A witness who takes the stand in his own defense is like ...
Like a doctor who treats himself. Like a dentist who drills his own root canals.
Ouch.
For Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, the choice to testify in his own corruption trial has been the single biggest shock in an already shocking case. He might as well have picked up a sledgehammer, handed it to prosecutor Matt Hart, and said "swing away, Mr. Hart. Swing Away."
It's the kind of thing that makes people say "what was he thinking?" How can Hubbard - after being painted by evidence as the picture of hubris and arrogance and entitlement -- believe he can sit on the stand and explain away contracts and emails and persistent begging for jobs and money?
Easy.
Hubris. And arrogance. And entitlement.
It's remarkable what has happened here. The prosecution's obligatory march through scores of emails between Hubbard and others featured plenty of damning moments. But by the time prosecutors rested the sharpest barbs were covered in a haze of tedium. The facts were not so much in dispute - Hubbard took contracts and asked for jobs and help from lobbyists, and he voted on a bill he had an interest in - but the defense had effectively clouded some of the issues.
But when Hubbard took the stand he opened himself up to cross-examination, which gives prosecutors more latitude in what they can ask, and how they can ask it.
Swing away, Mr. Hart. Swing away.
The defense had muddied the water on the count in which Hubbard is charged with steering money to his own printing company as head of the GOP. It was a team decision, they said.
Prosecutor Matt Hart (sketch by JD Crowe)
But then Hubbard gave Hart the hammer to ask the question: "Were you the only member of the team who was subject to the ethics law and who had an interest in the company?"
And Hubbard had to answer "yes."
Hubbard's defense had often, and effectively, blurred the lines to claim Hubbard and many of those he sought jobs and favors from were friends and nothing more.
But every time Hubbard spoke of his friends, Hart spoke of his "friend and lobbyist." And the hammer fell.
Over and over Hart showed emails in which Hubbard asked for favors or jobs as he complained about his woeful financial condition. Over and over Hart showed Hubbard's finances at the time he moaned and groaned.
His monthly income averaged $31,000. His household income was well over $300,000 a year. The pay for his part-time job as a legislator - which he groused about as insignificant in emails - was $61,000.
That paltry sum for that part time job, as Hubbard was forced to admit to Hart and to that jury, was higher than the median income for entire Alabama households. For him it amounted to nothing.
Hubbard had to talk about his house in Auburn, and his part interest in the house on Lake Wedowee, and his 24-acre farm in Loachapoka, and his beach house. Hart tried to get the judge to let him talk about loan documents in which Hubbard claimed an $8 million net worth, but the judge said there was enough in evidence to make his point already.
Hart made the point right in front of the jury.
"The motive is greed," he said.
What was Hubbard thinking? It was clear the very things that convinced him to take the stand were the things that got him in trouble in the first place.
Arrogance. Hubris and an unfathomable deafness of tone.
It is the story of his life.
Nobody can destroy Mike Hubbard like Mike Hubbard himself.