UPDATE: Trail lawyers to support....Joe Biden?
According to this Washington Post story, the trial lawyers are abandoning John Edwards for...dum-Dum-DU-U-U-U-U-M, Joe Biden!!! Oh, my.
In the last presidential election, John Edwards had the powerful support and deep pockets of the nation's trial lawyers behind him. But when the lawyers gather for their winter conference today in Miami Beach, it will be Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) delivering the meeting's keynote speech.
Edwards, a trial lawyer who became a senator and now a presidential candidate, will be there, too. But the North Carolina Democrat no longer has a lock on the backing of the lawyers. This time around he will be battling it out with others in the Democratic field, who are seen as sympathetic to plaintiffs and their attorneys.
"John is certainly respected by every trial lawyer in the country," said Joseph W. Cotchett, a lawyer from the San Francisco area who helped raise more than $33,000 for Edwards in the 2004 cycle. "Many people though are looking at the bigger picture here."
So, let's get this right, trial lawyers are giving up their support for John Edwards, in order to support Joe Biden. This Joe Biden?
'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy'...' Senator Joe Biden, on well spoken negro Barack Obama
"Delaware, he noted, was a "slave state that fought beside the North. That's only because we couldn't figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way."
"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."
And, why would they throw their support from one of their own to Joe Biden?
But others, such as Todd Smith, a Chicago trial lawyer, say they are looking around. Smith's firm raised more than $12,000 for Edwards and donated $50,000 to his leadership committee in 2004. But Smith said he simply cannot ignore the work Biden has done on the Senate Judiciary Committee to fight proposals that aimed to shield health-care providers and other businesses from legal liability.
"Because of that long-standing, clear, unwavering approach, he's deserving of support," Smith said.
Well, isn't that nice. There is a match made in heaven wouldn't you think? John Edwards is losing the support of those trial lawyers who prefer a racist, bigot that "shield"s them from legal liability. Perhaps if we separate the giving lists of trial lawyers who give to Edwards and Biden we can identify the "good" and "bad" ones. This might be a unique opportunity.
UPDATE:
Here's another take on trial lawyers.
The core of Edwards' financial support has been a national network of trial lawyers who helped him raise $33 million for the 2004 election. Interviews with several past Edwards fundraisers suggest that the trial lawyers are sticking with him.
"I think he will have a much easier time raising money this time," said Pete Strom, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor from Columbia, S.C. "I think people who supported Senator Edwards last time are even more comfortable with him this election cycle. It is the collective wisdom that he has thoroughly prepared himself for this race this year."
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The big picture
Is that the one where Biden is fourth or fifth amongst SENATORS?
Draft Brad Miller -- NC Sen ActBlue :::Petition
Sounds like MSM buillshit
. . . some reporter grinding axes, stirring up a swirl of nothing that matters to anyone outside the beltway bandits.
You know...
the story sounds very familiar. I'll have to look for it, but I think he published this already and just pulled it out again because the convention was this weekend.
Where are the candidates?
With All Due Respect
Joe Biden is not a racist. Say what you want about his politics. Say he's got a bad plan for Iraq (he does). Say he's prone to verbal gaffes (he most certainly is). Say that you're upset that he's pulling financial support away from Edwards (I don't think it'll be that significant). If you want to say all those things, that's fine...but don't say he's racist because he's not.
Biden has a strong civil rights record and boasts strong ratings with NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. He was one of the first candidates of the 2008 cycle to go to South Carolina and talked about the flying of the Confederate flag there. He's a lot of things, but a racist certainly isn't one of them.
"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country." - Robert F. Kennedy
Agreed
Joe Biden is not a racist. He simply says what he thinks, often without finesse, and doesn't pull his punches. I admire that . . . maybe because I do it myself.
When I was in public life, people used to accuse me of being racist because I call bullshit on dancing around political correctness. But if you ask my friends and co-workers who are black, they'd push back on that criticism pretty hard. I think that's how it is with Biden.
I like the guy but don't want to see him as president. He's too sold out to the banking industry for my tastes . . . sort of like Burr and tobacco.
Okay, Joe Biden is not a racist...
he just plays one on TV. Votes are calculations, quotes are spontaneous windows to the soul.
Where are the candidates?
Damn. I broke my own rule again
Every time I have waded into presidential politics over the past few months, I've regretted it. If I do it again, please remind me to butt out?
(I actually think I've learned my lesson, so it shouldn't be necessary so smack me too often.)
I know.
I probably shouldn't have posted this, I really meant it as a little more snarky, but it was late and I was up the night before with a vomiting child, so it didn't really come out so funny. Odd, huh?
: )
Where are the candidates?
I thought it was fine.
And spurred some interesting conversations. I'm talking more about what I see at Kos, which is one flame war after another. I find myself avoiding that place more and more because of all the heat around the presidential races.
No worries. This was good and interesting.
Is it OK if I just smack you around
for the helluvit then?
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
Why not?
Everyone else does!
:)
Biden isn't the Catholic Edwards should be scared of
Also, Delaware did try to get into the Confederacy, so it was a historically accurate comment. Not a racist joke. The Indian thing was, admittedly, dumb.
And I think Biden's plan is more realistic than the overly optimistic non-plans being presented by other Democrats. Some of these withdraw plans are almost as absurd as the "we'll be treated as liberators" plan. And don't forget that while Biden was trying to push a far superior Iraq War Resolution, Edwards joined Lieberman in co-sponsoring the disasterous Hastert version.
But there are better uses of our time than dem-on-dem crime.
Although there is no way you would know it...
based on what I wrote, I was actually making a value judgement about the trial lawyers that would support someone best known for making "racist-sounding" comments. I honestly should have put snark in the tags, I think people took this too seriously.
Where are the candidates?
He's better known for making "Bork" a verb
;-)
DE is an anomaly
DE politics are, to put it delicately, different. It's a tiny state and politicians of every stripe are routinely re-elected no matter how bad they are. Biden could support invading MD, NJ, and PA and he'd still win with 70% of the vote.
His national support is minuscule, and he and his foot-in-mouth will be history after the second round of primaries (assuming he even makes it past NH).
[Edited: I should point out that I lived there from 1990 to 2005.]
Not to make too fine a point of it, but
the trial lawyers are not saying they like Biden because he shields them from liability.
R: "John Edwards is losing the support of those trial lawyers who prefer a racist, bigot that "shield"s them from legal liability."
What they said they appreciate is Biden's work in opposition to legislation that aimed to shield health-care providers and other businesses from legal liability. I have no doubt Edwards also opposes that kind of legislation; unfortunately, he has not been in the Senate the last couple of years.
You're right.
I meant, of course, that they he was blocking laws that would shield health-care providers and corporations from legal liability.
Thanks for the interpretation.
Where are the candidates?
I knew
that's what you meant, it just sounded like it came out wrong. ;o)