Let a Thousand Checks Bloom

Tucker Carlson Tonight
January 5, 2018

https://www.steynonline.com/8368/let-a-thousand-checks-bloom

On Thursday evening Mark joined Tucker Carlson on Fox News to discuss Lisa Bloom and her mother Gloria Allred, two "feminist" lawyers with some unusual business arrangements re their clients. Click below to watch:

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16 Reader Comments

Sol Cranfill • Jan 5, 2018 at 17:04

So, in the terrific campaign finance legislation of which Sheriff McCain corraled enough "OK"s to pass into law, PACs can use campaign contributions to conduct a Charlie McCarthyite witch hunt. And yet, with the entire country plastered with the "Wanted" signs of the supposed outlaw Trump: "Reward $200,000" they haven't found an Anita Hill (of beans).

Craig Davis

Sol Cranfill • Jan 5, 2018 at 18:03

Too funny, Sol, well said!

Sol Cranfill • Jan 5, 2018 at 15:07

We have ceded so much territory to the experts that we're unmoored, allowing us to be pulled this way or that depending on someone else's interests. No crime, no problem: independent counsel. Jim Comey, public servant and not a political leader: Republicans rewarded him with several investigations. They can't fight back because they don't maintain enough virtue.

There's a reason the US Constitution is brief. The rest is in our hearts.

It is easy to feel like a spectator at a carnival of politics, but it works through us, yielding.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of mankind's greatest champions, said:

"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts."

In sum, never let things like the Bill Clinton apologists' line that "character doesn't matter" happen through you. Then it won't happen.

Holly Spaulding • Jan 5, 2018 at 12:37

I was too distracted by that absolutely stunning conference table! It appears to be a single center cut through the heartwood of an approximately 4' diameter tree!! Bet Lisa claims environmentalist creds, too. Typical "do as I say" liberal.

David from Florida • Jan 5, 2018 at 11:53

Ms. Allred and Ms. Bloom are, presumably, members of the California Bar. I cannot attest to familiarity with the California Bar's Code of Ethics, but I have a hard time believing that Ms. Bloom's recent conduct is in compliance with her ethical obligations.
1. Ms. Bloom was, at least up until the day that the story went viral, Harvey Weinstein's lawyer. Thus, the questions of whether she was engaged in self-dealing by entering into a business venture with the client, and whether that impaired her ability to offer proper legal advice due to the possible impact on her monetary interest are both potential ethical violations.
2. In the fallout to Ms. Bloom's dust-up with her former client, Kathy Griffin, it was reported that at least one woman approached Ms. Bloom for the purpose of engaging Ms. Bloom for a case against Harvey Weinstein or his company. Ms. Bloom met with the potential client and did not disclose that Ms. Bloom represented Harvey Weinstein, which created a clear conflict of interest.
3. The woman in question recounted that she received Ms. Bloom's engagement letter, but that it was more akin to a press agency agreement than an attorney engagement letter. According to the published report, the engagement letter gave Ms. Bloom control over press conferences and personal appearances and once again made no mention of the fact that Ms. Bloom represented the party her potential client wanted to sue.
4. Ms. Bloom was Mr. Weinstein's lawyer (presumably) up until the time that Ms. Bloom realized that this put her on the "wrong side of feminism." If memory serves, she fired him when she returned from the "Burning Man" festival and then gave a press conference apologizing for representing Mr. Weinstein and went on to publicly trash him.
Ms. Bloom claimed, at that time, that Mr.Weinstein had waived his attorney-client privilege, which, she claimed, allowed her to reveal confidential information that would have otherwise been privileged. Even if that were true, however, publicly disparaging a former client to the degree that Ms. Bloom did is not only a likely ethical violation, but may be actionable as both slander and tortious interference with his business prospects.
5. Kathy Griffin went public with claims that Ms. Bloom did a poor job in representing Ms. Griffin in connection with her dismissal from CNN and demanded a return of the money paid to her. In response, Ms. Bloom publicly repudiated Ms. Griffin's claims and stated that Ms. Bloom and Ms. Griffin's other counsel had prepped Ms. Griffin for their press conference, but that Ms. Griffin was a loose cannon who went off-script.
Assuming that Ms. Griffin did not expressly release Ms. Bloom from her attorney-client privilege, divulging legal strategy and trashing the client as a loose cannon seems to me to be a clear ethical violation.

Kenneth Willis

David from Florida • Jan 5, 2018 at 13:33

I think that in California the only thing important is your Trump hating credentials, which will trump everything else, including legal ethics.

John Shuba

David from Florida • Jan 5, 2018 at 18:05

To paraphrase Leona Helmsley, " Ethics are for the little people."

Fran Lavery • Jan 5, 2018 at 11:29

Thanks for looking out for all the little nobodies out here, once again, Mark.
It's a very apt analogy: like a puppet with a ventriloquist's hand up her dress dictating to her what to say. It may be legal but it creates a very demeaned puppet. Used first by an accused perpetrator, used again by an opportunistic lawyer.

David Coats • Jan 5, 2018 at 11:29

Hollywood and Washington DC seem to be the world's primary epicenters for whore feeding frenzies. The 2018 campaigns and Trump's subsequent election seem to have permanently bridged the 3,000 mile separation of these two feeding grounds creating a supernatural energy that has elevated the feeding frenzies into paranormal levels. I'm waiting for Zuul and Gozer to appear at any moment!

John Shuba • Jan 5, 2018 at 10:56

I'm a lawyer. I am not a powerhouse celebrity lawyer as are Allred and Bloom but I have a fair familiarity with legal ethics. I would love to find that Ms. Bloom's behavior as described here can be sanctioned by her state bar association. However Bloom is just (barely) on the right side of legal propriety in this case. In Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977), the U.S. Supreme Court removed most of the prohibitions on lawyers who advertise their services. Lawyers have First Amendment rights.. This led to, among other things, the mass solicitation of clients, particularly for class-action law suits. Everyone has seen those late night commercials from big-time law firms that begin with, "Have you or a loved one ever been exposed to _________ and suffered an injury, illness or death. If so you may be entitled to compensation. Call the number shown here to speak to a legal representative about a potential claim." (Non-Attorney Paid Spokesperson.)

Personally I find this sort of solicitation to be repulsive in the extreme but I'm not in the personal injury game nor do I have a seven-figure lifestyle to support. However I am sure that Ms. Allred and Ms. Blloom will argue (successfully) that what they are doing is no more than what the law firm of Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Short does when they advertise their services and solicit Mesothelioma.and asbestos victims for a pending class action. Bloom and Co. are merely beating the bushes for the "victims" of the personal injury of sexual assault and letting them know that legal help is available.

The Rules of Professional Conduct for every state also say that an attorney "shall avoid even the appearance of impropriety." I fully agree that Ms. Bloom's actions look sickeningly improper but, in this era of legal hair-splitting, they probably do not quite rise to the level of "impropriety" as defined by those same Rules. It's a pity because if any two people on the planet deserve to get smacked down a peg it's Bloom and her mom.

Mark replies:

I agree with the above, which is why I demurred when introduced as a professional "ethicist". My own view - as I articulated to John Oakley in a Canadian context - is that the minute you need a professional board of ethics supervisors it's over. Miss Bloom's actions are indeed "sickeningly improper", and what matters in a healthy society is that the recognition of that impropriety should be sufficient to dissuade.

BallBounces in Toronto

John Shuba • Jan 5, 2018 at 12:37

John -- for some reason, when I got to your _________ I wanted to insert the word "Michael" followed by the word "Mann".

Sol Cranfill

John Shuba • Jan 5, 2018 at 13:52

Mark's point to John Oakley that "the minute you need a professional board of ethics supervisors, it's over," is illustrated by Bill and Hillary Clinton: dirty as the county dump, but consistently done with a legal defense in mind, to pantsuit the law.

In a recent podcast, former US attorney Preet Bharara described the microchip-manufacturing facility level of cleanliness observed at the federal justice level, which was quite a contrast to the independent counsel.

John Shuba

John Shuba • Jan 5, 2018 at 17:25

Dear Mark. Indeed! Much like the concept of "evil", it is also safe to say that "Shame is an idea that has fallen on hard times."

John Shuba

Sol Cranfill • Jan 5, 2018 at 18:20

In the days before the shot clock basketball teams holding a lead in the last ten minutes would often "sit on the ball" - They would hold and pass the basketball around for five, seven or ten minutes forcing the other team to burn it's timeouts. That's how'd the Clintons operate. When they get into trouble they tie down the investigative process in micro-legalisms until enough people grow sick of the whole thing. (Is oral sex really sex? Depends on what your definition of "is" is.") Of course this doesn't include the lies, half-truths and outright intimidation that is an integral part of Clinton operations.

tug

John Shuba • Jan 6, 2018 at 07:13

"What matters in a "healthy" society is that the recognition of that impropriety should by sufficient to dissuade"
In today's world of moral relativism the recognition of impropriety and evil has been blurred so badly that I fear for my children and grandchildren's future as Americans.
As a K-16 catholic I was tasked with learning the 10 Commandants to use as a guide to plot my course through life. Over the 16 years the "Good Sisters" started with the easy one's first, Honor thy Mother and Father. As I got older the "Good Sisters" handed off the Commandants to pious, humble parish priest. They tackled the "Thy Shalt not commit Adultry, or Covet they neighbors wife" when I got old enough to understand what they were talking about.
What you learn as a child and young adult you have forever as your base of your character. When as an adult you bang up against one of the !0 Commandments and you choose to obey the one you're faced with and not violate it, you establish your moral character. You win, society wins, the Good Sisters and Father Fitz send some blessings from their perch in eternity..
Can your children or grandchildren tell you what the 10 Commandants are, and recite them, mine can.If not you have work to do.
Without a solid path to "recognize impropriety" the future generations will not be able to "recognize evil" in a "moral their is no evil" world

Tom Korte • Jan 5, 2018 at 10:31

Nice video. I like it. You forgot to include real estate agents in there with the lawyer description though.