Times, editorial page.
To Time magazine.
To "60 Minutes" and CBS News.
To the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
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Siegelman on state media vs. national media
(Hint: We're the Tail, the NY Times, etc., are the Dog)
"I was trying to get the tail to wag the dog. Actually, I should have been speaking to the national media the whole time, because I think the national media would have gotten the message earlier and maybe someone like Jill Simpson would have stepped forward earlier.”
-- Siegelman, extolling the reporting of the New York Times, Time, "60 Minutes," and Harper's magazine and others, while paying a back-handed complement to the Alabama media.
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Bill Stewart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University
of Alabama and one of the most widely quoted experts on state politics,
on, "The Governor of Goat Hill":
"This is a book you will either love or hate. One thing you definitely won’t
find it to be is boring. If you believe Don Siegelman got shafted by over-zealous, intensely partisan prosecutors you will find the case presented against him in great detail, making it easier for you to contradict with opposing evidence.
"If you found Siegelman a disappointment as governor, one who let down supporters who were eagerly looking for someone who would establish a new era in Alabama politics and make a clean break with past practices, Eddie Curran’s book will remind you of why you were greatly depressed by the way the Siegelman Administration turned out. I consider Don Siegelman a personal friend and this book has not changed my mind. He is a man of great ability and it will be up to the reader to decide if he abused the trust that was placed in him—or was the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated at the highest levels of American government."
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The Record that Revealed Lanny Vines Role in House Sale
Shown above is a page from discovery questions presented to Birmingham trial lawyer
Lanny Vines by lawyers for Vines' former accountant, Wray Pearce, who Vines was suing in
a case involving federal taxes. When I came to the page, and read down, I knew -- and our
readers would soon know -- why Pearce paid Siegelman more than twice the home's value: He'd
been acting as Vines straw man. |
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Author to present programs at Carpe
On Wednesday, Sept. 1, and Thursday, Sept. 2, I will give power-point presentations at Carpe Diem, the coffeehouse on Old Shell Road across from Spring Hill College.
Both will be upstairs, start at 7 p.m. and run for about an hour.
The first program is called:
"The Use of Investigative Techniques and Public Records in Building the Stories Siegelman Couldn't Deny."
And the second:
"The New York Times Couldn't Find Alabama with a Map: Corruption in Alabama from Siegelman to the Present, and (Mis)Coverage of it by the Nation's Top Newspaper."
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Good review
in Lagniappe
Review in Mobile's Lagniappe focuses on the national media element of the book. Click here to read review with headline,
"Curran’s Book Exposes a ‘Big Media’ Hoax."
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What does the recent U.S. Supreme Court's ruling ultimately mean for Siegelman and Scrushy?
Click here for the author's take.
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SALON
The Siegelman-Rove
story that
Never Ran
(The following is from the Epilogue)
At some point after Jill Simpson’s affidavit -- late 2007 or early 2008 -- I got a
call from Alex Koppelman, a New York-based reporter for Salon, the left-leaning
on-line magazine. Years ago I was a regular reader, and when it switched for awhile
to pay content, I subscribed. I moved on, but not because of any dissastisfaction
with it. Just too much other stuff to read.
Alex said he was doing a story on the
Siegelman case, and it was immediately clear that he’d done his research. We
talked several times, and it’s my recollection that he’d interviewed Jill Simpson.
He was the only national reporter to call me, or, far as I can tell, any of the
Alabama reporters, such as Kim Chandler and Brett Blackledge, who covered the
Siegelman administration. In fact, the only Alabama journalists I ever saw
quoted,
such as in the New York Times, were editorials and editorial writers from the two
or three papers, like Decatur’s, that belonged in the Siegelman-Horton camp. If
any of those editors ever attended a day of the trial, I’d be shocked, but they had
their opinions and were free to express them.
I answered Koppelman’s questions and freely gave him my take on the
situation. We traded e-mails later, and he told me he had completed a lengthy
story and that I was quoted. I was eager to read it. I still am.
It never ran. Alex wouldn’t say it, but I don’t think there’s any question that
his editors killed it for ideological reasons.
He had apparently told a story that his editors feared would upset Salon’s
customers – its left-center readers.
During one of our talks, Koppelman – I think to show me he was willing to
write stories counter to the prevailing winds – suggested I read a piece he’d written
about the two U.S. Border patrol agents prosecuted for shooting an unarmed
drug dealer as he ran toward the border. The case became a cause célèbre of the
right after CNN’s Lou Dobbs, famous for his illegal immigration rants, took up
the cause of the two agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
I don’t know enough about the case to have an opinion one way or another.
However, there was a brief passage at the top of Koppelman’s story that struck me
because, well, I agreed with it.
He wrote:
How did Ramos and Compean get reinvented as right-wing heroes? Th e answer
lies in the way Americans get their information, from a fragmented news media that
makes it easier than ever to tune out opposing views and inconvenient truths. When
people seek ‘facts’ only from sources with which they agree, it’s possible for demonstrable
untruths to enter the narrative and remain there unchallenged.
An interesting perspective from a publication that later killed a story because
– or so it appears -- the piece presented what would have been, to Salon’s readers,
some “inconvenient truths” about Siegelman and Karl Rove’s non-role in that
Democrat’s prosecution.
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'Gov' gets big thumbs up from B'ham News columnist
Here's the start of Robin DeMonia's Sunday, March 28 column in the Birmingham News about corruption and, "The Governor of Goat Hill."
Maybe it was the bug that knocked me off my feet a couple of weekends running, or maybe it was just that good.
But I tore through former Mobile reporter Eddie Curran’s long-awaited book on ex-Gov. Don Siegelman. All 600 and something pages.
The book recounts the saga of corruption in the Siegelman administration,
and what Curran calls the “hoax that suckered some of the top names in journalism.”
The “hoax” refers to Siegelman’s effort to portray his prosecution as the handiwork of Republicans, including Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and former President George W. Bush’s notorious sidekick, Karl Rove...
It is stunning to see the various Siegelman scandals laid out end to end — among them, the costly, unbid site work at the Honda plant; a sham company’s deal to build state warehouses; a bizarre tobacco settlement that benefited Siegelman’s old law firm; a trial lawyer’s purchase of Siegelman’s house for twice its appraised value; and, of course, the infamous tradeoff between Siegelman and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy that landed both men in federal prison.
For the complete column, click here.
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The Eddie Smith Stories: In my almost 20 years at the Mobile paper, nothing I wrote created a response to compare to what I call, "The Eddie Smith Stories." Smith is now in prison for, among other crimes, trying to hire a hit man to kill a federal judge and a federal prosecutor. I was also among those he asked the cellmate-turned-federal source to murder.
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