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1/4/2009
Sunday morning
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| To trial lawyers, especially those involved in the tobacco litigation, Mr. Bush
has become their worst nightmare. He has made attacks on lawyers a campaign
centerpiece, pointing with pride to his record in Texas of curbing civil
litigation, capping legal fees and limiting jury awards. |
| And money is what it is all about. When it comes to political action,
corporate America was the pioneer in spending money on campaigns, said Stanley
M. Chesley, a Cincinnati lawyer whose firm gave the Democrats $122,500. They
make trial lawyers look like Mickey Mouse. So trial lawyers are attempting not
only to catch up, but to be a copy cat. If Bush can raise $70 million, the
question is, How can you compete? And there is only one way and that is to
raise that kind of money. |
| To that end, while trial lawyers have long been heavy Democratic Party donors,
the prospect of a Bush candidacy, along with the possibility that like-minded
Republicans would retain control of Congress, has ratcheted up the stakes, and
the donations. |
| Mr. Bushs $70 million campaign war chest was financed, in large part, with
donations from rich individuals and corporate interests, the same interests
that trial lawyers have challenged in court. As a result, a financial version
of the arms race has broken out. The more the Bush campaign and the Republican
Party in general raised from business, the more trial lawyers said they must
raise, and vice versa. |
| If you had Bush in the White House and a Republican House, bingo, tort reform
would go to the top of the agenda, Mr. Makinson said. And the tobacco
settlement has been the pot of gold that has enabled trial lawyers to suddenly
have lots of capital behind them. |
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