Mike Papantonio Issues Legal Fatwa against Privatizers (and Himself)

Mike Papantonio, mass tort asbestos trial lawyer extraordinaire and part-owner-made-host of Air America Radio, made quite an argument against Social security privatization in his Thursday’s “Pap Attack” on “Unfiltered.” Well, actually he just encouraged lawsuits against groups that advocate for it. (You can hear the following exchanges at the Air America Place archives, about an hour and 25 minutes in).

Rachel Maddow, host of “Unfiltered”, speaking on the controversial ad placed by USA Next: “You know, interesting side note here is that the guys who were portrayed in that ad, the ‘Click here for the real AARP agenda,’ the soldier with the ‘X’ over him and the gay marriage. The gay marriage couple- turns out they illegally lifted that photo from the Portland Tribune and the guys who were pictured there are suing for $25 million.”

Mike Papantonio: “Well you know, and I got to tell you their chances are great. You know what I would do with this? If I were AARP I would bring a lawsuit against USA Next. This is, this is a no-brainer. It’s what they call false light. It’s, even though, they are, you know, you got some first amendment issues here, but false light, is occasion as a matter fact, the last false light case, Gannett got hit for almost for $19 million.

“Here’s what it is, Rachel. It is the issues in that ad can all be true. The two men, they can be gay. The soldier, maybe he’s a protest- whatever it is, they can be true, but when they put the issues in such a way that it puts a false light on what AARP stands for, they have a lawsuit. The lawsuit is very, very winnable. If you are AARP and you are hearing this, talk to your chapter and bring a lawsuit against USA Next. That’s the only thing these sleaze balls understand. You have to deal with them the same way they’re dealing with you. Bring a lawsuit against ‘em- false light. If you give me a call I’ll give you the name of the best lawyer in the country. He’ll do it on a contingency fee. USA Next can be shut down by suing them.”

Mike Papantonio: “Rachel, I’m telling you, it is the way to handle USA Next. It’s the only way that these neocon creeps respond. You have got to scare the hell out of them. And the way you scare ‘em is you take people like Progress for America or Club of Growth and you sue ‘em a few times when they throw out these scandal sheets, and by golly something will happen. We do, you know, it’s just the way you have to deal with them.”

A lot could be said of this exchange, but one thing stands out- It’s a little chilling to hear a mass tort asbestos trial lawyer who boasts of more than one billion dollars in settlements on his firm’s website recommend lawsuits against groups he disagrees with for whatever he might think are scandal sheets they may put out in the future.

While the USA Next ad is stupid, should USA Next be shut down for it? Should they not be able to express what they believe might be some of the motives of one of the largest lobbying groups in the country? And what damages has AARP suffered? Well, I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t try to decide this one. But if USA Next should be shut down, what should be done to super-lawyer Mike Papantonio for the light he sheds on privatizers in the following exchange with Rachel Maddow, made a mere five minutes before he issued his legal fatwa?

Mike Papantonio, speaking on Social Security privatization: “The money is all pumped into this Wall Street flytrap designed for institutional fraud. You know, Rachel, it’s the same reason that bank robbers rob banks. It’s because that’s where the money is. And these people know it. And Shrub, now, he wants to assist in that robbery by moving billions and billions of dollars into a market that’s repeatedly shown, time after time shown, it cannot be trusted.”

If he means the market can’t be trusted to earn less than a 6-7% average return per year over a lifetime after inflation, then he is correct.

Rachel Maddow: “You know Pap, we’ve been talking about that issue, about how much money is gonna move into the market with this privatization scheme for a long time, but what I don’t have a sense about is which conservative groups, which groups, which kind of Bush cronies, in other words, are gonna be benefiting directly from moving Social Security money into the market.”

Mike Papantonio: “You know, it’s not just all the usual suspects. You’ve got, you’ve got the Club of Growth, it’s entirely run by huge Wall Street donors, I mean they put 20 million dollars into the Bushie’s back pocket over the last few years. They’ve put ten million dollars immediately into this campaign to bolster Social Security and this stock scam, because it’s good for Wall Street. Then you have Progress for America. They’re owned and operated by the same kind of ilk as, you know, as Richard Mellon Scaife. They’re pumping more than $20 million of their Wall Street money into this Social Security stock market scam in hopes that Wall Street insiders can get even, even, even wealthier by having a quicker, more direct access to Mom and Pop’s life saving’s. I mean, you’ve got people like, there’s ten thousand members of these groups. I mean, you’ve got people like Charles Schwab- they have this creepy, mean, hungry look on their face while they wait like pigs at a trough for their share of Social Security payout. That’s what this is all about. You know it’s a, it’s a pathetic issue, because, it, when they get that money, the same thing’s gonna happen that happened time and time before- government’s not going to pay attention, MSNBC, CBN, ABC, none of the media is gonna pay attention, and these people are going to get scammed again.”

Rachel Maddow: “Now Mike, in your, in your work, in your law practice, you’ve been dealing with some of the people, some of the firms, but also some of the people who are getting screwed by these firms.”

Mike Papantonio: “Yeah, I represent a huge number of victims that have been victims of the great stock scandals that have occurred in the Bush years. I mean it’s unbelievable. This is, I mean the Bush years have produced incredible cases, but, and I represent that group of people, that, we like to call ‘em the Greatest Generation. I mean, they’re people who fought through World Wars, you know? They wanted to spend their golden years traveling, vacationing, playing golf. But today, Rachel, those same people who are 70 and 75 years old are working at Wendy’s flipping hamburgers, and they’re greeters at Wal-Mart, all in hopes of starting life all over again…”

What about the Social Security safety net? What if their Social Security had been earning 6-7% per year, as opposed to 2.5%?

“…And you know, much more lies ahead for future generations if these neocon Wall Street creeps get their way on Social Security. You know Wall Street, Rachel, started out hiding in the background when this issue first came up, cause they realized that Wall Street brokers are trusted just about as much as insurance defense lawyers and T.V. evangelists…”

Meaning they’re trusted a bit more than trial lawyers, and quite a bit more than mass tort asbestos trial lawyers.

“…and so they had to stay out of it. But now they’re pumping big money into it, all holds barred. It doesn’t, you know you’re following this story with AARP today. I mean, it’s all, there are no rules, because people like Richard Scrushy, Bernie Evers, uh, Ken Lay, all of these people that have paved the way for fraud in the past are now, you know, the companies are saying hey, you know, let’s take another shot at it. We got Solomon Smith Barney who’s part of it, Merril Lynch, who’s part of it, dozens of these scams that these huge brokerage houses participated in and now they’re pumping money because they want to get this Social Security money into their control.”

Mike Papantonio uses true facts, but says them in such a way and order as to shed false light on what Charles Schwab and Club for Growth, among others, stand for. He should send them the name of that lawyer he knows. I hope for his sake it’s not the same lawyer who sued in the Gannett case, who is seeking an additional $2.5 billion in punitive damages above the $18.3 million already won.

While Rachel Maddow and Mike Papantonio’s exchanges highlight the ramifications of false light lawsuits on free speech, they also highlight one of the weaknesses of the anti-privatization side- an unwillingness to, even a fear of, engaging in a real debate rather than childish insults and lawsuits. Though, admittedly, the USA Next ad in question wasn’t substantive and was childish, at least it was just their ad, not the argument. And I think it’s an exception to the generally intelligent Social Security privatization movement, which includes Cato and Club for Growth, both of which, I’m sure, would love to debate Pap, as he says, “all holds barred.”

Yeah, I represent a huge number of victims that have been victims of the great stock scandals that have occurred in the Bush years

Can anyone tell me what scandals have occurred on Bush's watch. It is my recollection that these scandals like Enron, et al. happened in the late 90's and it's the Bush Justice System that's cleaning up the crap.

I had an asbestos lawyer for a neighbor (in Madison County, IL no less) that told me they find the very dumbest people to sit on their jury. If the person has any intellect whatsoever, they disqualify them, unless of course, they are from East St Louis. East St Louis residents tend to hand out $10 Billion verdicts. So they find these people, seat the jury, then force the companies to settle because they know the jury will crucify them without hearing a single fact. These guys are lower than dirt and they laugh about it -- they know its a scam, but it's a game to them.

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