Tammy Baldwin, My New Hero

Finally, someone with "balls" ready to sock it to the banking industry that has fucked the 99%. H/T to AMERICAblog.

Baldwin's resolution states that any settlement should follow three guidelines: 1) Banks that engaged in fraudulent behavior "should not be granted criminal or civil immunity for potential wrongdoing related to illegal mortgage and foreclosure practices," 2) the federal government and state AGs should "proceed with full investigations into claims of fraudulent behavior by mortgage servicers" and 3) any monetary sum paid by the banks should "appropriately compensate for, and accurately reflect, the extent of harm to all victims."

"We have to do the best we can to make innocent victims whole. But secondly, especially in light of the taxpayer bailout of the biggest banks, we owe taxpayers a solemn effort to do everything we can do to uncover what went wrong and whether laws were broken," Baldwin said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "Part of that is to make certain this won't happen again. That, to me, is one of the most basic responsibilities we have."

A Primer On Legal Representation

The intensifying flap over Justice Department lawyers who have advocated for Guantanamo Bay detainees is spilling over to Big Law, where some firm leaders are fighting back against the criticism.

The Justice Department in the past couple of weeks has come under fire from a conservative group and Republican lawmakers for hiring lawyers who represented Guantanamo Bay detainees while in private practice. The controversy ramped up after the Justice Department refused to name the lawyers. Then the conservative group Keep America Safe posted a YouTube video questioning the allegiance of the DOJ lawyers and giving the attorneys a name -- "The Al Qaeda Seven."

[snip]

"From the perspective of our firm, providing representation for unpopular causes is a long and noble tradition in the law, and that kind of criticism is not going to affect our firm's commitment to that cause," said Brian Brooks, managing partner of O'Melveny & Myers' Washington office. "If the private bar doesn't step up and show that kind of courage, then I think our whole system of justice is in question."

[snip]

Thomas Milch, chair of Arnold & Porter, said he is proud to work with lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees.

"I really do salute the private lawyers who stepped up to represent the Guantanamo detainees," Milch said. "It's an act in the best traditions of the profession, and I salute even more the lawyers who then went in to the government."

Read the entire piece. It clearly delineates what it is to be an attorney and provide proper representation, even pro bono, to all that require representation ... even the bad guys.

UPDATE I - 3/9/10:

Senior senators on both sides of the aisle leveled heavy criticism Tuesday against a controversial ad put forth by Liz Cheney and William Kristol, which labeled Justice Department lawyers as the "al Qaeda 7."

The ad, paid for and produced by the group Keep American Safe, referred to the U.S. Justice Department as the "Department of Jihad," and called out Attorney General Eric Holder for hiring but not revealing the names of several attorneys who had previously worked to defend terrorism suspects. More than a dozen Bush administration era legal officials have already condemned the ad.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, told The Cable Tuesday that the Cheney-Kristol ad was inappropriate and unfairly demonized DOJ lawyers for doing a noble public service by defending unpopular suspects.

"I've been a military lawyer for almost 30 years, I represented people as a defense attorney in the military that were charged with some pretty horrific acts, and I gave them my all," said Graham. "This system of justice that we're so proud of in America requires the unpopular to have an advocate and every time a defense lawyer fights to make the government do their job, that defense lawyer has made us all safer."

Patrick Fitzgerald A Failure? By Whose Standards, May I Ask?

Once again, the "media" is carrying the Republican water buckets, this time as it relates to Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney who successfully prosecuted Libby, and is now in charge of the Blagojevich case.

First it was that shrill Malkin chick (wherever in the world did this bitch get the idea she actually has a brain?) with her comments that the Democrats "will turn on a dime" if Fitzgerald continues with the prosecution of Blagojevich. Now it's Brit Hume and Joe Scarborough with their lame comments that Fitzgerald brings cases with “a lot of smoke” but “no fire,” claiming Fitzgerald is "going to go 0 for 2 here in national investigations.”

As Think Progress has noted:

To say Fitzgerald might go “0 for 2″ in national investigations not only ignores the fact that he won a conviction of a Bush aide in the Plame case but, more importantly, completely ignores Fitzgerald’s successful prosecution of the terrorists — including “the blind Shiek” Omar Abdul Rahman — who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. During the trial, Fitzgerald provided a passionate and forceful voice against what he called “a war of urban terrorism,” years before “the War on Terror” began:

– “Terrorism is real. It is here. It is in this courtroom,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury. [AP, 10/2/95]

– Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald concluded more than two days of the Government’s closing argument by telling the jurors, “The defendants in this room conspired to steal from Americans their freedom from fear.” [NY Times, 9/8/95]

Fitzgerald also indicted Osama bin Laden for terrorism years before he was on the national radar, after the 9/11 attacks. In addition, he secured the fraud conviction of Conrad Black, who had ties to the Bush White House. After successfully prosecuting terrorists, mobsters, governors, and White House officials, Fitzgerald is hardly in danger of going “0 for 2.”

First the complaints from the Republicans was that Fitzgerald was a zealot in prosecuting Republicans for their corruption and criminal activities, despite his record of prosecuting more Democrats than Republicans. Now they are complaining about his prosecution of Blagojevich! It's just like the dog chasing his tail -- circular logic, that only shows the pundit media to be the asses that they are.