Sound Politics: "Farce": Part II

October 29, 2008

"Farce": Part II

A writer at the Seattle Weekly of all places offers his take on the political theater of Dino's Rossi's deposition:

The attorneys questioning him seemed to play into exactly the Republicans' portrayal of this whole thing as a political stunt. This first portion of the deposition actually accomplishes the astounding feat of making me sympathetic to Rossi. He comes off as a hapless guy stuck in a miserable situation.

Hapless, no. But everything else is about on the mark.

The joint statement from Slade Gorton & Mike McKay on the topic of the deposition said:

Adding insult to injury, the judge stated that a deposition will allow Rossi to "confirm -- or dispel -- the allegations before the election." Any judge knows that a deposition taken by a hostile lawyer won't prove the truth of anything.

Take a read through the deposition (available in full here) and you'll understand how that point was proven today. This wasn't information gathering, it was pure, political theater...and the plantiffs' lawyers didn't even try to hide it.

Posted by Eric Earling at October 29, 2008 07:40 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Dino was embarassing. Instead of being direct, forthright and honest -- he lawyered up at every opportunity. His lawyer was beligerent in terms of lack of cooperation.

Some one with nothing to hide wouldn't have to do this.

Posted by: Rossi Lawyering Up on October 29, 2008 07:43 PM

2. At the deposition Dino said groups like the SEIU were paying for political lawsuits like the one he was testifying in. SEIU and ACORN are run by Wade Rathke, 40-year friend of fellow SDS communist William Ayers.

So, what is Dino's persecutor Lowney's connection to ACORN in our state?

Posted by: 5.62 on October 29, 2008 07:46 PM

3. 1 (aka astroturf) -

Clearly you're right. Rossi certainly should have been expected to answer all of the un-related questions the partisan lawyers threw at him today. Clearly their motives were entirely pure.

Indeed, who cares about the legal process, the scope of the case, the purpose of the deposition. He should have answered every politically motivated, frivolous question thrown at him...just to make you comfortable.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Posted by: Eric Earling on October 29, 2008 07:48 PM

4. And we thought all this show trial BS only happened in the former USSR.

Posted by: scott on October 29, 2008 08:08 PM

5. "The attorneys questioning him seemed to play into exactly the Republicans' portrayal of this whole thing as a political stunt."

Heh. Seemed to? It would have been astonishing if Lowney had been able to make it look otherwise, since that's exactly what it was. It's remarkable that the writer here actually tries to blame the Republicans for framing it as a political stunt.

Posted by: pudge on October 29, 2008 08:11 PM

6. Lawyering Up: If the righteous need no lawyers, what does that say about the prosecution? They have at least two lawyers at their disposal.

I think the real reason you don't like the idea of Rossi having professional attorneys defending him is because you don't believe your political opponents should be defended. We should just have a quick trial and finish it off with a hanging or two. Or maybe a shooting. I understand Che Guevera was good at that sort of thing. Maybe we can ask one of his many admirers to do the shooting, huh? Heck, why not skip the entire trial and just starve the entire portion of the state that doesn't vote the right way the same way Stalin did to the Ukraine.

Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on October 29, 2008 08:31 PM

7. How does a Judge in good conscience allow this to happen the week before the election?

Shakes head sadly.........

Posted by: zapporo on October 29, 2008 08:35 PM

8. Can we officially call "Clowney" yet?

Posted by: blindman on October 29, 2008 08:53 PM

9. I'm reading through the deposition now...my favorite part so far is this exchange between Mr. Withey (the other lawyer teaming up with Lowney) and Mr. Patterson (Dino's lawyer):

Mr. Patterson: Well, I certainly have not received any copies of those [subpoenas].
Mr. Withey: Well, you're not a party to this case.

Mr. Patterson: Thank you very much.

I could just see Mr. Patterson smiling.

Posted by: blindman on October 29, 2008 10:04 PM

10. This shows how hopefully inadaquate and desperate Gregoire has become.

Wave a wand and see her gone.

Posted by: gs on October 29, 2008 10:11 PM

11. What do you mean Seattle Weekly of all places?

Posted by: Don Ward on October 30, 2008 06:26 AM