Rove: "uncanny ability to manipulate federal prosecutors into going after the officeholder his client was trying to unseat."

Rove Done in by 'Bama Case (Updated) | by whenwego | Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 03:22:45 PM PDT

So Rove resigns on a Sunday, not a Friday. Clearly "spending more time with my family" and "Bartlett pushed me out" are silly excuses. The real reason had to be something big, something compelling, something legal. Now Leahy may be a threat, but that is controllable. "Executive privilege" or what used to be called the Divine Right of Kings, will keep Leahy away, specially with a pliant Supreme Court. So what is not controllable that just got hotter? Here is Harpers:

At the center is an affidavit which exposes a Republican political cabal aimed at using the machinery of prosecution to bring down the Democratic governor as the first step in an effort to retake the Statehouse in Montgomery for the GOP

The case has now attracted attention across the United States and around the world. Forty-four former attorneys general from across the nation—Democrats and Republicans—have petitioned Congress asking that a special investigation be undertaken to examine the now obvious gross irregularities associated with the case.

In a bizarre twist in an increasingly inexplicable case, prosecutors in proceedings in Montgomery today argued to federal district court judge Mark Fuller that former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman should be sentenced to thirty years in prison on account of accusations they presented to the jury, and the jury rejected. Even more remarkably, Fuller appears prepared to accept these arguments. ...
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A Texas Republican campaign manager I know, who cut his teeth working in the Lone Star State, and often with Karl Rove, told me that Rove owed his reputation to two things: "direct-mail marketing and an uncanny ability to manipulate federal prosecutors into going after the officeholder his client was trying to unseat."
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The case was conducted in a strange manner. Judge Fuller allowed the prosecution to present their evidence more than once—through direct testimony and then under the guise of preparing for the use of demonstrative evidence. Later, at the conclusion of the case, this evidence was disallowed. But when defense objected to this abusive practice, their motions were overruled. In fact, from the outset of the case Judge Fuller disallowed virtually every motion brought by defense counsel. ...
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Ask Dana Jill Simpson, the Rainsville Republican lawyer who notes that as soon as she told some friends that she had resolved to file an affidavit exposing what was going on in the Siegelman case, unfortunate accidents started happening. Like a fire at her home, and a brush with a motor vehicle operated by an off-duty law enforcement officer that resulted in her car being totaled. Well, maybe these were just accidents. ... Susan James, reports that her office was ransacked ... In addition, the daughter is afraid for her own safety...she has left the country. ...
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... Read the whole story at Harpers.org by Scott Horton, whose work I am merely parroting! Could this be the reason Rove resigned? ...
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... [JUDGE] Fuller also was the chairman of a Republican congressman's campaign committee for several years up to his nomination, and was formerly a member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. ...