No surprises here, although Georgia was seen as a possible landslide indicator for Obama.

Georgia has 15 electoral votes.

Alabama has 9.

We’ve detailed the seemingly politically motivated prosecution and conviction of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman’s in February and March of this year, and now it appears that the House Judiciary Committee wants to put Rove in the hot seat to answer questions about whether he had a hand in it.

Here’s the scoop…

Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the committee chairman, said the subpoena was necessary because Mr. Rove had explicitly declined an invitation to appear voluntarily. Mr. Conyers and fellow committee Democrats say they want to question Mr. Rove about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors and ask whether he knows anything about the decision to prosecute former Gov. Donald E. Siegelman of Alabama, a Democrat.

Mr. Siegelman, who was convicted on a bribery charge, was released from prison in March pending an appeal after an appeals court ruled that he had raised “substantial questions” about his case.

Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, in a letter to Mr. Conyers this week, said the chairman was “provoking a gratuitous confrontation.” Mr. Luskin asserted that Mr. Rove would not appear because he had been directed not to do so by the White House. Although Mr. Rove has left the White House and is now a political commentator, Mr. Luskin said that Mr. Rove “in these matters is not a free agent” and must comply with instructions from the White House not to testify.

So will he agree to testify? Well, his lawyer is signaling that the White House will try and make the “executive privilege” case, but the problem with that is Rove’s on the record as saying he never had any conversations with anybody in the White House about this case. So he shouldn’t be able to claim “executive privilege”, right?

And to the point about being on the record…

On April 7, MSNBC anchor Dan Abrams reported that Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said Rove would agree to testify if Congress issues a subpoena to him as part of an investigation into the Siegelman case.

Ten days later, committee members invited Rove to appear, citing among other things Rove’s interview with GQ magazine. In that interview, Rove hurled insults at CBS News for airing a 60 Minutes segment on the Siegelman case, called his chief accuser a “lunatic” — but didn’t specifically deny any of the accusations.

This doesn’t look good for Karl.

More as it develops…

Here’s the update from Birmingham Times:

MONTGOMERY — A federal appellate court today ordered former Gov. Don Siegelman released from prison while he appeals his 2006 conviction, but denied co-defendant Richard Scrushy’s request to be released.

Siegelman attorney Vince Kilborn said Siegelman would be released sometime Friday morning. “His wife and his daughter, Dana, are driving out to get him,” Kilborn said.

Scrushy attorney Art Leach said he had been told the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Scrushy’s request, but had no more details this evening.

Siegelman has been in an Oakdale, La., prison camp for nearly nine months. A federal jury in 2006 convicted Siegelman and Scrushy of federal funds bribery. Prosecutors alleged Scrushy bought a seat on a state board with a $500,000 donation to Siegelman’s lottery campaign.

The judges wrote that Siegelman met both requirements for an appeal bond: He is not a flight risk and his appeal raises a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial.

“After thorough review of this complex and protracted record, we conclude Siegelman has satisfied the criteria set out in the statute, and has specifically met his burden of showing that his appeal raises substantial questions of law or fact,” the judges wrote.

We’ll have more as it develops…

TPM weighs in…

60 Minutes’ piece is an excellent distillation of the case. There’s Republican lawyer Jill Simpson’s recollection of a conference call where Karl Rove’s friend William Canary recalled talking to his buddy Karl about sicking the Justice Department on Siegelman, saying that his “girls would take care of him,” referring to U.S. attorney Leura Canary (his wife) and another U.S. attorney in the state. And there’s the Justice Department’s renewal of vigor after the first prosecution against Siegelman fell flat on its face.

But there was more, the most significant revelation being that prosecutors had coached their star witness to the point where he had to write his carefully recollected testimony over and over again to make sure he got it right. Such notes, 60 Minutes reports, should have been turned over to Siegelman’s defense attorneys. They were not.

Simply incredible. This is what passes for justice in this country. And you know if a Governor can get sent to prison, what hope do the weak and innocent have when staring in the face of accusations?

So far, no surprises tonight. They’ll try to spin Massachusetts as a surprise, but it isn’t. Obama was always trailing.