Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Like everyone else, I am grieved by the deaths of four children in a van-school bus accident in Cottonwood last week. I am also grieved by the demagoguery that this accident is giving some an excuse to exhibit. By way of example, a reader of the popular Powerline blog, which is run by two local lawyers and a Washington, D.C., lawyer, placed as a comment to a Feb. 21 John Hinderaker post ("Illegal alien caused fatal bus accident") a photo of open train cars packed with people standing in them along with the caption, “We need to round up the illegals. We need to put them on a train.” To me, it looks like a picture of prisoners heading for a concentration camp. Offensive photo and language aside, the author of the comment -- along with much of the media and the original post on Powerline -- wrongly focuses on the fact that the driver was in the country illegally. Illegal immigration is a serious social issue, but it doesn’t cause car accidents.

I call on lawyers, who are skilled at logical reasoning, to bring some honor to the discussion by challenging the connection between immigration law and the deaths of these children. Let the legal process against the driver take its course. Jesse, Hunter, Emilee and Reed don’t deserve to be used to further other people’s hatred.

As Minnesota Lawyer editor Mark Cohen mentioned on Friday, after months of keeping a relatively low profile, U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose has stepped back into the spotlight. But after all is said and done, she might wish she hadn’t.

Local conservative blogger Scott Johnson wrote an essay for the National Review’s blog dismantled Johnson’s article in a lengthy essay that went online today. MNPublius maintained that it was a curious strategy for Paulose to counter charges of partisanship by giving an exclusive to a strongly conservative blogger. And Steve Sack’s Star Tribune cartoon Monday made no bones about the lingering talk that Paulose got and has kept her post thanks mostly to loyalty toward the Bush administration (click on cartoon 2 in the ST’s Sack gallery).

In trying to defend herself, Paulose seems to be only leaving herself open for more criticism, all but erasing memories of her positive accomplishments.

UPDATE: The news has just broken that Paulose has resigned her post as U.S. Attorney to go to work for new U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

I don't always agree with the postings on my colleagues' blog, Power Line, written by Minneapolis lawyers John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, but I generally at least take them seriously. Until now. Hey guys, what's up with yesterday's bikini-clad photo of Miss Venezuela and the somewhat "detailed" coverage of a beauty contest? Throwing in a political comment about Miss Korea's idea of what super-power she would like to have doesn't get you out of the dog house. (BTW, her answer was reportedly "a wallet that never dried up.")