Illusions

The Pensacola Beach Blog has put together a nice post about the situation in surrounding Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, Mississippi Blinding, cautioning people not to jump to conclusions.

There are a lot of people who have a lot of negative things to say about Dickie Scruggs and his law practice. Most have lost to him big time and don’t like it. One of the things no one has ever accused him of, is being stupid.

The claim is that, through another attorney, Dickie tried to bribe a judge in a case involving over $12 million in attorney’s fees and expenses. Some have claimed that Dickie’s brother-in-law, Trent Lott, resigned from the Senate over this matter, and that might be partially true, but not for the reason people assume.

Attorney Scruggs makes good money, but even to him $12 million is a lot of money, so why hire another firm to handle this? Well, there is always the saw about an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client, but there are other reasons. His team is in the middle of a major case against the insurance companies over their conduct in settling the claims of policy holders after Katrina, so he’s really busy at the moment. Another point is that with this much money involved this case will be appealed no matter which way the trial court decides. Knowing there will be an appeal, even if he wins in the trial court, why bribe the judge?

It is possible that Lott saw what was about to happen, and just decided he didn’t want to play the corrupt political game that has been the Hedgemony. As Chuck Hagel said yesterday during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York: “This is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen personally or ever read about.”