CBS airs 60 Minutes hit piece on Karl Rove

Relying on its unimpeachable star source Dana Jill Simpson, CBS ran a story on 60 Minutes parroted by Dan Abrams of MSNBC that Karl Rove asked Simpson, a portly fast-talking attorney from Rainsville, Alabama to do opposition research for the state GOP. Simpson claims that she is a life-long Republican who after having wrestled with her conscience just had to tell all about events she knew of in 2001 and 2002.

The 60 Minutes story is framed in the context that onetime Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman was the victim of a set-up by the state Republican party and that this secret operation cluminated with Siegleman's conviction on charges of bribery and mail fraud and was subsequently sentenced to prison where he is now serving his sentence. Simpson says the dark hand of Karl Rove was behind the conspiracy to get the former Democratic Governor.

Dana Simpson says that Karl Rove asked her to follow Siegelman around with a camera and try to get compromising photos of the governor in bed with one of his female assistants. This request did not surprise Simpson because she claims that she had been asked by Rove to work on other secret missions for the GOP.

At this point the story doesn't even pass the "you-gotta-be-putting-me-on" test. In 2001-2002, Karl Rove living in D.C. and serving as President Bush's cheif political advisor decides to frame a Democratic Governor in Alabama and use a small time lawyer from the northeast part of the state, no where near the state capital of Montgomery to accomplish this task! Now just imagine a corpulant redhead with a mountainous coiffure, Kodak at the ready, furtively creeping about the potted plants and table runners of hotel lobbies and tenement hallways trying to get that embarrassing snapshot of governor Siegelman with one of his assitants! Picture Hyacinth Bucket of "Keeping up Appearances" in the role of partisan super slueth in this yarn and you'll get the idea.

Without doubt this is the most blantantly stupid and dishonest hit piece that CBS and 60 Minutes have ever produced in their whole sordid history of faux-journalism. When asked on Fox News about the story, Karl Rove categorically denied having ever worked with Dana Jill Simpson and called her story a flat-out lie. Rove says that CBS staffers called him five months ago to say they were looking at the story and decided to run with it without ever asking him for comment before airing it last Sunday night. During the Fox interview Rove summed up his opinion of CBS by referring to it as "the National Enquirer of network news".

Powerline points out in Dissecting the 60 Minutes Scandal that during the summer of 2007, Dana Jill Simpson came to attention of the media and D.C. House Democrats after she signed a lenghty affidavit claiming to have spoken with now Alabama Republican Governor Bob Riley's son in November of 2002. The two most obvious questions that come to mind is what is so compelling about a phone conversation that purportedly occured five years ago with a soon-to-be-governor-elect's son that it merits the attention of House Democrats serving on the House Judiciary Committee and national media attention and why wait five years to go public with the story? The answer Ms. Simpson says is that "Karl" was mentioned during the course of the phone conversation and "Karl" was understood to be Karl Rove. OOOOOooooooohhhh!

But the affidavit Simpson submitted makes no mention of her ever meeting or speaking with or having ever been asked by Rove to spy for him! Simpson seems to have a flair for storytelling and a vivid imagination because in her sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on September 14th 2007 she said that it was Rob Riley, the son of Republican Governor Bob Riley who asked her to take photographs, not of Siegelman but of campaign events. (Yeah, that's the ticket...it was campaign events.)

Eddie Curran, a reporter with the Mobile Press Register did the stories that prompted an investigation of former Gov. Don Siegelman and his administration. He posts his Letter to 60 Minutes online. Here are some excerpts of the letter he writes to the producers and management of the TV "news" show.

Regarding Simpson's outlandish stories he writes:

I assume you are aware of her constantly expanding and evolving stories. That you even put her on television after reviewing these ever-evolving tales is incredible. Furthermore, you absolutely had to know of her association with the Siegelman and Scrushy legal teams that began, at the latest, in February of last year. Among other things, she has testified to doing what would appear to be an illegal credit check report on the judge who presided over the case.

We reporters in Alabama, no doubt because we’re dumb rednecks or being paid off by Republicans, have from the beginning seen Simpson for what she is: a very lonely person with a very – and this is your word – vivid imagination.

It would appear – or at least, CBS made it appear – that this particular Rove claim (there have already been several by her relating to her allegations that Rove was involved in the Siegelman administration)”) was new. This was suggested by Scott Pelley’s surprise, which I trust was not feigned.

As anyone who has ever worked in a newsroom knows, it is almost a daily occurrence for someone to come by or call and spin the most amazing stories. A few, a very few, are true. A decent reporter can usually tell the difference in about a minute. The crazy ones are treated politely and ushered out the door as soon as possible. Considering her past stories -- none corroborated by a single human being -- 60 Minutes should never have interviewed her in the first place. However, after that mistake, once she started on the Rove tale, Pelley, the producers, the janitor, someone, should have pulled the switch. This leads me to ask the following questions of the journalists at CBS:

After Simpson delivered these explosive and entirely uncorroborated accusations (again, all of her stories are uncorroborated) did 60 Minutes ask Simpson where she followed Siegelman, as in what cities and on what dates?

Having done so, did 60 Minutes conduct a simple Nexis search of stories during that period? After all, Siegelman’s trips and actions were covered almost daily by the press, especially the AP.

And also asked her:

Who funded this top-secret mission? She does not live anywhere near Montgomery and one assumes that while carrying out this top-secret assignment she incurred hotel, travel, and meal bills. Did you ask her if she had any records of these bills? Is there anyone alive who can corroborate this?

Did you ask her: How was a big redhead like you able to follow Alabama’s governor for months without being seen by the governor or his security? Did you follow him by car? Hide in the bushes? Hover above in a helicopter? You claim that this was not the first "intelligence" assignment given you by Rove. What were the others?

You said you met him working on past campaigns. Which campaigns and can you provide us with a single person who also worked on these campaigns who can confirm that you worked on them and that, furthermore, you met Rove while doing so?

Pelley, with a wink and a nod, noted that Rove worked in some Alabama campaigns. This is widely known. They were judicial races in the mid-1990s. I was in Alabama at the same time and, remarkably, never ran into Rove. I doubt Simpson did either though. However, if we are to trust your broadcast, you made no effort to check this out. You simply tossed it out that Rove had been in Alabama, as if our state is the size of Mayberry.

I’m not sure what would be worse, for CBS not to have asked such questions or to have asked them but not shown or reported that it did so to the audience, and given her responses and the results of your verification.

Gateway Pundit who has been digging further into this ridiculous story reveals; "60 Minutes" based an entire segment attacking Karl Rove on a sole source bitter over a lost Alabama tire dump contract!

This may explain why Dana Jill Simpson went to the media in the first place.She was angry with the state for not awarding her client a tire dump contract.

Gateway Pundit cites this article that appeared in the June 24th 2007 issue of the Times Daily.

Rob Riley, the central character in much of Ms. Simpsons narratives said at the time that,
he believes Simpson's motive for coming forward with the allegations now is the result of a debris removal company she represents losing a contract to remove tires from the Attalla tire dump. As a lawyer, she had represented the losing bidder for the tire contract, former Alabama Attorney General staffer Mark Bollinger of Albertville.

Last summer, Simpson warned Gov. Riley about the contract he was about to award, which reportedly kept Riley from attending a news conference to announce the largest tire cleanup in Alabama history. Simpson, in a series of interviews, said she first developed her theory when she believed "Karl'' and Gov. Riley may have a plan to get Siegelman, who again ran for governor in 2006.

As Sheriff Andy of Mayberry admonished one ne'er do well some years ago, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."