Senator Craig hires attorneys who represent Michael Vick, Major League Baseball

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: September 1, 2007
Sen. Craig hires Michael Vick's attorney

(CNN)–Senator Larry Craig is hiring some big guns from the legal world, including Michael Vick's lawyer, to represent him in his upcoming legal proceedings.Craig said he has retained Vick's attorney, Billy Martin, to handle most of his legal affairs. He said he has retained Stan Brand, who represented Major League Baseball in connection with the congressional investigation into Major League Baseball’s steroid policies, to handle issues pertaining to an investigation by the Senate Ethics committee.

The comments came in a question and answer session with Craig that his office released following his announcement he would resign his Senate seat effective September 30....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/01/sen-craig-hires-michael-vicks-attorney/

[Fresh_Start]

1. whats the point re ethics committee

all the ethics committee could have done was recommend that the Senate kick him out.
He resigned. Theres nothing else for the ethics committee to do.

[rocktivity]

2. Can you withdraw a plea bargain?

It seems to me that if he'd pled guilty to what he was actually charged with, then maybe. But he took the deal of his own free will AND having been advised that he had the right to counsel!

:headbang:
rocknation

[TomInTib]

4. Nope.

He is fucked in the stall at the end of the hall.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Poetry! LOL!

[VP505]

7. A Judge might allow

that if he were uneducated, low IQ or some other circumstance where he might not fully understand a guilty plea. In the case of Craig, I seriously doubt that he has ANY grounds to change that pleas, nor would a Judge allow it. BTW, if Craig didn't understand exactly what he was doing how in the hell could he function as a US Senator dealing with the complex issues of the day?

[rocktivity]

10. Oh, he DEFINITLEY understood the implications of going to trial

and if YOU don't, read this article. If any of it had come before a jury, Craig knew would be toast whether he was acquitted or not--THAT'S why he took the plea deal and kept his mouth shut!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Kingshakabobo]

11. There was an attorney on Abrams the other night that said the mailed "plea" paperwork....

.......was seriously flawed. It didn't have the necessary verbiage spelling out his right to consult an attorney. This is a very serious flaw, according to the attorneys. Serious enough to kill the plea outright. Furthermore, Craig DIDN'T have an attorney of record listed so he has an extra level of protection.

Since there was no attorney, it is the state's burden to prove to the court that their plea is "perfect".....It's not. If he had an attorney, it would be Craig's burden to prove an imperfect plea or WHY he should be let off the hook.......low I.Q, didn't understand the plea, etc.

It sounds like a reversal of the plea is his for the taking. Now, I HAVE heard (on DU) that he DID, in fact, have some contact with an attorney prior to his plea - that wasn't discussed on the show as it wasn't known at the time. I don't know how formal the arrangement was or IF it affects what the attorneys were saying. Even if his attorney contact affected this protection, there were some other serious issues that a smart attorney could work with.......namely, the somewhat odd use of mail for a plea that included jail time. The attorneys thought that wasn't kosher.

[mitchum]

12. Exactly! If he doesn't understand the law, why in the hell is he making laws for us?

[Wiregrass Willie]

16. All he has to understand is how to enact what the Lobbyist hand him.

Like other Republicans, he apparently did that quite well.

[AlCzervik]

3. cool, that gives this story at least another few weeks, thanks Senator Craig.

[Garbo 2004]

6. Also a PR crisis mgt consultant/media rep. (A bit late for that one would think.)

Judy Smith...."a crisis management expert with the company Impact Strategies, is also representing U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. He was indicted in June on bribery and racketeering charges for allegedly using his office to solicit bribes and for paying bribes to a foreign official.

Smith's best known previous client was Monica Lewinsky, the intern who said she had sex with President Bill Clinton in the White House.

Smith worked in communications for former President George H.W. Bush and counseled Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his nomination, when he was facing allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, his former assistant." http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/147883.html

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Interesting. Thanks for adding this info, Garbo. nt

[kestrel91316]

9. Should read: Sen. Craig hires high-priced spin doctor in desperate

attempt to save his marriage.

Just my take......

[mitchum]

13. I don't care if he gets off...on the charges...

at least that dirtbag's political career is over. And, for me, THAT is the important thing.

[EST]

14. This certainly presents some new opportunities for

Craig to demonstrate his total lack of understanding of humanity.

It's a cinch the only scooter-style defense fund that may come into being--without good ol' Arthur Branch/Flip Thompson, of course--would, by the dint of political expediency, have to be under the table. A twenty four year career of defending some of the worst republican fundamentalist causes is no match against the public ridicule that could ensue. Tilting at windmills does seem more a democratic trait.than than the the chickenshit ideological approach.the "pragmatic," "them there old farts wuz agonta die right soon, anyhow" republican approach.

So, if there won't be a big campaign to flange up three or four million dollars to pay the hired help, the right dishonorable senator Craig will have to richen up the table with his own bread. Those lawyers do not come cheap and I doubt their own loyalties would lead them to defend him for free or on contingency that they hope to slap 'The Statesman' with for twenty or thirty million. Fat chance.

Which will lead us to the inevitable question--one that should always be asked--of where and how the senator managed to have that amount of cash lying around.
The demand for financial and political support records should come next, with the likely inevitable discovery that can lead to.

Republicans are an unforgiving lot, once they are forced past their automatic "who, me?" cackling, their deflection and projection, and puke political hacks are especially bitter. (*)

Craig is not going to get his job back--reneging on a resignation letter and a misdemeanor plea agreement are hardly similar--so spending a few millions to save something that he already voluntarily surrendered just doesn't add up-unless you are a puke, I suppose.

Craig's arrogance and confidence in his own infallibility, public statements aside, seem likely to open up a whole 'nother circle of creeps and money launderers.

How wonderful. The publicker machine is allergic to sunlight.

I think I'm gonna like this.

(*) Consider how soul shakingly pissed they still are that the Clenis emerged from nine years of unjustified faux conservative persecution and hackery with higher poll numbers than going in. They just KNOW he got away with something and it really jacks their jaws because he was apparently better at it than they are. That's one of the heavy reasons they detest him so avidly and meanly.

[Pachamama]

15. Please tell me this is a joke....seriously....what kind of idiot wants to have their name which is

already toast, be "rehabilitated" by hiring the attorney associated with someone whose name is mud (Vick) and hope that its a good thing???? I mean Vick was guilty? His lawyers didn't get him off - they helped him avoid a lot more trouble.... Does this mean Craig thinks/knows there is more to come?

I'm sorry, but I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I heard this news....Craig is a seriously distressed and messed up individual....instead of fading off into the sunset and hopefully getting some counseling and "coming out" and living truthfully, he's going into full on denial mode and is only going to have his name dragged further into the mud and limelight and getting to be associated with another person who is talked about negatively, Michael Vick.

I'm sorry, but this is crazy. He actually had the opportunity to have this quiet down and maybe figure things out in his life and have some peace, but instead, hiring Vick's lawyers is like taking jet fuel and throwing it on the flames. This will only keep the story going, and going. Plus, I'm no attorney, but after reading the plea agreement that he signed, if he now changes his plea, couldn't he be found guilty of perjury? Isn't perjury a more serious offense than the misdemeanor he pleaded guilty to? Also, what judge is going to believe that Senator Craig, a "lawmaker", wasn't of sound mind and completely aware of his waiving the right to trial and to have an attorney? Finally, isn't it possible that if Craig actually tries to "fight" this and change his plea, that there may be people who come forward and say on multiple occasions in the past they have had bathroom sex with Craig? (who knows, maybe there are airport surveillance tapes showing Craig going into bathrooms and being there for quite awhile. I don't know about anybody else, but I think that this may prove to be the biggest screw-up yet in Larry Craig's tormented denial of his life.

[Richard Steele]

17. He's already resigned, now he's gonna spend assloads of cash to keep the story alive.

What an idjit.