Way to go, guys:
Earlier this year, Speaker John Boehner’s (R) office announced that American taxpayers would pay former Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act — at a cost of $520 per hour of legal work. Clement’s original contract, however, included a $500,000 cap on the amount Clement could charge the United States to help protect discrimination. Less than six months later, Clement appears to have blown through that cap, and the House GOP now anticipates that he will take another $1 million from the American people.
A million and a half dollars to gay bash, funded by you and me.
Keith
Does this mean we’re no longer broke?
joes527
Dude. Do you know how many muffins that would buy?
singfoom
This is obviously a way to save the American people money and to generate jobs. How exactly is the contract going to be extended? Nothing like grifting on the culture wars…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Conservatives are willing to spend whatever it takes so that only they have access.
Felinious Wench
So…can we start pointing out this government waste to the Republican candidates and ask them to respond?
That would rock.
piratedan
@Keith: nah, I’m sure there’s some other program that might benefit the 99% of us that can be sacrificed so this noble effort can continue.
dmsilev
And let me guess. The lawyer also deserves a tax cut, because he’s clearly a Producer, not a Moocher.
Gilles de Rais
Paying a man a million dollars a year to keep gays from marrying seems like an excellent use of taxpayer dollars
cleek
six months @ 40 hours a week @ $520/hr = $520,000.
he really spent 1000 hours on that?
Kristine
@joes527: Dude. Do you know how many muffins that would buy?
Win.
Warren Terra
I’d just like to point at the blithering ignorance of the budgeteering here. Noone could have predicted that a frickin’ Supreme Court Case would be seen as being a full-time job (40 hours a week for six months) – especially when the billing is probably at a nominally discounted rate.
Svensker
I assume this plethora of posting by Cole is the normal response to his “I’m sick of blogging and don’t have a thing to say” post from yesterday.
slag
If he loses the case does that mean we get to start a congressional investigation and drag in Steven Chu?
burnspbesq
I would bet that $520/hour is a blended rate; it’s awfully low for someone like Clement. The $500k cap was always ludicrous, regardless of whether Clement or Boehner was responsible for the bait-and-switch.
I’m actually fairly sanguine about the expense. It will be good to have this case litigated by highly competent counsel of the bigots’ choosing. In a perfect world, after they lose they will shut up about this. Of course, this is far from a perfect world.
ruemara
I could do this job for less than half. I’m not saying I’d do it well, since I’m not a lawyer, but I can drink and bullshit to put myself in the mind set of incoherent bigot arguments. Plus, black woman, instant GOP caché.
KG
As much as I don’t like the law, and believe it is unconstitutional, if the Congress isn’t going to repeal the law, someone should defend it in court. It’s the republican (note the small r) thing to do. Otherwise, you don’t have much standing to complain when a Republican president decides the Endangered Species Act is unconstitutional and not worth defendng
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
DING DING DING DING DING!
All this talk of “moochers” is projection that can’t be contained by a single octoplex.
John PM
$520 an hour is not that bad as lawyer’s rates go. Of course, that is still double my rate. I was actually just referred a case where a previous firm offered to represent the client (an individual, not a corporation) at $875 an hour.
However, blowing through $500,000 in 6 months for this kind of case seems extreme. No doubt some portion of the now $1.5 million is making its way back to Republican representatives in the form of compaign contributions.
PeakVT
At least Solyndra said it was going to build stuff. Granted, it was hippie treehugging stuff that ran directly counter to Americans’ god-given right to burn planet-destroying amounts of fossil fuels. But still, it was stuff.
Warren Terra
@KG:
I agree with this.
asiangrrlMN
@ruemara: I’m with ruemara on this one. Give me a hundred thou, and I’ll defend that piece of shit law. Then, when I lose, I’ll donate it to the ACLU.
fasteddie9318
Shit, they could have paid me a million to travel around the country and make a spectacle of myself at any gay weddings I saw, and that would have been just as effective plus only 2/3 the price.
Rafer Janders
@cleek:
For a Supreme Court case? Oh yeah. Easy.
burnspbesq
Oh, lovely. The founding partner of Clement’s new firm, Bancroft PLLC, is none other than Viet Dinh, scuzzball deluxe of the Bush DOJ.
elmo
@John PM:
Wow. Every day, in every way, I am reminded of how happy I am to have gone in-house.
Emma
@KG: Actually, no, you wouldn’t, and it’s designed that way. The DoJ can determine that according to their review the law is unconstitutional, and refuse to defend it in court. It’s happened before.
MikeJ
@John PM: That’s 40 hours a week, 4 week per month non stop for six months.
Of course calculated like that means no charging for support staff or photocopying or expert witnesses (and expect to see plenty of of well compensated “experts”) or any of the other things that guarantee that courts are for rich people.
gelfling545
@Keith: We are. Mr. Clement, Esq. is not.
slag
@burnspbesq:
I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. But better safe than sorry. Where are all the emails discussing this guy’s hire? Where’s the New York Times when we need it?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
OT: We’re having a discussion over Obama’s “czars” here and i was wondering if 1) people knew who FOX complains about when they say “czars” and 2) which of these people didn’t exist during the Bush administration? Those that existed during the Bush administration should also include positions created in order to implement the various bailouts.
JGabriel
@joes527:
32.5
Since the muffins are $16 [ 2^4 ] and $520 is 2^9 + 2^3, any geek can tell you the answer to that one by just looking at it.
.
fasteddie9318
Has anybody heard anything about Chris Christie? If he’s changed his mind about running in the last half-hour or so, I think I speak for all patriotic Americans when I say that this money should somehow be given to him.
JoshA
Um…speaking as a lawyer, when you put a cap on a cost of defense, you don’t get to just chuck it out the window and triple it. The main exception is if there are unforseen events (for example, a hung jury that requires a 2nd trial). But the reason the cap exists is to give the client a guarantee that the services will not exceed X cost. Clement should be forced to honor his contract; as retainer agreements are legally binding, the House could sue to enforce it (and would likely win).
fasteddie9318
@JoshA:
I’m not sure if you’re just following an abstract intellectual thread to the end here, or if you actually think that Boehner gives a shit about holding this guy to his contract.
ruemara
@asiangrrlMN: We can be a GOP affirmative action team. Double chocolate asian fantasy haters with wingnut filling.
Villago Delenda Est
@slag:
Desperately hoping that Christie will run for president and light up their lives.
Alex S.
OT: Can anyone explain this?
Cain and Gingrich lead the polls in NC, WV and NE.
ruemara
@Alex S.:
No one is fucking satisfied with the GOP candidates, so they are flailing around for one that will stick.
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Shit, the deserting coward actually created a “war czar” to farm out the more mundane (the ones not involving strutting around like an ass) “Commander In Chief” duties to.
fasteddie9318
@Alex S.: Included in that PPP report is the reason why I don’t see Mitt winning the nomination:
It’s the same place he’s been more or less in since 2007. He ain’t going anywhere, and there’s nothing left to learn about him that’s going to draw in new support.
If I sacrifice several meatballs to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is there any chance I can has Newt?
Warren Terra
@fasteddie9318:
It seems obvious that Mitt can be beaten to the nomination by any remotely plausible candidate who doesn’t implode. Thing is, the R’s can’t seem to find any such. The previous contender, T-Paw, dropped out after deciding that he lacked both charisma and drive. Perry is looking like Homer Simpson in that yard full of rakes. And the rest are utter nonentities, are people even the Rs can identify as nutballs, or both.
cleek
@Alex S.:
a million Republicans collectively said “Next!”
and Cain was next.
Alex S.
@fasteddie9318:
Yeah, it’s why I had placed my bet on Perry: Romney is stable, but it’s not enough to win. But all the other guys, it’s like a merry-go-round. I don’t know… organisational strength might be overvalued when it comes to the GOP. Church, talk radio, blogs, that’s where the votes comes from.
buskertype
I just voted for Baber. I thought I might hold my nose and vote for Earl Ray, but as I got closer the stink was just overpowering. Bob Henry for Guv!
actually I already kinda feel guilty about it.
Punchy
I guess “cap” means something very different than I’ve been lead to believe.
WeeBey
These People Scare Me
David in NY
Gingrich?
Ed: Nevermind. http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/story-time-with-the-gingrich-family.php?ref=fpblg
Ben Cisco
So, “cap” means exactly what it sounds like it means.
__
Except when it doesn’t.
__
And twice on Tuesday.
SenyorDave
@Warren Terra: Wasn’t it Sideshow Bob in the yardful of rakes? It was the “Cape Fear” parody.
jsfox
We’ll spend millions denying folks their rights, but not one dime getting folks back to work.
The Republican Agenda 2011-12
jwest
@WeeBey:
Black people scare most democrats.
Professor
@slag: Viet Dinh is also a director at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and is now working on the little case of hacking at the News of the World (now defunct)
gnomedad
@ruemara:
Anyone dusting off !Joe the !Plumber yet?
joes527
@JGabriel: That’s 32.5 muffins/hour.
And we know that Christie isn’t running, so that is really excessive.
Yes, I went there.
zadig
Since fundies managed to get any use of their tax dollars protected from being spent on abortion, it should be open season on outlawing tax spending that offends my personal morals.
Glad that’s settled. So, now, how do I get my money outlawed from defending DOMA?
JITC
Just to be clear, per Republican “logic” it’s ok to make socially progressive tax payers pay for policies/defend laws which they have moral objections to (e.g. bans on gay marriage), but not socially conservative tax payers (e.g. legal abortion). So noted.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Warren Terra:
I’m thinking it is increasingly likely that Mitt goes into the convention with a plurality of delegates but (by a slim margin) not a majority, with the majority of the delegates balkanized between multiple different candidates because the not-Mitt voter block never coalesced behind a single candidate during the primaries and instead was distributed amongst a variety of regional favorite sons/daughters and flavor-of-the-month candidates.
We may just get the nirvana of all poltical junkies: a brokered convention. And for once the MSM’s obsession with spectacle might work to our advantage.
Jenny
Deficit Jesus is crying.
Calouste
@JoshA:
That would be the case if this was a client-attorney relationship rather than wingnut welfare on the taxpayers’ dime.
Ash Can
@fasteddie9318:
T,IFI
@zadig:
@JITC:
THIS. Let Halliburton and the Koch brothers fund the Bush Doctrine and capital punishment out of their own goddamned pockets.
A Humble Lurker
@jwest:
Which is why there’s a black member of the Democratic party in the White House, right?
William Hurley
In addition to the political sliminess, their behavior proves they harbor nothing but contempt for their much vaunted “free-market”.
If it were actually illegal to fleece tax-payers, most of the wealthy and all of the GOP would flounder trying to make an honest living.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@JoshA:
And how much would doing THAT shit cost?