It seems that the appointment of Edwards to the Kerry ticket has now given me the “Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t” attitude towards voting this year. More specifically, they’ve assured that Joe Citizen is likely to get screwed regardless of who gains the house.
What am I bitching about today? Edwards background as a trial lawyer and his record of voting against any kind of Tort reform what-so-ever is going to ensure that we will see no end to the petty lawsuits and million dollar bandaids issued any time soon. M_k has us laughing at the parody, but who knows what can happen next. Edwards is most assuredly backed by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Political Action Committee (ATLA PAC). Easily one of the biggest PACs in the US today, they’ve raised over $1.1 million dollars already this year for lobbying and lining candidates pockets (FEC filings). And noted for giving out over $2 million in contributions in a single year. According to their own website, they have contributed more than $470 million since 1990. Their top donars are big-time personal injury lawyers, etc. And according to their own website:
Epitomizing Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s drive for political influence is the career of U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC), a former personal-injury lawyer. Campaigning for the Senate in 1998, Edwards received more than half his total outside contributions from his friends in the lawsuit industry. Edwards has in turn enthusiastically supported key provisions backed by Trial Lawyers, Inc., including helping to defeat proposed limitations on personal-injury lawsuits in the event of a terrorist attack and seeking to make it easier to sue health maintenance organizations.
Now I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but capping non-economic damages in pain and injury suits is critical. The million dollar bandaid must go away. I don’t know that we can put this off another 4 to 8 years while the Trial Lawyers “Poster Child” enjoys such influence.
So we’ve got Liberty standing here with her scales… On one side we have our Tort Reform – without which honest Americans end up paying the price for others who can’t take responsibility for their own actions, and have to sue you because your hot coffee was too hot. On the other side, we have Abortion Rights, Stem-cell Research, and Gay Marriage.
I’m glad I still have a few months to figure this out, because I thought that nothing could be worse than proceeding down our current path… yet now I’m not so sure. I wonder what will happen next week to tip the scales.
