No Bid Contracts

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal editorial board administered a loquacious beatdown on Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood over his practice of hiring lawyers to do legal work.


WSJ Editorial:

The documents show Mr. Hood has retained at least 27 firms as outside counsel to pursue at least 20 state lawsuits over five years. The law firms are thus able to employ the full power of the state on their behalf, while Mr. Hood can multiply the number of targets.

Those targets are invariably deep corporate pockets: Eli Lilly, State Farm, Coca-Cola, Merck, Boston Scientific, Vioxx and others. The vast majority of the legal contracts were awarded on a contingency fee basis, meaning the law firm is entitled to a big percentage of any money that it can wring from defendants. The amounts can be rich, such as the $14 million payout that lawyer Joey Langston shared with the Lundy, Davis firm in an MCI/WorldCom settlement.

These firms are only too happy to return the favor to Mr. Hood via campaign contributions. Campaign finance records show that these 27 law firms -- or partners in those firms -- made $543,000 in itemized campaign contributions to Mr. Hood over the past two election cycles.

Outsourcing public work to private corporations? Who were campaign contributors? In the form of no-bid contracts?

I guess I can understand how the WSJ finds this so distasteful. But if this kind of thing really burns ye olde editorial board up, how do they have any outrage left after the past seven years?

Oh, right.

Make sure and follow the WSJ link to check out Big Jim's stippling!