"Don't Worry .....

.... about Siegelman, the girls will take care of him."

That's what a political operative told the governor of Alabama who had just unseated Siegelman in a run for the governorship during a highly contested close election. The "girls" refers to the operatives wife and another U.S. Federal prosecutor.

Why was he so confident that "the girls" would take care of Siegelman?

At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A longtime Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys.

And just what did the girls dig up on Siegelman?

Siegelman was convicted of appointing Scrushy [also indicted] to a hospital regulatory board in exchange for a $500,000 contribution to a campaign for a state lottery to fund education. Defense lawyers have argued that Siegelman drew no personal financial benefit from Scrushy's donation to the lottery campaign, and they note that Scrushy had served on the hospital regulatory board under three previous governors, before Siegelman reappointed him. The reappointment, they have argued, offered little of value to Scrushy except more work.

Everything. Absolutely everything that Karl Rove touches turns to shit. Everything.

Update: Here's another case, very similar to this one. The conviction was thrown out on appeal.