Business vs. trial lawyers; Atticus Finch vs. Gordon Gekko

[question everything]

So, the chamber of commerce is vowing to fight the Kerry Edwards ticket because they hate trial lawyers.

Let's talk about the businesses that Bush and Cheney owned/run.

Let's talk about businesses who chose mass layoffs while increasing profits; of working the remaining employees to stress; of putting their profits above all, even bilking the taxpayers through expensive bids.


Was published yesterday in the WSJ:


July 6, 2004

POLITICAL CAPITAL
By ALAN MURRAY

Business Elite Vows To Take On Kerry If He Taps Edwards
July 6, 2004; Page A4

Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has made a public vow: If John Edwards is chosen as John Kerry's running mate, the chamber will abandon its traditional stance of neutrality in the presidential race and work feverishly to defeat the Democratic ticket. "We'd get the best people and the greatest assets we can rally" to the cause, he says.

Other business leaders in Washington have been less public and less precise, but no less passionate. Reviewing the candidates in the Democratic primaries earlier this year, a Fortune 100 chief executive who is active in Washington told me that Mr. Edwards, the North Carolina senator, "is the one we fear the most" -- more than John Kerry, more than Dick Gephardt, more than Howard Dean.

None of this is personal... Nor is it completely rational. Mr. Edwards's political and policy views are more moderate -- and more in line with business -- than those of Gov. Dean, Rep. Gephardt or even Sen. Kerry.

But Mr. Edwards is a trial lawyer. His campaign for the presidency was financed by trial lawyers. And there is nothing that makes America's CEOs see red these days like America's trial lawyers. "It's visceral," says one person who works with a group of chief executives. "You can feel it in a room." The nation's top executives view the plaintiff's bar as modern-day mobsters, shaking down corporations by bringing endless lawsuits that are too costly and too dangerous to litigate and that result in settlements costing billions to the corporate bottom line. The antipathy, while not new, has never been greater.

(snip)

Write to Alan Murray at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108906847567455577,00.html

[ugarte]

1. What the hell is a 'trial lawyer' ?

Answer: simply a lawyer who takes cases to trial, i.e. to the people, a jury. By demonizing 'trial lawyers', the corporate elite and Republicans demonize the jury system. They fear the people, but can't come out and say that, so they attack the 'trial lawyers'.

We should never let them get away with this. Next time you hear someone attacking 'trial lawyers,' understand that what they are really attacking are juries.

Once restrictions are placed on 'trial lawyers,' look for a big assault on the right to trial by jury itself. If the Republicans get their way, it's coming.

[spooky3]

2. Only a corrupt businessperson would resent a lawyer like Edwards.

He wins nearly all of his cases. That means:

--he took on only cases that have a lot of merit and are consequential; therefore he can't be accused of encouraging costly frivolous cases

--bad businesspeople are held accountable, which levels the playing field for businesspeople who are playing by the rules

In this era of Enrons (and there are many others) every voter should be VERY suspicious of any business lobbying group that despises a person who stands for accountability, protecting the "little guy", and respecting the law.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Maybe we should arrange "To kill a Mockingbird" House Parties

Dunno if we could get in trouble over use of the film, but it would be a real kick to do it.