The best piece ever wrtitten about John Edwards....

[trumad]

The Washington Monthly

<snip>
Lawyer Versus Hog Farmer

Despite Edwards' Atticus Finch-like background, North Carolina Senator Lauch Faircloth set about targeting him on the basis of his profession when he campaigned for reelection in 1998, no doubt encouraged by GOP consultants such as Luntz, who'd been successfully pushing tort reform since the early 1990s. "It's almost impossible to go too far when it comes to demonizing lawyers," Luntz wrote that year in a memorandum to Republicans running for reelection. "Make the lawyer your villain by contrasting him with the Œlittle guy,' the innocent hard-working American who he takes to the cleaners."

But Luntz had it backwards. Edwards hadn't cleaned out Mom and Pop. He'd targeted corporations like Sta-Rite and negligent hospitals that had injured small children, and he'd won the unanimous jury decisions state law requires. What's more, he responded to Faircloth's criticism by inviting the public to scrutinize his legal record. Faircloth's campaign strategists considered making a commercial featuring a doctor whom Edwards had put out of business, but thought better of it when they realized Edwards would retaliate by putting forward the little girl who'd suffered at the doctor's hands. As it was, Faircloth never delved into specifics about his opponent's record. Nor should he have, says former ATLA president Twiggs: "Johnny, in that situation, can put on the patient, can put on the jury foreman, and can absolutely destroy that tactic if it's used. It would be a unique opportunity to show who he represented and why, and to show why the jury found in his favor."

By sheer virtue of his skill as a lawyer, Edwards had been able to avoid taking the kinds of cases the public detests. During the campaign, opponents tried unsuccessfully to criticize him for turning away 35 to 40 cases for each one he accepted. But such was the demand for his service that it was impossible to accommodate everyone. Even so, a close friend and fellow attorney says that, before running for Senate, Edwards had a team of doctors and nurses privately screen his record to make sure that no case he'd brought to trial could be considered frivolous: "When they got significantly into , they decided he'd never come close to violating the standard." <end snip>
Thanks atrios for posting this....

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0110.green.html

[SEpatriot]

1. I've said this before...

The Right-Wing attack machine still doesn't understand this issue and thinks that their "tort-reform" nonsense really resonates. When you put a face on it, and expose them as the phonies, they fold. Rove has been a leading "tort-reformer" and will probably reach into his bag of tricks that will backfire. I remember Bush the elder making some sort of comment about lawyers wearing wing-tips or some sort of nonsense in '88. People who are scared of the "trial lawyer" label don't know how effective Edwards will be in turning it around on them. I hope Bushco makes that mistake.

[Paradise]

2. We needed to have this post, to hear this, and thanks. :) n/t