On Trial Lawyers and Their Money

I mentioned before in a previous post about how Republicans need to be concerned about whose money is “dirty” and who is taking it.

But it now seems that Republicans’ constant ranting over Fred Baron’s “dirty money” has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. Now, not only do Democratic candidates have to return Fred Baron’s money, but indeed, they must return the campaign contributions of all lawyers.

Lawyers, it seems, are bad, bad people. It’s the campaign contributions of lawyers that keep Democrats in their hip pockets, and keep Democrats voting against tort reform. Because tort reform is by its very definition a good thing. A pure thing. A Republican thing.

As quoted in a curious piece in a Dallas Morning News blog:

“Cornyn's camp said Noriega should not only return the $4,600 his campaign received from Baron and his wife, Lisa Blue. Noriega also ought to ‘refuse to participate in the coordinated campaign of the Texas Democratic Party, which Baron and his trial lawyer buddies have bought and paid for,’ McLaughlin said.”

“McLaughlin” is Kevin McLaughlin a Cornyn Campaign spokesman, also wrote this (warning, it’s on Cornyn’s campaign website – women who are pregnant and people with elevated blood pressure may wish to avoid this site.)

I’ll paste a little of it below so you can get a flavor – it’s OK to read it, I have purged it of bad karma.

“‘What is more important to Rep. Noriega—the safety of the American people, or his close relationship with trial lawyers?’ asked Kevin McLaughlin, spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s re-election campaign. ‘There is only one group that would benefit from the vindictive, frivolous lawsuits that Noriega is trying to protect. That is the trial lawyers who would bring massive suits against companies attempting to act in the national interest.’”

Is this guy kidding? Do I need to do this? Just as I did when they hauled out Fred Baron, and I replied with Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff (Well let’s add to that Ralph Reed)?

OK. I’m up to this.

It’s all at opensecrets.org. Who is among John Cornyn’s top 5 campaign contributors.

Haynes & Boone.

Haynes & Boone is a law firm.

Yep, ExxonMobil exceeded the total contributions from this law firm by a mere $11,785.

But wait, there is more.

Which industrial group has the honor of being the single biggest campaign contributor to John Cornyn’s campaign fund?

The eyes don’t deceive. Lawyers and Law Firms. That is nearly 7% of his total intake since 2003, and 12% of his total cash on hand.

So what about it? Shouldn’t John Cornyn be offering to return 12% of his campaign fund to his lawyer contributors because their money is “dirty”? Or is their money “clean” for Cornyn because John Cornyn is in favor of limiting civil court awards to Texans who have been ripped off by Corporate America?

How does a Democrat spell “hypocrite”?

R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N.