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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (99311)	12/3/2000 10:45:06 AM
From: Techplayer	Respond to of 769670

Ken, you sound very sure of yourself. tp

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (99311)	12/3/2000 10:47:51 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Some insight into Boies' motivation and character 12/02/00 10:30 a.m. Betting on Boies Gore has met his match. By David B. Hill, director of Hill Research Consultants, a political polling and strategy firm based in Texas. AUTHOR’S NOTE: Among Hill's recent clients are Michigan Gov. John Engler, Indiana congressman Steve Buyer, and the successful campaign to defeat the statewide anti-growth amendment in Colorado. Al Gore has spent the better part of the 2000 Campaign claiming to champion the cause of victims. Ironically, his unprecedented effort to litigate his way to victory is likely to seal his reputation as one of the greatest victims of trial-lawyer manipulation in American political and legal history. David Boies, omnipresent defender of the vice president's risky post-election vote-counting scheme, has an agenda much more self-serving than Gore himself may recognize. As a former Kennedy staffer, voting-rights activist, and longtime Democrat loyalist and contributor, Boies is likely seen by Gore as a brainy, Microsoft-busting legal eagle, who has brought his skills to the table to serve high moral purposes. Yet the unquestioned legal genius Boies possesses must surely inform him that Gore's prospects in the courtroom are much lower than the 50-50 odds the Democrat candidate laid on himself during a Today show interview Wednesday. Why does Boies continue to encourage Gore to keep bidding away his reputation in this high-stakes electoral crapshoot? It's possible he's simply an idealistic liberal who has been blinded by partisanship to the reality of the situation. But a closer scrutiny of his career suggests that David Boies is seldom blinded by any emotions--except perhaps for greed and the thrill of courtroom manipulations. To understand Boies' real motivation in urging Gore forward, you have to understand his business plan. In just over three years, he has managed to build a powerhouse litigation machine that has harvested previously unimagined wealth. A 30-year veteran of a respected Wall Street law firm, in 1997 Boies walked away from his annual $2 million-plus dollar partnership to hunt even more lucrative courtroom game. Like most self-promoting trial lawyers, Boies has taken low-paying, but high-profile cases to attract notoriety. The Microsoft case — where much was made about his willingness to accept minimal government wages — is a classic example. What too few people seem to appreciate is that every minute of face-time Boies spends humiliating the world's richest man (or Katherine Harris) on national television brings him one step closer to establishing himself as the "Johnnie Cochran of Torts"--and thus perfectly positioned to bag countless big money cases back at the home office. How much is enough? His house is already so big that his wife once lost one of their kids in it; their temperature-controlled basement is home to a 5,000-bottle wine collection worth more than $1 million dollars. Yet Boies continues to pursue mammoth lawsuits — targeting banks, casinos, health insurers, Hollywood agents, and video-poker game manufacturers. Still not satisfied? Try this clever way to bequeath vast sums of wealth to your heirs without paying federal estate taxes — all four adult children from Boies' two previous marriages are lawyers, and three of them have joined his firm — thus benefiting royally from the downpour of dollars generated by their rainmaker dad. Even if Boies knows the odds for Gore's success in legal challenges are 20 percent or less, he keeps forging ahead. And why not? As a self-acknowledged fan of Las Vegas gambling he's getting better odds in the swamps of Florida than he could ever get in the Nevada desert. Besides, every trial lawyer — not just Boies — has an enormous stake in de-legitimizing a Bush presidency. The governor's reputation on tort reform in Texas is legend, and he'll likely champion and sign much-needed reforms of product liability and medical malpractice law that have long been stymied by the Clinton administration. The real question that remains is why a world-wise politician like Al Gore can't see how he is being used and manipulated for someone else's gain. Doesn't he realize that Boies will be more famous, and in even greater demand regardless of the outcome — while Gore himself will go down in history as a litigious spoilsport and loser? This is where you have to really look closely at Boies to understand what is happening. He is the master of deception. He wears cheap suits bought at Sears and black tennis shoes to convey that he is just plain folk. He uses simple words and refers to his supposed dyslexia to lower the guard of his prey. The vice president has met his match--a con man who can con another con man. It's bad enough to lose a close presidential election. Imagine how it's going to hurt when Al Gore feels the slap of recognition that David Boies took him for an easy mark. nationalreview.com