[bjc]

Nifong's behavior goes beyond crass opportunism, namely, his rejection of any exculpatory behavior, his ignoring of the lack of physical evidence and his refusal to adhere to what appears the norms governing interactions among DAs and defense attorneys. His initial grandstanding plays to your point about his political opportunism. However, more worrying is his denial of reality: AV's statement of no condoms (if true) and lab report of no Duke LAX DNA. Assuming he and his team are not complete morons, then we have to deduce that Nifong is trying to manipulate reality through his power, his denial of the obvious and his gross misrepresentations.

As to self-hating, I think the behavior is more likely to be narcissistic - self-loving - a la John Kerry.

I would definitely bet that not all the relevant items were handed over to the defense. Watch for a number of key missing items. I hope the defense has a good list of what should have been in that packet. I guess I am assuming that there is nothing damning in the evidence Nifong released to the defense.

[JLS]

As to self-hating, I think the behavior is more likely to be narcissistic - self-loving - a la John Kerry.

I would not disagree but am not sure there is a conflict. The one who hates his own group, white males in the case of Nifong and Americans in general in the case of Kerry often views themselves as a special enlightened exception.

It will be interesting to see if Nifong has fudged on the discovery. Even if he has, I doubt there will be anything damning in what he turned over or did not turn over. There just seems to be no supporting evidence for these charges. That makes me wonder if Nifong is a member of the crowd that believes, "the woman said she was raped, thus she was raped" and that is why he did not want to see the evidence and why he thinks no other evidence matters.