WSJ: Mr. Spitzer's Allies -- Politicians and the trial bar share a common anti-business interest.

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 15, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

...The Spitzer complaint also inspired a flood of new lawsuits within days of his going public, including a class action suit from the king of trial lawyers, Bill Lerach -- this one against insurers. Mr. Lerach's firm was rewarded for its pluck when Mr. Garamendi (who is himself eyeing the California governorship) hired it to pursue any state claims against the industry....

We want to be clear that we aren't alleging formal collusion among these parties. But regardless of motive and communication, there certainly is a clear community of interest at work: Trial lawyers target an industry; politicians later get media kudos for pursuing said industry; lawyers, in turn, find their original cases bolstered in court. The targeted industry, meanwhile, has every incentive to settle the cases to limit its headline risk and put the matter behind it -- never mind that most of the practices in question have been, and still are, perfectly legal.

The lawyers and politicians certainly do well, but about the broader society we have our doubts. The legislators or appointed regulators chosen by voters to make these public policy decisions are made irrelevant by Mr. Spitzer's legal force majeure. The companies involved pay a huge ransom to the trial bar, while shareholders watch the value of their holdings plummet, employees lose their jobs, or consumers pay more for goods and services once companies are forced to pay billions of dollars in settlements.

One way of fixing some of this is the tort reform President Bush has said he wants passed in his new term. But another is simply for the public, and especially the press corps, to begin asking who really benefits from these anti-corporate assaults.

[ProudVet77]

Blue states are pretty much trial lawyer states.

[Zon]

Criminals Guarding The Cell Block 
Expand Their Reach to Hold All Americans Hostage

Ask your self or any person this question: How honest are politicians --  knowing that most members of congress are also lawyers -- on a scale of one to ten -- 10 being the best, your spouse, children or parents, and 1 being the worst, Saddam Hussein, Castro etc -- in regards to being honest and having integrity what number would you give to politicians?

It's imperative that high ranking public servants -- those that wield the power of federal and state governments -- are of utmost integrity. Frankly, the majority of high ranking politicians and bureaucrats are at the low end of the integrity scale.  

Consider the level of harm a petty criminal does when he robs a car stereo or pick-pockets a person's wallet. One victim will be out a few hundred dollars and the inconvenience of having to report their credit cards and some personal information stolen.. The petty thief may rob one person a day. In their lifetime as a "career" thief they may rob five-thousand people.

Whereas politicians and bureaucrats defraud  millions of people in one fell swoop. Doing that dozens of times each year. With that magnitude of potentially destructive power it is obvious that the primary job qualification for high ranking public officials is unequivocal, exemplar integrity.

The high degree of pandering, class warfare and  deception demonstrated by government officials is appalling considering that the job qualifications call for zero dishonesty.