The story ran in Politico on Monday: America’s trial lawyers are getting ready to make the case against one of their biggest targets in years: Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Among litigators, there is no presidential candidate who inspires the same level of hatred — and fear — as Perry, an avowed opponent of the plaintiffs’ bar who has presided over several rounds of tort reform as governor.
And if Perry ends up as the Republican nominee for president, deep-pocketed trial lawyers intend to play a central role in the campaign to defeat him.
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If the trial lawyers are serious about raising big money to defeat Perry, I think they’ve lost their minds. Don’t they realize that their scheme will just serve to validate Perry? It will push him straight into the arms of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. It will make Perry more of a threat to the Trials, since he will acquire a business constituency (and with it buckets of money) he currently lacks.
This has the ring of something that was hatched in Texas by people who have been kicked up and down the halls of the Capitol by Perry, not by sober-minded, thoughtful folk who can see one or two moves ahead. Unwittingly, they have given aid and comfort to their biggest enemy. Tort reform is not a good issue for Democrats or trial lawyers. The more they try to make it an issue, the more Perry laughs about being thrown in the briar patch.
