Brrrrrrr

BREAKING BLOG NEWS: as reported in the comments section by many alert readers, Chief Judge Farina will not be seeking re-election. 

"If nominated, I will not run. 

If elected, I shall not serve." 

Big changes afoot for our 11th Judicial Circuit. 

If you think a couple of judges breaking into a shoving match over a fax machine was a big deal, wait until you see our dear robed readers fight for this plum. 

The Herald Article is here. 

Our first cold day of the Fall season. Wouldn't it have been great if the cold front had arrived Sunday morning? A crisp cool Sunday afternoon at Dolphin stadium, with brats and wings on the grill would have been a perfect compliment to that great Fin win. 

October sees the end of the worst month for the DOW industrials since September 1931. 

George Yoss isn't getting paid. And as the DBR reports here, he doesn't like it one bit. 

Rumpole says: welcome to the party pal.  For those of you who weren't lawyers at the time (and by that we mean just about every judge in the criminal division of county court and about half the judges in criminal circuit) George handled a a few cases for Janet Reno when she was State Attorney. 

Alaska's powerful Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty yesterday of seven charges in Federal Court in Washington, DC. The Times article is here. 

 While we're most often found pacing the halls of branch courts, we have been known to wander certain halls of power from time to time in our nation's capital.  

Ted Stevens? One word: Hubris. 

From the Wiki definition:

Hubris: It was most evident in the public and private actions of the powerful and rich. The word was also used to describe actions of those who challenged the gods or their laws, especially in Greek tragedy, resulting in the protagonist's downfall.

It's not like Stevens  did something really bad, like shoving another senator in a dispute over a fax machine,  but all of our elected officials (robed readers- put down those comics or FLW cliff notes and pay attention)  should remember that they are one dumb move away from ruin. It is a privilege to be a public servant, and when you forget that, you end up with Brendan Sullivan charging you a million bucks for a histrionic closing argument that rarely works. 

We're seven days away from electing a new president and a third of the senate. The real fallout of the conviction of Stevens is that it gives the Democrats a real chance to pick up his seat in the election and moves them one step closer to a sixty member  "filibuster proof" majority.   

As we often remind clients and some intransigent federal prosecutors, be careful what you ask for, because you may get it.  

Meanwhile, the economic news just gets worse and worse. It really was an impossible task to ask any Republican to run in the shadow of this President's failed economic and foreign policies. John McCain obtained the nomination he deserved eight years ago, and proceeded to wreck any credibility he had in not pandering to the worst elements of his party.  Only seven more days and McCain's national embarassment of a vice presidential candidate will fade into a obscurity. 

See you in court, wearing our favourite sweater for the first time in a while.