John Edwards Watch
So now that John Edwards is no longer the favored presidential candidate of trial lawyers, I'm wondering if he will be even bolder this go-around in dissing his former professional colleagues to prove his "independence." In 2004, he feigned some interest in tort reform, writing a lame op-ed in the Washington Post offering a meaningless proposal for cracking down on frivolous lawsuits. And, of course, during the second presidential debate in 2004, his running mate declared that "John Edwards and I support tort reform." But now that Edwards isn't quite so reliant on trial lawyer money for his campaign, he doesn't have to be as careful about pissing them off, either. As he tries to shed the moniker "former trial lawyer," I wouldn't be surprised to see Edwards embrace some of the more draconian tort reform proposals out there to show he's not beholden to the plaintiffs' bar, kinda the way Clinton did in executing that retarded man in Arkansas or passing welfare reform legislation to prove he wasn't a bleeding heart. We'll see...
Edwards got away with the bald dishonesty that he supports tort reform in 2004 without serious consequence, can't even require his own campaign staffer Amanda Marcotte to provide a sincere apology when presented with a genuine Sister Souljah opportunity, and he's suddenly going to stand up to the most powerful lobby in America with a substantive reform proposal? Not remotely likely.
Posted by: Ted | February 12, 2007 at 03:12 PM
Wow, Ted... congratulations on posting a response that didn't contain even one ad hominem attack.
No, wait... I guess that's *all* you did.
Although Fortune's survey is a bit dated, for the most recent "power 25" I can find, AARP got the top overall spot in its ranking of the most powerful lobbies. When divided by party affiliation the AARP came out on top for the Democrats and the National Federation of Independent Business for the Republicans.
Are you seriously arguing that Edwards is unable to stand up to the power of the AARP on tort reform? That he goes weak in the knees before business groups?
Posted by: Webdude | February 13, 2007 at 05:03 PM