My good pal Mickey Sherman has a new book out this week, How Can You Defend Those People?

Mickey is not only a great lawyer, he's a very funny guy. The book is eminently readable and entertaining, while at the same time, it offers us glimpses into the criminal justice system from the defense lawyer's point of view.

ABC is excerpting some chapters. My favorite (because I'm in it) is Chapter 4, " Are There Cases or Clients You Won't Take?"

Mickey interviewed some of the best lawyers in the country for the chapter (and me, because we're friends.)

While a few named crimes that they thought were particularly heinous, others (and I'm in this category) listed crimes that we thought we'd bring personal baggage to that might preclude us from providing our best representation which we know the client is entitled to and which we would want to provide.

Here's our answers:

For all those calling for Hillary to drop out of the race, here's an all-female version of "You Ain't Going Nowhere" performed by Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter & Rosanne Cash at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary concert, with an introduction by Johnny Cash.

If you prefer the Byrd's version (and I confess I do) here's Roger McGuinn (with actor Steve Martin on banjo)

And yes, it's another open thread. For starters, I highly recommend Clinton campaign Internet Director Peter Daou's Pundits v. Reality.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

I think I have been clear that I believe Barack Obama will be the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. If he is, I hope all Democrats will support him. But I have no doubt now that the biggest obstacle to Obama's being able to unify the Democratic Party is likely to be the behavior of Obama blogs, Obama radio talk show hosts, the Obama network (NBC), Obama supporters and the Obama campaign itself. The contempt shown for Hillary Clinton supporters has been appalling. Russ Feingold has some advice for these folks:

"I'll tell some of the (Barack) Obama supporters here today: Cool it," Feingold, D-Middleton, said Wednesday to a group of about 50 people at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County. "Take it a little easy."

Feingold, like me, is a tepid Obama supporter. His advice is sound. Will Obama fans take it to heart? I doubt it frankly.

Update (TL): Comments now closed.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Nothing demonstrates to me more how divisive and harmful the drive of some Obama supporters to end this race can be than this from Mike Lux (see also Tom Watson on a similar issue)

What those remaining undeclared folks are telling me in private, though, is that they hope the race will play itself out and Obama will emerge as the clear winner so that they don't have to piss the Clintons and their machine off. . . . I am encouraging my friends to come out of their political closet. If all the superdelegates and other influential friends that I have talked to who believe that the best path for the party is for Obama to win a clear victory would come out in is favor, this thing really would be over.

(Emphasis supplied.) Lux does not even make sense from one graf to the next. The remaining undeclared delegates told him something very sigificant and he is too obtuse to understand it -- they want "the race [to] play itself out and Obama [to] emerge as the clear winner." That means they want Obama to win it with VOTERS, not super delegates. Lux's contempt for Clinton VOTERS (over 13,000,000 of them so far) is exactly the attitude exhibited by the Obama blogs, Obama endorsers (see Leahy and Dodd), the Obama network (NBC) and the Obama campaign itself. Keep this up much longer, and both Obama and Clinton may soon be unelectable in November.

NOTE - Comments closed.

Good for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who has written an advisory opinion (available here (pdf))informing the District Attorney who wanted Gov. Paterson to release documents and communications provided by Eliot Spitzer that Paterson cannot do so -- they are covered by grand jury secrecy.

In response to a request for advice from the Governor's office, Cuomo writes:

You have asked for advice concerning District Attorney P. David Soares’ request, dated March 24, 2008, that Governor David A. Paterson grant a waiver of grand jury secrecy and all applicable privileges with respect to certain documents provided to the District Attorney’s office by former Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Shorter version: Governor Paterson does not have he power to waive Grand Jury secrecy or legal privileges reserved by Spitzer.

The New York Times has the backstory: [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Jeralyn and I are on record as thinking highly of Chuck Todd of NBC. Even when his analysis was not what Jeralyn wants to hear. Obama supporters across the blogs have also given much praise to Todd. They won't praise, via Todd Beeton, this Todd post:

Obama can no longer argue that when compared with Clinton he will expand the electoral map in a general election with McCain. Now he can simply say he will use a different map; a map that ultimately might expand for the party as a whole, even if his path to 270 is no less narrow a victory than Clinton's. It is just different.

. . . The party ought to lay off the calls for Clinton to drop out, at least for now, because her presence at worst is making Obama a better candidate. The Wright flare-up was the first true political crisis of Obama's national political career, which is remarkable given how close he is to being the Democratic nominee. Who knows when the Wright controversy would have circulated had the nomination been locked up.

No you won't see that post featured at daily kos or Talking Points Memo. Chuck Todd became a little less astute to them today.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter:

Dear [XXX],

Here's what you and I can't let happen. We can't allow the tension and pressures of a spirited Presidential contest to spill over and harm hard-working Democratic candidates running to strengthen our Democratic majority in the House.

I will do whatever it takes to protect our candidates and make sure their campaigns to drive change forward don't skip a beat. . .

Here's what Pelosi needs to do - STOP TALKING ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE!! Think you can manage that Madame Speaker?

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

Eric Boehlert has the details:

How dreadful was the news coverage last week surrounding the official release of Hillary Clinton's public White House schedule from her eight years as first lady? So bad that I found myself in rare (unprecedented?) agreement with at least two prominent conservative bloggers who noticed the same thing I did: The Beltway press corps is, at times, a national embarrassment.

. . . Surveying the news coverage, conservative blogger Rick Moran posed the same question I had last week, "Do we really need to know where Hillary was when Monica Lewinsky was with her husband? Or where she was when Vince Foster committed suicide? ... And does it deserve this feeding frenzy from the media?"

Only a virulently anti-Hillary site (I am looking at TPM on this) could deny this obvious fact. Yes, Josh Marshall has denied that Clinton has gotten unfavorable Media treatment. I kid you not.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

This post proves it. Doing a mashup attack video used to be something reserved for Republicans from Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo. By doing an attack video on Hillary Clinton, TPM demonstrates that not only has it become an Obama site, it is one of the most virulent and unfair of such sites. The honesty is good. After all, like Nancy Pelosi, we all knew this. What was lacking was the candor to admit it. With his latest tactics, Marshall has ostensibly admitted what we all knew anyway. Pelosi should follow suit.

Now if only NBC will admit the same.

There's no need to go off topic in other posts. Here's a thread where you can pick the topics.

Please stay civil, and all other comment rules apply.

Update: Comments now closed.

The University of Chicago has issued this statement about whether Barack Obama was a professor. Shorter version: Once Obama advanced to the position of "senior lecturer in law" from "lecturer in law," he was considered on a par with professors.

From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year.

Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School's Senior Lecturers have high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching.

Jerome Armstrong at MyDD explains why Hillary Clinton has some lifelines open to her in terms of the pledged delegate count and the upcoming ten races.

First, in Hillary's Own words, watch the video:

As Jerome says, Hillary sounds ready to go to the mat over Florida and Michigan. But,there's other options open to her as well. Jerome writes: [More...]