Scathing Washington Post editorial (Jan. 23) about a rather gaping hole in Sen. Edwards’s claim to be the candidate free from entanglements with all those dreadful Special Interests. “Mr. Edwards — alone among the serious candidates for president — declines to provide a list of his major campaign financiers: the men and women who have not only the capability to write $2,000 checks themselves but the networks that allow them to harvest bigger bundles for their favored candidates.” Sen. Edwards has in fact raised a larger proportion of his campaign warchest in $2,000 donations than any of his Democratic rivals, and his refusal to disclose the details of his financial operation is of particular interest because of stories like the one we covered May 8, which suggest that some of his patrons may have much they are interested in concealing about the exact manner in which those $2,000 checks came to be written and bundled. For more on Edwards’s fund-raising, see Aug. 5; Jul. 18, 2002; May 1-2, 2002; Apr. 7-8.
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
Edwards’ persuasive powers
Having long taken an interest in the career of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (see Sept. 16, Aug. 27 (talk about bad predictions!), Aug. 5, earlier posts), we are not entirely surprised that the silver-tongued trial lawyer/politician did so well among Iowa Democrats, not to mention charming such commentators as Mickey Kaus (scroll to second “P.P.S.” item) and Andrew Sullivan (second item). As we’ve had occasion to note, before entering politics Sen. Edwards had some of his greatest success representing families of kids with cerebral palsy against the doctors who’d allegedly botched their deliveries — this despite a steadily mounting pile of research (see Feb. 27, 2003) tending to refute the popular theory that cerebral palsy is commonly caused by obstetricians’ conduct during labor and delivery. Last March, in a letter to the editor printed at this site, Mississippi physician S.W. Bondurant wondered whether the press would look into the question of whether Edwards’s trial wins were based on sound science. Now reporter Marc Morano of the conservative CNSNews.com takes on that assignment (“Did ‘Junk Science’ Make John Edwards Rich?”, CNSNews.com, Jan. 20). Just to clarify my own views, which are quoted at some length: I don’t assert that every lawsuit blaming obstetricians for infant brain damage is unfounded. The problem is that our system gives wide leeway for cases of debatable scientific merit to be filed and then, after a battle of the hired experts, decided by appeals to jury emotion. (& welcome visitors from sites including Kaus (Jan. 20), Sullivan, MedPundit, Rangel M.D., Blog 702, MedRants, and many others)
Democratic candidates and tort reform
A reader asks, in the wake of our discussion of Dr. Dean’s 1988 letter, whether other candidates have spoken out on tort reform.
Howard Dean letter to the editor
An eagle-eyed reader draws our attention to the June 29, 1988 New York Times, where the then-Lieutenant Governor of Vermont writes to the editor about a Times story on large damages awards in a libel case.
To the Editor:
Randall Bezanson and Gilbert Cranberg detailed a situation that I hope will get far worse. As a physician, I have been frustrated for years by the reluctance of state legislatures and the United States Congress to deal with liability problems of all kinds.
I have long maintained that until the legal profession and the news media are also afflicted with the increasingly severe consequences of a tort system that benefits few people outside the legal profession, there will be no return to a fair and reasonable system of justice.
The trends toward lawyers suing one another for malpractice and toward outrageous-size punitive damages in libel cases give me hope that the crisis in our tort system may finally come to the attention of those who can make this a public issue and improve the situation for all of us who require liability insurance to do business.
HOWARD DEAN, M.D.
Montpelier, Vt., June 17, 1988
The events of the past fifteen years should make Dr. Dean an even more enthusiastic proponent of tort reform; his Dean for America web site is somewhat more neutral.
Update: Mississippi Supreme Court
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, who was indicted in July for an alleged judicial bribery scheme (see Aug. 19), has been suspended with pay by a tribunal–a formality, says his lawyer, since Diaz was already on a voluntary leave of absence. (Jerry Mitchell, “Special tribunal suspends justice”, The Clarion-Ledger, Dec. 17; AP, “Panel orders Mississippi justice suspended”, Dec. 16). The Mississippi Supreme Court has had other troubles recently (see Oct. 1); the judicial misconduct case against lame duck Justice Chuck McRae remains pending, and probably will not be decided before he leaves the bench January 5. (Beth Musgrave, “Justice describes ‘hateful’ court full of ‘yes men'”, The Sun Herald, Oct. 31).
Number of Senators who are lawyers
It currently stands at 59 of the 100, according to today’s editorial in Investor’s Business Daily on legal reform (“Any tort in a storm”, Dec. 18).
Oklahoma AG: I wasn’t familiar with short-selling
“I have recently been made aware of a market practice known as ‘short selling’ and am amazed that it is legal,” Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson wrote the Securities and Exchange Commission last year. That’s one of many tidbits to be found in a column by the L.A. Times’s Mike Hiltzik about politicians’ ties to Oklahoma-based Pre-Paid Legal Services, a multilevel marketing (MLM) enterprise that has been the subject of a fair bit of controversy and litigation over the years (Mike Hiltzik, “Lockyer Not Above a Little Legal Aid”, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18). Oklahoma AG Edmondson’s bio lists him as having been born on “October 12, 1946” rather than, as one might assume, “yesterday”.
Daschle does the trial-lawyer hop
A Senate Minority Leader’s gotta drum up money, after all: he popped down to Jacksonville last Thursday for a fund-raiser hosted by plaintiff’s lawyer Wayne Hogan, part of the $3.4-billion-in-fees Florida tobacco team (see Apr. 12, 2000), and then yesterday attended an event at the Providence, R.I., home of Ness Motley’s Jack McConnell (see Jun. 7, 2001) (David DeCamp, “Party not big on bid from Weinstein”, Jacksonville Times-Union, Dec. 15; Liz Anderson, Scott MacKay and Katherine Gregg, “State House’s quick Thanksgiving food drive is no turkey”, Providence Journal, Dec. 1) (hat tip: South Dakota Politics blog)
Yet another R (Trial Lawyers)?
Housing Secretary Mel Martinez recently quit to run for a Florida Senate seat, but if elected he might not compile the kind of legislative record expected of Florida Republicans. “Martinez was president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers in the late 1980s and was registered to lobby for the group in Tallahassee. It was a time when that powerful interest group had just defeated the medical lobby in a costly and high-profile initiative campaign aimed at capping fees in personal injury cases, known as Amendment 10. … In addition, Martinez has personally donated money to a variety of Democratic candidates over the years, including Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and former Florida insurance commissioner Bill Gunter.” Resistance to Martinez in the GOP primary is likely to be spirited, especially since one of his leading rivals, former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, is already raising the trial lawyer connection as an issue. (Bill Adair and Steve Bousquet, “Martinez quits Cabinet, is poised for Senate run”, St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 10; Steve Bousquet, “Storm brews over GOP Senate primary”, Dec. 15). Update Sept. 3: Martinez wins primary.
Alabama jury to Exxon Mobil: pay the state $11.9 billion
In a retrial of a case which earlier led to an exorbitant punitive damages award, an Alabama jury two weeks ago ordered ExxonMobil to pay $63.6 million in compensatory damages and $11.8 billion in punitive damages to the cash-strapped state government in a dispute over natural gas royalties (“Alabama jury orders Exxon Mobil to pay $11.9 billion in dispute over natural gas royalties”, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 14; Phillip Rawls, AP/Miami Herald, Nov. 13). A former state administration had hired two of the state’s most successful private trial lawyers, Jere Beasley and Robert Cunningham, to take the case on a 14 percent contingency, which in this case would amount to $1.6 billion in fees; the two lawyers are also important campaign contributors. Earlier verdict: Dec. 20, 2000. Editorial reactions: “The truly ridiculous”, Huntsville Times, Nov. 17; “Exxessive verdict”, Birmingham News, Nov. 19; “Don’t over-celebrate ExxonMobil verdict”, Mobile Register, Nov. 17. Update Apr. 18: judge cuts verdict to $3.6 billion. Further update Nov. 8, 2007: Alabama Supreme Court throws out punitives.