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1/5/2009
Monday morning
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| While money from trial lawyers has gone to all kinds of Democratic committees,
the lawyers have made it clear that their No. 1 target was Mr. Bush. Last
month, Mr. Bush issued a five-point plan to curb frivolous lawsuits and said
he wanted to expand nationwide efforts that he had pushed in Texas that he said
had saved Texas businesses $3 billion by reducing civil litigation. |
| In addition to soft money donations, which could be given to political parties
in unlimited amounts, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Political
Action Committee has already made $658,000 in donations directly to individual
Democratic candidates and to party committees. This political action committee,
with its own fund-raising now in full swing, has been one of the largest in
each campaign cycle -- in the 1996 election it raised $5.1 million. |
| Moreover, with the lawyers fees in the tobacco settlement running into the
hundreds of millions, even billions, many of those trial lawyers have had a lot
more to donate this election cycle. More than a half-dozen law firms involved
in the tobacco settlement have each given the Democratic Party more than
$100,000 in the unlimited, unregulated donations known as soft money, some
writing checks as large as $400,000. |
| We dont have the kind of target operation that trial lawyers do, said Victor
Schwartz, general counsel of the American Tort Reform Association, a Washington
lobbying group. When business makes donations, they do to those who support a
whole multiplicity of issues. Our members are not single issue people. |
| 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. |
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