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One of my first thoughts as news of Dickie Scruggs’s sentence broke yesterday was, “I wonder how Judge Lackey’s doing today.” Happily, Paul Quinn was able to find out:

Circuit Judge Henry Lackey learned from a friend’s cell phone call Friday what punishment Dickie Scruggs had received for conspiring to bribe him.

“It was relief that this chapter of my life is over,” Lackey said. “Yet, I felt pangs of embarrassment for our state, and embarrassment for our profession.”

Well, Your Honor, since you proved the touchstone for the profession here, I hope those pangs were fleeting. For you, they should be.

Not so for Jim Hood, though, who told Paul:

“It’s a sad day for the judicial system of our state,” said state Attorney General Jim Hood, among those who have benefitted in campaign contributions from Scruggs. “No one wins in such situations, but by these sentences and the earlier convictions, justice has been served. Hopefully, our system has been strengthened, not weakened, and we can move forward to better serve the citizens of Mississippi.”

Sheesh. A sad day for the sentenced and those who love and/or depend on them, yes — but for the judicial system, yesterday brought a cleansing and a restoration (if only the first of many needed). Nobody wins? Who’s this Nobody, Brother Hood? We who depend on the rule of law? Your personal system has surely been weakened — and to the extent it ever had anything to do with standing up for the Little against the Big, yes, that hurts. But by now, some of us are pretty dubious that that was ever its true business.

Charlie Merkel spoke, as is his wont, more sensibly:

Charlie Merkel of Clarksdale, the attorney for Scruggs’ former law partners in lawsuits against Scruggs, said, “The judicial system made an eloquent statement” about what Scruggs did.

Merkel was among those in court when Scruggs was sentenced. He has been fighting Scruggs for 14 years, first representing Alwyn Luckey and now Bob Wilson in a dispute over attorney fees from asbestos litigation.

“Really, any personal feelings or opinion I had couldn’t do anything but detract from what (U.S. District Judge Neal) Biggers said,” Merkel said.

Another touch of class. But since I’m alternating between goods and bads, now it’s time to point out where Jerry Mitchell found Mike Moore:

After the hearing, Moore remarked, “This is tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. Unfortunately, there’s nothing good that comes of this.”

According to Confounded (though I’ve been unable to locate this online), on WLBT “Mike Moore contradicted Biggers and said this was just one isolated incident. Nothing good could come of all this (referring to the sentence I presume).”

What to make of Mike Moore? Does he still think all this criminality made good sense and effective policy? ”Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy” got concocted inside Scruggs Law Firm and, having scarred and stained countless innocents’ lives for years, finally returned to it. If Mike Moore thinks putting a stop to that was “nothing good” . . . well, what do we make of him?

How I’d love it if some reporter/photographer could have snagged Tim Balducci’s, Steve Patterson’s, Joey Langston’s, Ed Peters’, Bobby DeLaughter’s, P.L. Blake’s, Trent Lott’s, and a few others’ reactions as they received the news (more than one person emailed me, “I hope DeLaughter’s reading the blog today”) — but alas, no.

Finally, whether that gang numbered among them I can’t confirm, but our head techie reports that folo had 4,758 different visitors and 42,877 page views yesterday, and the server didn’t blink. Can we say W00T?!