. . . who might he talk about? We’ve got plenty of immediate guesses, of course: Ed Peters and Bobby DeLaughter, Trent Lott, P.L. Blake, Mike Moore, maybe Breland Hilburn, Don Barrett, David Nutt, Jim Hood . . . buncha Mississippi heads lying uneasy these nights. But if, as seems entirely plausible, the network the Feds are tracking goes back at least to tobacco . . . well, Mississippi could be just the jumping-off point.
I don’t know a thing about what or who they’ve got in view. But it’s always intrigued me no end that this crowd is close to — and very financially supportive of — a particular set of other states’ U.S. Senators. Why are they so high on Delaware’s Joe Biden, Arizona’s John McCain, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Washington’s Maria Cantwell? (In Joey Langston’s case, add Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham.)
Maybe they just like certain Senators’ personalities or something? Could be. But I look at all this campaign largesse and can’t help wondering what’s been in it for the donors . . .
You know?
(h/t M)
The tobacco settlement was not a criminal conspiracy. It was a legitimate mass settlement with huge public health and public policy ramifications, so both sides used political influence to gain negotiating leverage. Then the final deal had to be politically acceptible to be implimented. Scruggs did not invent this strategy. He just copied the tactics of the other side.
I’m leaving town for the week, so I’d like to jump in so I don’t miss any interesting discussions.
“The tobacco settlement was not a criminal conspiracy. ”
Maybe. And maybe not. IMO, and that of many others, the truth of what you assert is at least in doubt at this point.
My sense of it is that if enough digging occurs, we will find some corruption on both sides of the deal — a deal that lined a lot of pockets — and ulitimately benefitted the tobacco companies as much as the payees due to eliminating the perpetual future risk of lawsuits. Anytime there is THAT much money being thrown around, you can count on some monkey business.
Lotus, my guess about the ties to these particular politicians you mentioned would be that PL Blake and Trent are the keys to unlock these mysteries. And it very well may just simply be that these were key politicians on both sides who were picked to try to gain their support for the deal (with some campaign contributions helping in this regard) and asking them to help solicit the support of others in Congress. This is the way Washington has worked for eons, and still does. And no one appears really interested in cleaning it up.
Researcher, I’m not suggesting the tobacco settlement was a criminal conspiracy — though I must say the more I read about it, the creepier it sounds. I just want to know how Senators from so far away attracted the loyaltie$ they have in this gang.
Have a grand time, ceece!
Just a coupla straws to blow in the wind.
I think Biden shows up in the Luckey transcript. Didn’t go look, but was told that. Supposedly Scruggs’ tobacco money books show a bunch of moolah going to a Biden relative back around 1999-2000.
That would be when Scruggs wanted to put as much glue and tape on the seams of the settlement as possible. Heck, he went on to give millions to Grover Norquist.
Biden’s son beau is attorney general of Delaware. Those guys make good family friends.
What if he says “now that I understand earwigging (with and without sweet potatoes) to be a crime I can give you a dozen more judges”?
Very helpful, isnb — thanks!
3dS, if that’s what he’s got to tell, I want him to tell it, is what. Toot sweet.
Researcher, the tobacco settlement may not have been a criminal conspiracy at its beginning, but I think that it might have been at its end. P. L. Blake’s activity is one big tip-off. Many think that P. L. paid out bribes—I’m sure without Dickie Scruggs’ knowledge, of course.
Although Trent Lott was forced to step down the same week Scruggs’s office was raided by the Feds, I still find it annoying how he seems to be truly untouchable. If Lott had a Forensic Accountant re-assigned so that Dick could escape prosecution, if Lott badgered U.S. Attorneys in N. Alabama to protect Dick once again, and if Lott knew that his phone call to Bobby Delaughter was designed to improperly influence the judge so that Dick could enjoy more millions (while forcing party opponent into bankruptcy and near prosecution for failing to pay taxes), then shouldn’t he be prosecuted? Just stepping down isn’t good enough….
The hammer may yet drop on ol’ Trent unless he worked out some sort of deal prior to stepping down, Federati. I believe it’s been mentioned here that he’s had a couple of interviews with the FBI, and describes himself as a “witness” in the DeLaughter matter.
He certainly was a popular figure at lunch at the Country Club of Jackson this past Sunday. All manner of people came to his table to shake his hand and chit-chat. Don’t ask me why.
He and his wife are living out at the old Sub Rosa Plantation near Pocahantas now. Word has it that the new digs were bankrolled by his brother-in-law.
The Presidential pardon option for both Dickie (no matter who is in office Bush/Obama/McCain since he worked both sides of the fence) and Trent keeps popping up in the back of my mind. That would suck.
So some of y’all think Trent is guilty being a part of some illegal conspiracy with Dickie and was “forced to step down.” The public version was that Trent was gonna step down anyway as soon as the Katrina legislation was passed and before new lobbying regulations went into place.
If Trent truly was “forced to step down” then word would have already been out about the FBI investigation and Dickie and Joey Langston would have had time to sanitize their offices prior to the execution of the SWs. The coincidence of Lott stepping down at the same time Dickie got caught looks fishy, but until there is some real evidence that Lott was “forced” out, I will take Lott’s version at face value.
Meanwhile, if Las Vegas bookies were setting odds on whether Zach’s sentencing would be postponed from tomorrow, what do you think the odds would be? (I mean, if Zach’s sentencing is postponed, that would be a pretty clear indication of some serious negotiating going on somewhere, wouldn’t it?)
IMO, It is or It was Trent Lott who was the glue that kept this all from coming unglued for all these years. Everything that I heard that transpired on the day Joey was crying to the Feds has come forth to be true. The other part was a deal had been struck with Trent if he would step down he would not be indicted. NOW, does this mean forever and ever aMEN I could not tell you that. This gang lived outside the law for so long,(if it didn’t fit their plan) they changed the law. It had become a big family(Jim Hood’s words) that included pols, Judges, Senators, Lawyers, Relatives of Senators, Relatives of President’s(Rodham), US Trade Representive’s etc. So its called connecting the dots back to McCain’s Office(thats where Dickie and M. Moore did their work) and who was Staff to Trent at that time, and who was sitting on those important committee’s in our US Congress at the time this was going down. If the right person talks we could have a domino effect that could start a chain reaction that could undercover everything we are asking, yet if a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his ass everytime he hopped.
Two questions:
(1) Wasn’t there a Biden relative that was on the payroll at the Washington, D.C. office of Balducci Patterson?
(2) What happened with the Trent Lott – Butler Snow deal? Did somebody get cold feet?
Does Lott not have an office w/ Butler/Snow in downtown Jackson?
I don’t know. I never saw any public announcement of his affiliation with the firm, which you would expect to happen if he was there.
He does have an office there but there was no announcement per se.
Observer, we’ll dismiss Lott’s stepping down (just afer being re-elected) withing two days of Dick’s office invasion as coincidence for the time being……what is the explanation for the phone call to Delaughter, the badgering of U.S. Attorneys and the need to retain defense counsel?
Why do journalists in Mississippi shy away from interviewing Trent Lott about these things? Why isn’t he confronted by reporters on the sidewalk the way they confronted Dickie and Backstrom?
Interesting email:
ceegee, as to 15.1: I believe so. As to 15.2: Magic 8-ball is stumped.
mag, I declare, you da bes’!
3dS 20, what an e x c e l l e n t question.
That’s interesting, ccvz. I had not heard that from anybody.
Federati @ 19, “just after being re-elected” was announcing in Nov. 2007 that he was resigning at the end of 2007 after having been re-elected in 2006. Again, Lott’s public statements had indicated that he was not even going to run in 2006 and only did so to use his clout to help get Katrina funding legislation passed. Don’t forget that the Louisiana delegation almost blew the whole deal.
The phone call to DeLaughter has been explained as SOP, and I will accept that at face value, as well. I know at least two individuals who were on the receiving end of similar courtesy phone calls from Lott.
I know of no evidence that Lott badgered any US attorney.
As for hiring a defense attorney, that’s the only sensible thing to do when the FBI knocks on your door, even if you are completely innocent of any wrong doing. A misstatement of a fact can be turned into making a false statement which can be the basis of an indictment.
There’s a lot of conspiracy theory floating around here without much factual basis to support it.
Federati @ 19 Lott stepped down over a year after he was re elected. Like Observer said he didn’t want to run and wouldn’t have if the storm had not hit.
Explanation for calling Delaughter? If my Brother in law called me and said “Sop I know this guy that might be a good fit for a position with your business could you talk with him?” I’d do it no questions asked. Doesn’t mean I’d hire him but I’d at least talk to him.
I think Lott being drug into the Scruggs mess with rumors that take on a life of their own to the point where they are repeated as the gospel truth derives from personal rivalies Lott had within the Republican party coupled with old fashioned democratic partisan politics and the convenience of Scuggs scandal that made him an easy target some folks in the insurance industry that felt he betrayed them because he stood up for his people on the coast after the storm.
I don’t pretend the people I talk with here are a scientific cross section but the general feeling across the politcial spectrum is Lott being drug though the mud on Scruggs was unfair to the man.
I don’t expect to change any minds with this post as they seem all made up but I think those of you lusting after Trent’s hide will be disappointed.
sop
Joe Biden is an awfully popular man in Northeast Mississippi…among plaintiffs lawyers.
Aside from the Langston donations…look at dontations from lawyers like Jamie Franks and Bill Wheeler.
Why would lawyers from Mississippi care about Joe Biden?
I think Biden sat/sits on the judiciary committee. Could that explain it? If so, how?
Thanks
FBR
Now, CG, if you had Trent Lott working at your office, is that really something you would want to publicize? I would imagine that Trent Lott is akin to the ol’ turd in the punch bowl these days.
I think Trent Lott accomplished some great things for the state, and I have nothing against him, but this is a situation where an old precept applies and I think “Shaves with Occum’s Razor” will agree: The most simple explanation is the correct one. Sop, do you think Trent Lott knows P.L. Blake?
Federati, you make my point.
At this time, the most simple explanation is the one publically stated by Trent Lott: He was not going to run for re-election, but did so to help shepherd Katrina relief, and, having completed that task, resigned ahead of the new lobbying laws.
At this time, anything beyond that statement of facts is conjecture and conspiracy theory.
The question isn’t who would Dickie talk about. It’s the time frame he would mention. Does he start at asbestos? tobacco? Sulzer? Katrina?
Name me a politician that doesn’t know PL Blake.
Trent Lott is the only public figure in America who gets a completely free pass from the press. His press releases are accepted as the Gospel in Mississippi and no reporter is allowed to ask him a first question, much less a follow up. Not one. For him it must be the devil, though, knowing another shoe is going to fall, someday, when a self-respecting journalist steps up and does what self-respecting journalists do when editors and publishers with pangs of conscience and measures of integrity finally remove their muzzles.
I guess Langston implicated Lott just for fun, huh?
Sop and observer, how would Langston know about the call from Lott to Delaughter placed at an interesting time in the Wilson case? Did y’all know about the call before Langston ever sang about it?
This DOJ is not going to give the US Attorney the okay to go after Trent Lott unless they have a very smoking gun right out in the open.
They won’t even go after P.L. Blake because they are afraid to find out who and what he knows. I mean, Blake was the guy who gave the okay to pay Lackey 40 grand, according to Patterson. He had a more active role in the bribery plan than Zach.
Why is Blake untouchable in this case?
It stinks? It smells. Who is protecting WHOM? Those Tobacco checks paid to alllllll these people come out of Mississippi. Fees being paid to non lawyers(Did Judge Biggers not say something about this?) With Dickie in jail will PL not have to come forward or is he actually under a desk in Nutt’s office? Just asking.
Mag, I don’t know the answers to your questions. However, I suspect that things are going on that we don’t know about, yet. I sure hope so.
First suggested question for Lott: Did anyone threaten you with anything unless you resigned?
The word I heard was that Lott knew in advance that the raid was about to happen on the Scruggs law office and what the Feds suspected on Lott himself. If he chose not to talk, he was given one shot: resign or suffer a search warrant on your own property. He knew every phone in, out and to Scruggs was tapped and if Lott made an effort to warn Scruggs, it would be intercepted. That was the effect of the DOJ that Researcher at 37 mentions and that was, in effect, the “pass” he was given. Lott took it. The people in his office closest to him did not even know on the Thursday before his resignation on Monday that he was leaving. That says something. Did he plan to enter into a lobbying venture with Breaux, yes. Was it planned to occur long after the raid on Scruggs’ office, yes.
OWIL, 41 is a variant of the story I heard this winter (or that was a variant of this?). Switch “search warrant” for “indictment for obstruction” and maybe another minor detail or two, and you’ve got it.
[Oh, and looking back, I see amicus heard a third version.]
Of course, all three could be pure folklore — but with all that substance available in the plea transcripts, Observer should understand very well why “conjecture” and “conspiracy theory” are abroad in the land. At this point, I assume none of us commenting here knows for sure whether the conjecturers and theorists have scored or missed — but that some reading here sure-as-hell do.