My muse must be on vacation, or visiting someone else this month. Here's something I dug up that I posted a couple of months ago on MySpace:
I have served under four different Attorneys General in Alabama; two different AG's in the Federated States of Micronesia; one in Guam and one in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I have fond, and not-so-fond, memories of them all. More fond than not.
My first boss in Alabama was Don Siegleman (D) back in 1988. He made his political bones in the Democratic Party, served as a very popular Secretary of State, served one term as AG, lost a bid for Governor, became Lieutenant Governor, then eventually became Governor. As an AG, he was terrible, awful. Didn't know the first thing about the court system, couldn't litigate his way out of a paper bag if he had to. In the other elected positions before and after, he was darn good, actually. But AG? Forget it.
Shortly after being defeated for a second term as Governor, Siegelman was indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering and other charges, political corruption, that kind of thing. He's just been freed on bond pending appeal to the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of appeals. Of the four Alabama AG's I've worked for, the first, Don Siegelman, made it to Governor then was indicted and convicted by the federal courts. He served from 1987 - 1991. Accused and convicted of political cronyism, he claims his prosecution was politically motivated. If that upsets you, feel free to contribute to the Free Governor Siegelman Legal Defense Fund.
The second AG I worked for was Jimmy Evans (D), a long-time yellow dog Democrat and D.A. for Montgomery County, who indicted and convicted the first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, Guy Hunt. He served from 1991 - 1995. After being soundly defeated for a second term because he ran the office into the ground financially (though he was a good boss otherwise), Jimmy Evans faded into obscurity and hasn't been heard from since.
The third Ala. AG I worked for, Jeff Sessions (R), swept Jimmy Evans out of office and didn't even finish his first term before running for the U.S. Senate, where he took the seat vacated by long-time U.S. Senator Howell Heflin in an ironic twist of fate as it was Heflin who served on the Judiciary Committee that kept Sessions from a coveted U.S. District Judgeship for the Southern District of Alabma. Sessions served only from 1995 - 1997 and left early to run for Heflin's seat when Heflin retired. Sessions is now a key figure on the Judiciary Committee.
The fourth and last Alabama AG I worked for was William (Bill) H. Pryor (R), who is now a judge on the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He served as Ala. AG from 1997 - 2004 (I left in 1999) when he was nominated by George Bush in a very politically acrimonious confirmation proceeding that resulted in Bush appointing him in what is called a "recess appointment," which actually bypassed the U.S. Senate confirmation process while they were in recess. Pryor had been brought on board at the AG's office by Jeff Sessions as a special projects deputy attorney general.
Though a staunch Republican and conservative, a young Reagan-ite and Federalist (which I somewhat agree with), I happen to think Pryor was a damn fine lawyer and AG who put the law before and above politics. And he's a damn fine judge too, despite the fact that all of my best friends in the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, GLBA, NOW, People for the American Way, and all the other liberal organizations to which I would politically subscribe if I were a political subscriber view him as the judiciary's answer to the anti-Christ. Here's a 2003 article in the National Review by Quinn Hilyer, that pretty much sums it up.
Regardless of what my friends think about his politics and narrow view of the Constitution, they have to give Pryor credit for obeying the "rule of law" by his prosecution when he was AG of the "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore before the Court of the Judiciary, which removed Moore from office as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for his defiance of a federal court order to remove the ten commandments monolith he designed specially and brought to the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Pryor was the best AG I ever worked for; and I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to argue in front of him as a judge on the Eleventh Circuit before I left Alabama.
Little known facts in the "six degrees of separation" department:
In my younger days and in the early days of the World Wide Web, before it became de rigeur for political campaigns to do so, I designed the web pages for Jeff Sessions' run for U.S. Senate (very cheesy by today's standards), and for Bill Pryor's run for AG. I also designed web pages for two Republican candidates for Alabama Supreme Court. (For some reason, Republicans like my work).
I coined the phrase "auto-eroticism for its own sake" for use by lawyers in the Alabama AG's Office defending Alabama's ridiculous sex toys ban in Alabama (you know, vibrators, dildoes, the usual) which went up and down and up and down in the federal courts for years after I left. The case is called Williams v. Pryor. You won't find my name in any of the reported decisions, but thanks a little bit to yours truly, you can own a dildo or a vibrator in Alabama, you just can't sell them at a tupperware party To be honest, I took the case voluntarily, because lawyers are supposed to defend their clients regardless of what they personally feel about the issue or the person they're defending, and I wanted to challenge myself. (You know, like lawyers representing criminal defendants they know are guilty.) But it really is a silly law, and the sponsor of the bill was just a little to preoccupied with matters sexual. But that's a story for another day, maybe.
I also have a direct connection to Roy Moore, the Ten Commandments Judge, that I am proud of. I was on the trial team that sued Moore and won the federal court decision ordering him to remove his 5,280 lb. monolith and monstrosity of (the Protestant version of) the ten commandments. I was with the ACLU of Alabama at the time. It was my last litigation in Alabama before heading out to the Pacific.
I'm actually proud of alot of the work I did in the Alabama AG's Office. I represented some fine people - judges, court clerks, governors, directors of agencies, licensing and regulatory boards. You name a public official from 1988 - 1999 and I probably represented him, her or their office. Contrary to popular opinion, most of them are pretty hard-working, dedicated public servants.
And, for being the office liberal toward the end there, I think I made some law on some issues that were pretty important in their day, that was good for government as a whole. And my experience in Alabama has served me well in Micronesia, as I'm usually able to predict the outcome of political movements and litigation here, because the governments out here are going through the same growing pains that Alabama and other states experienced ten and 15 years ago. And the freedom to grow, and make mistakes, and keep trying to get it right, is really what good government is all about.
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