The MIssing P Project, taking back Resident Bush’s stolen P before it gets stuck on his lie-berry

http://www.geocities.com/themissingPproject

Comment by I-RIGHT-I —

It’s WhiteHouse.Org who is selling the Tom DeLay mugshoot T-shirts – it’s a division of the same satirical organization that LandoverBaptistChurch.org is operating under. And yes, they’re liberal and they’re funny as hell, too, if a little bawdy…hehehe.

Comment by NancyKay — October 22, 2005

They are not partisan at all. They are a parody site and had penty of fun with the Clintons. They have a healthy mistrust of all pols and even the church.

DeGuerin’s statement really did precipitate a storm, and deservedly so. Could this be a cause for his client to fire him?

Anyway, the attack ads I heard were being aired in Austin could just as easily be reworked as parody, with Ken Starr’s image & case superimposed, elsewhere. Sort of a “so, THERE” response. Of course, the stations that would air the anti-Earle (whom, I’ve heard, has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans & is highly principled), probably wouldn’t touch ads making that point.

I hope that DeLay’s karma has finally caught up with him, and that he finally goes DOWN, like a ton of bricks.

Dick DeGuerin defended David Corish. You know the whole ATF/Waco Texas thing?

Another is a duty to make a reasonable investigation of the facts underlying a case or controversy, which is quite recent–it only came into being a couple of years ago. That means I can’t just take my client’s word for something–I have to at least check out enough of it to know it’s not bogus. So I could not make a statement like DeGuerin made in his Motion, then claim that my client told it to me and I didn’t bother to see if it was correct without expecting some kind of sanction (or at least, without expecting to look like a complete idiot).

Yep, I’m an attorney–and I find Dick DeGuerin pathetic. If he outright lied, he should be sanctioned. If he just parroted what DeLay told him without checking, he’s dumber than a doorknob. A good lawyer would *never* accept a statement like that from a client without checking to see if it’s true–because clients will lie. They especially will lie to try and save their asses. That’s plain human nature. But it’s not my job to facilitate my client’s lies. I worked too hard and too long to get my license to throw it away for some bozo who wants me to lie in court.

Of course, violations of these Rules are merely “ethical violations;” to actually get your license yanked in PA you have to pretty much embezzle money from clients, show up drunk to court more than once, or piss off the wrong politically-connected individual. Otherwise, the Rules are hardly observed. Still, I don’t know any credible practitioners who would put statements in a Motion for Recusal without verifying them thoroughly. That’s just asking for trouble.

Trial judges up here have a pretty broad latitude in governing their courtrooms and the proceedings before them. Pissing off the judge is Not A Good Idea ™.

Someone asked about perjury–perjury involves lying under oath during testimony. Lawyers don’t testify in court (unless we’re appearing as witnesses, and here in PA we can’t serve as both attorney trying a case and witness). As for libel and slander, in PA statements made by attorneys during the course of court proceedings are “absolutely privileged”–meaning that we can’t be sued for libel or slander on the basis of what we say *in court*. What we say to the press is another matter, though.

As far as the use of the word “misspoke”–please. Trial lawyers make their living by wordsmithing and eloquence. Getting one word of a sentence wrong might qualify as “misspeaking”–making a blatantly false statement is something else entirely.

Just the fun and games for tonight. Enjoy.