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: Outside Counsel

By Bill Altreuter

John Edwards is not useless, and I believe he is well-intentioned. He's not helping, though, and someone should tell him that. When Edwards was a trial lawyer he worked to secure justice for people who had been injured through the carelessness of others. You can believe what you like about our tort system, but it is the only mechanism we have in the US for taking care of that sort of thing, and until we develop an neo-liberal welfare alternative the work Edwards did is going to be important. He was a mostly right-thinking US Senator, too, and if he was pretty much useless as a VP candidate, well, that is regrettable. He said the right things as a Presidential candidate, but it wasn't his time. Come to find out we dodged a bullet, because his poor judgment in his personal life would have sunk his campaign-- or his Presidency, if he'd managed to keep it on the quiet a bit longer. Problem is, having now been in the spotlight he apparently can't think of any other way to advance the cause of social justice apart from endeavoring to personify it. The cause is an important one; I'll give Edwards credit for recognizing that. It deserves an advocate who appears motivated by something other than self-aggrandizement. Edwards should find an existing organization that is working on this issue-- there is no shortage of them-- and start getting busy behind the scene to support that organization. His money and his Rolodex are worth more to the cause than his persona.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).