Edwards - Vile Ambulance-Chaser?

The Republicans have rallied around a talking point intended to diminish John Edwards, the nezt vice-president of the United States. That talking point emphasizes that Edwards made his money as a personal injury lawyer - that parasitic species that exists only to destroy American businesses with frivolous lawsuits.

The Bush-loving Tucker Carlson chose to make this an issue, pointing out that Edwards "was a personal-injury lawyer specializing in Jacuzzi cases". Instead, Carlson thinks America should vote for a man who made money the American way - by screwing taxpayers with the assistance of his bigshot father.

Here's a little background on that "Jacuzzi case" those "compassionate conservatives" are talking about:

"On a summer evening in 1993, David Lakey took his little girl swimming at a recreation center in Raleigh, N.C. Valerie Lakey was 5 years old, a good swimmer, and she and her friends liked to splash around in the children's wading pool that stayed open a little
later than the big pool where they usually swam.

That's what Valerie was doing when a nearby mom heard her call out for help. Valerie was sitting on the bottom of the shallow pool, and the suction from the drain was holding her down. David Lakey raced to free his daughter but couldn't. Other parents jumped in the water to help, but they couldn't get Valerie loose. Valerie was scared, and she began to say that her stomach hurt.

Time passed, and somebody figured out how to turn off the pool's pump. The suction broke, and Valerie was released from its grip. But as David Lakey pulled his daughter from the water, blood and tissue filled the pool. Valerie's intestines had been sucked out.

David Lakey slumped to the ground on the side of the pool. He held his daughter on his chest, praying as they waited for an ambulance. Over and over, he told Valerie, "Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you."

This account of what happened to Valerie Lakey comes from "Four Trials," the book John Edwards wrote last year as he prepared to run for the presidency. Edwards represented Valerie in a lawsuit against the company that made the drain cover in that swimming pool. A jury awarded her $25 million, compensation for a life of intravenous feedings and colostomy bags."

Would you trade your child's intestines for $25 million? Tucker Carlson might, but would you? How about if you found out that the pool-drain company knew that people had been injured before by its product, that the product could have been made safe by the use of two inexpensive screws, and that the company had thought about including a written warning with the product but didn't do so?

The Republicans want to put a cap on the recovery of children who have their intestines sucked out by negligent corporations - oh, a couple hundred thousand dollars ought to take care of something like this.

People like John Edwards see situations like this and say why. Republicans see injured little children and say why not.