POLITICS BEING CRIMINALIZED BY PROSECUTORS?

Thursday, April 27th, 2017
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

POLITICS BEING CRIMINALIZED BY PROSECUTORS?

I have known former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman for a number of years. We both served our respective states as Secretary of State back in the mid 1980s.  I consider him to be a good and decent former public official.

Don Siegelman was in his second term as Alabama Governor, and by most accounts was doing a commendable job.  But he was a Democrat in a predominantly Republican state.  And that apparently rankled the likes of then Bush political adviser Karl Rove and Alabama Republican appointed prosecutors. The justice department investigated Siegelman for years, until he was finally convicted of bribery.  Any neutral observer who looks at what happened to Siegelman will conclude that the whole sordid investigation reeks of party politics and stinks to high heaven.

Don Siegelman’s passion was educational reform, and his efforts caused his downfall.  He proposed creating a state lottery to fund a major educational push. He said the money was critical for offering quality education in Alabama. 

Siegelman raised significant private dollars for the lottery effort, and Alabama businessman Richard Scrushy, former chief executive of HealthSouth, contributed $250,000 to support the project.  Later, Siegelman appointed Scrushy to a state health board, as had three previous governors.  The board, under Alabama law, has to be made up of healthcare officials, and members receive no pay. And it should be noted that half of Scrushy’s contribution came after he was appointed to the board.

So was this a bribe for a nonpaying appointment to a healthcare board where the appointee had already served three terms by the three previous governors?  And the contribution was not even to the Siegelman campaign.  If this is considered a bribe, then every governor in the country, as well as numerous other state and local officials, should be worried.  Appointments to state and local boards by elected officials, who have received campaign contributions from individuals that they appoint is about as routine as it gets at all levels of government.

Don Siegelman was convicted and sentenced to seven years in a federal penitentiary. “I haven’t seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done,” says Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona.  “I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square.  This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of.”

Woods has been joined by ninety other state attorneys general, all arguing that “a public official may not be prosecuted for the receipt of a campaign contribution in the absence of an explicit quid pro quo connection between the campaign contribution and an official act.”  Ninety-one current and former prosecutors, both Republican and Democrat alike, all are saying Don Siegelman got a raw deal.
Conservative columnist George Will reviewed the Siegelman case and wrote in his syndicated column: “Everyone who cares about the rule of law should hope the Supreme Court agrees to hear Don Siegelman’s appeal…today’s confusion and the resulting prosecutorial discretion chill the exercise of constitutional rights of political participation and can imprison people unjustly.”

I have always known Don Siegelman to be a dedicated, honest, hardworking public official. Does politics play a role in appointments being made? Yes, all over America. But that’s a far cry from those public officials who may be guilty of breeding criminal contempt.

If there is a crime committed in this sordid and unjust prosecution of Don Siegelman, it is the one committed by the federal prosecutors and political consultants in both Alabama and Washington, who subverted the law and instigated – yes – instigated, this unjust conviction. At stake is far more than Don Siegelman’s future. What is at stake is the integrity of the entire American criminal justice system.

Don Siegelman was recently released from the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in Louisiana where he served a 78-month sentence. Six and one half years of his life taken away over petty Alabama politics.

There’s a line in a recent Mark Wahlberg Movie, Shooter, that says:  This is the world we live in, where justice does not always prevail.”  Don Siegelman is still under home confinement.  He found out about how justice can be denied the hard way.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: LESSONS FOR TODAY?

Is another Cuban Missile Crisis at hand between the U.S. and North Korea? A little history can tell us just how dangerous a nuclear confrontation can be.

Fifty-four years ago, America faced another perilous moment and was on the brink of a nuclear war. The Russians were building missile sites in Cuba, allowing the potential for an all out nuclear attack on the United States.  Younger Americans today are not aware of how close the world came to nuclear war, as historians would argue that this would become the most dangerous moment up to that time in human history. 

In the fall of 1962, I had traveled to England to undertake post-graduate work in English Literature at Cambridge University.  From breakfast seminars to daytime lectures, then afternoon readings and evening tutorials, I was immersed in English literature. International politics and foreign intrigue were the furthest things from my mind — that was, until the Cuban missile crisis.

I had rented a room in the house of an English family who lived a few blocks from the Cambridge campus. Mrs. Davenport, the lady of the house, awakened me at 2:00 A.M. on October 22, 1962. She said a neighbor had just called and told her to turn on the radio to hear a major press conference by President John F. Kennedy.

It was an extremely cold morning, and there was no central heating in the house, so I grabbed a blanket off my bed, threw it around me, and went downstairs to the living room. A fire was burning in the fireplace, and the Davenport family had gathered around the radio. President Kennedy was just beginning his remarks.

The President announced a naval blockade of Cuba, which he called a “quarantine.” He made it clear that any ship bound for Cuba that was carrying offensive missiles, or any other military hardware, would be stopped and turned back.

As he ended his speech, the neighbors from next door joined us in the living room. I was not sure how serious the matter was, but there was no doubt in the minds of my British hosts, who had lived the day-in, day-out horror of two world wars; they believed that we were on the brink of another world war, and they were devastated. The women in the room were crying. Eventually, everyone turned to me and asked why the President would want to start such hostility over a minor island south of Florida. I had no idea how to respond.

The next day several members of the Cambridge Union, the local debating society, approached. They had sought me out to debate America’s actions because I was one of very few Americans at Cambridge. I knew I was in over my head, and I needed help. The only place I could think of was the American Embassy in London; maybe someone there could give me some background information about why the blockade was necessary. After a ninety-minute train ride, I was in London by mid-day.

On my arrival at the Embassy, a staffer gave me a verbal briefing and a little background information. It is an understatement to say that I was lost in the forest of international conflict.

When I spoke up for the American position and tried to defend my country that evening, I was hissed and booed by the majority of the crowd. The Russians had stated that the only missiles in Cuba were “defensive,” and that America was the villain. Try as I might, I could not convince the Brits any differently. I was up against several other speakers who rattled off numerous dates, events, and consequences of World War II and the Cold War. They were well versed in the politics of the day, and it was clear that I was less than qualified to be my country’s sole defending voice.

Cooler heads prevailed fifty years ago, under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, and nuclear war was averted.  We can only hope that President Trump can offer the same leadership on a cross section of international issues that both serve America’s interests and defuse the violence taking place across the globe. Benjamin Franklin summed it up pretty well many years ago. “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

Benjamin Franklin

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

RICHARD NIXON AND LOUISIANA!

Thursday, April 13th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

RICHARD NIXON AND LOUISIANA!

There is a new book on a number of best selling lists about former President Richard Nixon by author John Farrell.  Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office. Those of you too young to remember the events surrounding Watergate missed one of the most riveting episodes of American history. Nixon survived a number of bitter political fights, but he had always been able to bounce back. However, it was his own words in secret recordings that he personally authorized in the Oval Office that finally led to his downfall.

Throughout his political career, the 37^th President made a number of trips to Louisiana. Nixon’s first trip to the Bayou State was with his wife Pat in 1941, shortly after they were married. “I remember how we were moved by the wonderful food and the good music, but most of all by the warmth of the hospitality,” he often recalled. He made fast friends with trumpeter Al Hirt and clarinetist Pete Fountain, both of whom he later invited to perform at the White House.

Nixon lost his first bid for President in a close defeat to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Some 10,000 votes could have changed the outcome, and some political observers still feel the election was stolen from Nixon by election shenanigans in Chicago. Two years later, he tried for a political comeback running for governor of California, but was defeated by then Governor Pat Brown, whose son is the state’s governor today. Nixon told reporters he was through with politics, and they “wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around any more.

But rumors surfaced a few years later that he again might be interested in the Republican nomination. I was class president at Tulane Law School in 1966 and had the chore of arranging speakers. On a whim, I wrote Nixon asking him to address the Tulane student body. To my surprise, he accepted. Over a lite lunch at the Tulane Student Center, he quizzed me about Louisiana politics and asked a number of questions about my background and future plans. I found him engaging, funny, and quite the dominating figure one would expect of a former Vice President.

I introduced him to the packed crowd, and it was obvious from his remarks that he was running for president again. He invited my wife-to-be and me to join him for a Republican Party fundraising dinner that evening, and future governor Dave Treen joined us. Treen and I both felt like we were listening to the next president.

As the evening ended, his chief of staff asked if I would consider joining the campaign by heading up a Nixon for President group being formed in New Hampshire, the first primary state. I was tempted, but chose instead to begin a new family and a new law career in the Crescent City.

My only other meeting with Nixon was in July of 1972 at the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in the south Louisiana town of Houma. We both were there for the funeral of Louisiana Senator Allen Ellender. An hour before the funeral, over a thousand people were packed into the street in front of the entrance. Metal barriers had been set up to keep the crowd at bay, and the church was surrounded by state troopers, local police officers and numerous Secret Service agents. It became obvious why there was so much security. President and Mrs. Nixon were to join a long list of dignitaries to remember the Senator.

I had no official invitation and was just one of the crowd standing on the outside of the barriers. I was a new state senator then, and I hollered out a greeting to a colleague, state Senator Claude Duvall, who was inside the barricade. It was a stroke of luck, because Claude was in charge of the seating arrangements. He graciously opened up the gate, and led me into the cathedral. Half an hour later, the official delegation that had just arrived from Washington was escorted into the church sanctuary.

When the President entered, he was led by the Secret Service to sit directly in front of me. I introduced myself and reminded him of his visit to Tulane, and the offer to go up to New Hampshire. He said that I had missed a great opportunity.

Watergate proved otherwise. But he also told me that if I had to be living and working somewhere, Louisiana was one of the best places to be. He sure was right about that.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

GOVERNOR JIMMIE DAVIS BROUGHT US SUNSHINE!

Thursday, April 6th, 2017

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

GOVERNOR JIMMIE DAVIS BROUGHT US SUNSHINE!

It could be the most recognized American song worldwide. Go to a small Asian community where little or no English is spoken.  Start humming, “You Are My Sunshine.”  More likely than not, the locals will join in singing the song in English.  Everybody knows the words to a down-home tune written by a Louisiana country singer and movie star. And he was sworn in as Louisiana Governor seventy-three years ago this month.

Jimmie Davis was a popular country singer in the 1930s and made a number of western movies including the likes of Cyclone Prairie Rangers, Mississippi Rhythm and Square Dance Katy.  But throughout the world, he made his mark with Sunshine.

A few years back, I was in Cambodia at the Golden Triangle, where Burma and Thailand converge.  I was having breakfast in a rural village at an outdoor café, and the young waitress who knew a few words in English said, “You American. I love America. I sing about America.”  Then, with a big grin on her face, she broke out in song and danced around the dirt floor singing “You Are My Sunshine.”

After serving two terms as Louisiana Governor, Davis spent a lot of time at his farm in northeast Louisiana, traveling back and forth from the state capitol in Baton Rouge.  The Governor was friends with my senior law partner in Ferriday and made it a habit to stop at our office for a coffee break.  I was a wet behind the ears 26-year-old attorney and often the only one in the office.  So Jimmie Davis would talk at length about his life and gave me my first political education.

He would often ask me to notarize some document, which I was glad to do.  “So what do I owe you Brother Brown?” he would say.  I always settled for a few verses of Sunshine.  He regularly inquired if I could find him a raccoon. Up in redneck country, we just call it a coon. His favorite meal was coon stew.  Knowing the coon request would always come with his visit, I asked some local hunters I represented to drop off a raccoon.  So I would keep one of those critters in the office freezer ready for the Governor's visit.

Now I know I have whetted your appetite for a delicious plate of raccoon. When I was elected Secretary of State some years later, I wrote a cookbook, and the Governor graciously gave me one of his favorite coon recipes to include in my gourmet collection of sumptuous dishes.

 

Davis made one last futile effort to be elected for a third term in 1971, while I made my foray in politics running for state senator.  He often campaigned with his band in the district where I was running, and I would put up signs that read: “Come to the Jim Brown for Senator campaign rally.  Special guest: Governor Jimmie Davis.”  Davis laughed when he caught on to what I was doing and always called me up on the platform to introduce me as the district’s next state senator.  He supported me every time I ran for public office after that.

Throughout my 28-year political career, Jimmie Davis would often come by my Baton Rouge office or call me to come visit at him at his home, which was right by the state capitol.  I always knew he needed a notary.  My last call was a few weeks before he died in 2000.  He was donating a piece of property, but he insisted he pay me something.  “OK Governor,” I told him. “When you pass on, I want you to give me your driver’s license number.”  You see, Davis instituted the license requirement during his first term as governor in 1944.  And the number on his license?  Number one. “A done deal,” he told me.

Of course, I never actually got it.  But it was good way to end our 35-year relationship with a smile.  And Sunshine?  Who was she?  A past lover? A devoted family member? No.  Sunshine was Jimmie Davis’s horse.  The palomino mare is buried up on the northeast Louisiana farm. I pass that way occasionally and remember back on my conversations with the Governor.  And yes.  I do hum a few bars of “You Are My Sunshine.”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9:00 am till 11:00 am Central Time on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

“I rejoice in the knowledge that death is only the beginning.

 It is my hope and prayer that all of those who visit