>> Rose Kennedy’s favorite Bible verse was, “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Too often, candidates for public office cry, “Gimme, gimme, gimme, my name’s Jimmy.” (Robert Penn Warren, “All the King’s Men”). As Mike Royko wrote of Chicago, some government mottos should be changed to “Where’s mine? (“Ubi est mea?”).
>> Still, I was shocked to learn there’s an alleged “Democrat” running in our August 24, 2010 Primary for Florida Attorney General who:
>> 1. Worked for Florida’s largest law firm, Akerman Senterfitt (AS), as a “white collar criminal defense lawyer” a “shareholder” in “the Litigation and Policy practices” where he “conducted numerous internal investigations for clients.”
>> 2. Kept working as a “white collar criminal defense lawyer” for AS ($225,000/year) after BP hired it to defend against criminally polluting Florida’s beaches, claiming he’s “of counsel” (not a partner/shareholder), despite contradictory statements in his state legislature, law firm and legal directory listings.
>> 3. Claimed working for BP’s law firm was a non-issue (until he belatedly quit weeks later, whining about criticism).
>> 4. Can list no pro bono work (and his law firm has a poor record compared to other similarly-sized firms).
>> 5. Seems untroubled by working for the same 500-lawyer Republican law firm that fired Mark Herron in 2000 in retaliation for Herron’s representing Vice President Al Gore, Jr. during the Florida recount -- oddly claiming to me July 2, “I don’t know about that.”
>> 6. Refuses to name any of his “white collar criminal defense” clients.
>> 7. Refuses to disclose any of AS’ other clients (although many are actually listed on its website) -- many accused of serious torts/crimes (including monopolization and antitrust conspiracies, Jeep rollover cases, exploding Pinto cases, 40 smoker lawsuits, and representation of Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Big Sugar).
>> The candidate’s name is Daniel Saul Gelber.
>> Gelber’s 500-lawyer firm, Akerman Senterfitt (AS), billed our City of St. Augustine hundreds of thousands of dollars for dubious legal advice, absurdly and obscenely demanding to move 40,000 cubic yards of illegally-dumped solid waste from the Old City Reservoir back into Lincolnville for a “park!” It was insensitive to St. Augustine’s environmental racism and two African-American communities (West Augustine and Lincolnville our City dumped on).
>> St. Augustine activists won. The contaminated solid waste is now in a Class I landfill.
>> Gelber is a good legislator. But he wears too many hats as a corporate criminal defense lawyer. He’d be deeply conflicted as AG because of his clientele. Electing corporate criminals’ mouthpiece as our AG would be a disaster, chilling efforts to protect us against the likes of BP, Big Tobacco and Big Sugar.
>> I’m supporting Senator Dave Aronberg (D-Greenacres) for Attorney General in the Democratic Primary. Dave Aronberg has the courage of his convictions (including publicly raising concerns about Gelber’s law firim and its work for BP, calling for Gelber’s resignation, when some suggested that he keep his mouth shut and “get along to go along”). Dave Aronberg represented domestic violence victims pro bono, prosecuted consumer fraud cases (including fraudfeasing TV-telephone fortune teller “Ms. Cleo”) and worked as a White House Fellow.
>> Aronberg has the heart, soul, brains and courage Florida needs as AG. He reminds me of the late U.S. AG Robert F. Kennedy, who prosecuted the Mafia and corrupt officials. RFK bettered peoples’ lives, raising the bar for public service.
>> Special interests have too much power, with devastating effects -- oily beaches and a crime wave of corporate “crime in the suites.” Florida’s AG must work for people (not things, like Gelber’s clients).
>> Vote for equal justice under law and against BP – vote Dave Aronberg for Florida AG.
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>> Ed Slavin (B.S.F.S., Georgetown University, J.D. Memphis State University School of Law), is CIO of Global Wrap LLC. Ed won declassification of the world’s largest mercury pollution event (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, nuclear weapons plants, 1983, resulting in the DA’s recommendation for a Pulitzer Prize). He also reported the City of St. Augustine’s solid waste and sewage pollution (2006-2009). Ed worked for Senators Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart and James Sasser during undergraduate school and clerked for U.S. Department of Labor Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt after law school. Ed has published seven articles on human rights issues in American Bar Association publications (two in the ABA Judges’ Journal). He formerly represented nuclear, environmental and other whistleblowers (including nine judges, among them an EPA judge and a majority of the Administrative Law Judges in the U.S. Department of the Interior, who were harassed, intimidated and threatened with firing for insisting upon judicial independence).
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