You know, I'm really getting sick and tired of JAABlog getting all the credit for rude and insulting comments about judges around here.
It happened today at the Tower Club, where Mike Mayo moderated one of their hoity-toity luncheons. From the Sun-Sentinel coverage:
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Contributing to the tumult, [Attorney and former state Sen. Skip] Campbell said, was the Internet and people who post anonymous comments railing against judges.
He did not refer to specific Internet sites or blogs, but JAABLOG, a courthouse gossip blog that highlights judicial missteps and encourages lawyers to run for judge, has become a popular forum for anonymous, critical - sometimes racist - comments about judges.
"We have people using the Internet as a means of communication to force humiliation on people they may disagree with," Campbell said. "We cannot allow this humiliation to
continue, and I believe that's one source of our problems at the Broward County Courthouse."
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First, where's the Pulp plug? We have as many what some call "vile" comments as the next guy. And who is the Sun-Sentinel to talk about racist comments? Its boards are often virtually dominated by White Power yahoos. Talk about the pot calling the kettle... well, you know.
These people aren't upset about racism or anti-Semitism; they're angry because they and their friends are getting slammed. They come into office, enrich themselves, get their strings pulled by lobbyists, make horrible decisions that hurt the populace, and want to be treated like kings. Then they go to their exclusive luncheons and kvetch about the fact that they aren't.
And Skip Campbell, a multimillionaire trial attorney, is upset about his well-heeled buddies getting called out? Now he's got my blood up. This is the same guy who in 2001 pushed a bill in the Florida Senate known as the "Scarlett Letter Law." It required women who wanted to give up a child for adoption to list the men they had slept with in newspapers.
How's that for humiliating?
In his defense, he claimed he didn't know about that provision when he, uh, SPONSORED the bill. That would fall under the banner of incompetence, I believe, so pick your poison.
Then there was the infamous telephone rate increase of 2003 -- backed by the industry's campaign cash and boatload of lobbyists. Campbell sponsored legislation for the industry and was such a cheerleader for Big Phone that the Tampa Tribune once referred to him as "Sen. Skip Campbell (D-Verizon)." (Who knew the TT could even be funny?)
A columnist for the Orlando Sentinel called Campbell "a notorious stooge for business interests... Campbell voted for the largest phone-rate hike in history. He pushed a bill that would have given away thousands of acres of lake and river bottoms to developers and giant agricultural corporations." (Who knew the OS could be so vitriolic?)
Now Campbell is one of the driving forces behind the new $338 million courthouse -- that the voters don't want.
The point is: If the Tower Club types want to stop being humiliated, they should let go of their greed and power-hungry ways and start acting like real leaders who give a damn about the people of South Florida.
Let the humiliation begin.
