> ----------
> From: Doug Henwood
> Reply To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 16:31
> To: lbo-talk
> Subject: litigation and politics
>
> An excerpt from a profile of legal writer Jeffrey Toobin in
> Publishers Weekly, January 11, 2000
> <http://www.publishersweekly.com/articles/20000110_83934.asp>:
>
> >"My thesis about the Clinton scandals relates a great deal to the
> >evolution of political culture and the political class in this
> >country," Toobin says with zeal. "Like any storyteller, I love a
> >good irony. And basically what happened is part of a larger
> >development that is regrettable, I think: that the political left in
> >this country, using Thurgood Marshall's work as a model, started
> >using litigation as substitute for other political action. This was
> >done on behalf of the civil rights movement, of feminism, of
> >environmentalism, and they had some tremendous successes, but they
> >paid a political price, because instead of mobilizing large
> >constituencies behind their work, all they had to do was persuade a
> >few judges. And that was a problem. First, because some of these
> >victories turned out to be politically rather hollow, but more
> >importantly, as far as this story is concerned, they created a
> >template for the right wing to follow. And that's the irony. It was
> >the Democrats who created the use of civil lawsuits for political
> >gain, it was the Democrats who sponsored the independent counsel
> >law, and here was the right wing, in the Paula Jones case and in the
> >Starr investigation, using it almost to topple the presidency and
> >overturn the results of an election."
>