Gripping already for the Ryder Cup

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Rydercup06logo2.jpgThe United States has lost four out of the last five Ryder Cup competitions, so it’s not particularly surprising that some U.S. golf fans are viewing the 2006 Ryder Cup competition next month at the K Club in Ireland with some trepidation. However, former Houstonian and noted teaching professional Butch Harmon is already gripping particularly hard in anticipation of the competition, and Brett Wetterich — who will be playing in his first Ryder Cup competition for the American team — is the target of Harmon’s nervousness:

Brett Wetterich, who squeezed into the US Ryder Cup team in the last available qualifying spot, will have to greatly improve his attitude at next month’s Ryder Cup match at the K Club.
At least that’s the way widely-respected US swing coach and Sky Sports analyst Butch Harmon sees it.
Harmon told Sky Sports he was “appalled” by what he saw on day two at the 9th hole at last week’s PGA Championship where Wetterich, destined to miss the cut by nine shots after shooting a 2nd-round 77, took four shots to get out of some greenside rough.
Harmon says he was infuriated by Wetterich’s attitude.
“I was appalled by what I saw with Brett Wetterich,” he told Sky Sports. [. . .]
“This isn’t the kind of guy you want on your Ryder Cup team,” Harmon said of Wetterich.

H’mm. I guess Wetterich will at least have something to talk about with Tiger Woods during the Ryder Cup competition.

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The drift of the Nacchio prosecution

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cliff stricklin.jpgThis Denver Post article reports on the appointment of former Enron Task Force prosecutor Cliff Stricklin as the lead prosecutor in the Justice Department’s criminal case against former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio on insider trading charges. Stricklin was a member of the Task Force’s team that handled the Lay-Skilling trial, although he sat about fourth chair and did very little in the courtroom during the trial.
However, neither the fawning Post article nor the other media accounts of Stricklin’s appointment that I have seen mention Stricklin’s dubious conduct in the first Enron Broadband trial, which did not turn out quite so “successfully” for the Task Force as the Lay-Skilling trial. As noted in this earlier post, Stricklin was one of the lead prosecutors during that debacle in which the prosecution was caught eliciting false testimony from one of the Task Force’s main witnesses and threatening two defense-friendly witnesses (Beth Stier and Lawrence Ciscon). Then, to top it off, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore cut off Stricklin from further cross-examination of one of the defendants and rebuked him in open court during the latter stages of that trial when Stricklin violated one of the court’s limine orders. That trial — which appeared to be a tap-in for the Task Force at the outset — ended in a crushing defeat for the Task Force.
In the Post article noted above, Colorado U.S. Attorney Troy Eid issued the following statement about Stricklin:

“Cliff’s extraordinary background, including his work on the Enron Task Force, makes him the ideal leader to handle the Joseph Nacchio case while serving Colorado as first assistant U.S. attorney.”

Yeah, right.

Hoop Nazis

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Basketball Hoop of the Rich and Lazy.jpgI recognize that the University Park area of Dallas is a nice place to live and all, and I also concede that the residents there are rightly attentive to maintaining property values and the decorum of the area. But this recent Dallas Morning News article reports on an initiative that establishes fairly convincingly that a number of the UP residents simply do not have enough to do:

Hoops could be shot down in this wealthy community thanks to a proposed ordinance banning basketball goals in front yards. The reason? To some city officials, they don’t look too good.
That’s the basis of a proposed University Park ordinance prohibiting portable and permanent basketball hoops. On Tuesday, council members postponed a decision on the ordinance until their Aug. 22 meeting so revisions could be made, . . .
Under the proposal, violators could be fined up to $2,000 a day. [. . .]
The ordinance the Planning and Zoning Commission and city staff originally recommended would have allowed residents to keep portable basketball goals in their front yards for up to 30 days a year. Council members wanted none of that, though.
They went back and forth for about 15 minutes at their Tuesday meeting on whether to allow swings, soccer goals and basketball goals in front yards at all. Some wanted to allow them certain months of the year, others only during daylight hours.
Portable soccer goals and badminton nets were deemed allowable because they could be moved inside every night. So were one-seat swings, provided they don’t swing into the street.
Trampolines and basketball goals weren’t as lucky.
“It’s just not as pleasing to the eye,” [the] Mayor . . . said about the goals.

The sinking Milberg Weiss ship

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Milberg Weiss new11.gifClass action securities powerhouse Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman has been attempting to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of the Justice Department’s decision to go Arthur Andersen on the firm earlier this year (previous posts here), but this New York Observer article (related NY Times article here) reports that the firm’s demise is imminent, well before the criminal trial of the firm:

A lawyer for a competing firm, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he had interviewed several Milberg Weiss employees seeking a position with his firm.
He said they have the same sense of the mood at the firm.
ìThat itís sad, itís a sinking ship, itís like a funeral home. Itís extremely upsetting,î he said. ìItís like waiting for them to turn out the lights and close the door; theyíre running for the exits.î
Published reports have documented the departure of about two dozen attorneys since the indictments were handed down. Thatís a lot in a firm of 125 lawyers.
And of the offices once listed on the companyís Web siteóLos Angeles; Boca Raton, Fla.; and Manhattanóonly the New York and California branches remain.
The firm once employed close to 500 people, including paralegals, investigators, messengers, secretaries, forensic experts and lawyers. [ . . .]
The ìexperience with Arthur Andersen indicated that partnerships are fragile entities,î said [New York University law professor and Milberg Weiss advisor Samuel] Issacharoff. ìThatís the reality.î

The government’s prosecution of Milberg Weiss out of business will have nowhere near the economic impact that the government’s effective shuttering of Arthur Andersen had. And certainly a plaintiff’s firm is not the type of victim that elicits much sympathy. However, that does not make any less outrageous what the government is doing here — effectively killing the accused after investigating it for over five years and before it is determined whether it has committed a crime. That there is not more of an outcry over this injustice reflects a troubling deference that even the legal community is now giving to the abuse of the criminal justice system by federal prosecutors. As Sir Thomas More reminds us “do you really think you could stand upright in the winds [of abusive prosecutorial power] that would blow” if that power were applied to you?

The risk of supporting a former girlfriend

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Hecht and Miers.jpgIt’s reasonably clear that Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht didn’t think anything of it when he gave dozens of media interviews last year supporting President Bush’s nomination to the US Supreme Court of his former girlfriend and fellow parishoner, trusted Bush White House advisor Harriet Miers.
But the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct didn’t view Justice Hecht’s politicking on behalf of Miers in the same way. In May, the Commission issued an ethics rebuke to Justice Hecht, determining that he had improperly used the prestige of his office to support the nomination of Miers. Earlier this week, Justice Hecht appealed that decision to a three-judge panel during a hearing in Ft. Worth (hat tip to Peter Lattman for the link).
The Commission accused Justice Hecht of going ìon a specific mission, a campaign, in connection with certain parties in the White House and their operativesî and, in so doing, violated two canons of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct:

ìA judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others;î and
ìA judge . . . shall not authorize the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office.î

In response, Justice Hecht contends that the Commission misapplied the canons because Miers was not a political candidate, was not involved in a political election race and had no election opponent. Moreover, Justice Hecht observed that reporters were interested in his views about Miers because of his three-decade friendship with her, not because of his status as a Texas Supreme Court Justice.
The three-judge panel has 60 days in which to issue a ruling. The panel’s decision may be appealed directly to the US Supreme Court, which Hecht lawyer Chip Babcock contends that he will if the Commission’s rebuke of Justice Hecht is upheld.

The lucrative sacrificial lamb market in college football

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lamb.jpgAlthough I enjoy most college sporting events, I have long maintained that the structure of major-college football in the US is fundamentally flawed (related post here). Along those lines, this NY Times article reports on a lucrative market that has evolved from the NCAA’s regulation of major college football — less successful football programs selling the opportunity to be a sacrificial lamb to the more successful programs:

The University at Buffalo football team went 1-10 last season and did not score a touchdown until the fourth game. For nearly a decade, it has been considered one of the worst teams in college football.
Buffalo is just the kind of opponent some of the nationís top-ranked teams are looking for ó and are paying rapidly rising prices to play this season. The Bulls will travel this coming season to play Auburn, a national title contender, and Wisconsin, a perennial Big Ten Conference power. Although Buffalo appears destined to be humiliated, the university will receive a $600,000 appearance check for each game.

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Barbaro continues to beat the odds

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barbaro eating roses3.jpgThis NY Times article continues its excellent coverage of the recovery of Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro from a life-threatening injury suffered in the Preakness Stakes (previous posts here). The article does a good job of explaining the tremendous resources that are being deployed to attempt to save the horse’s life, which could still have great financial value if the horse can recover sufficiently to be leased as a stallion for breeding purposes.
Although Barbaro’s health is still at great risk, the thoroughbred no longer needs the sling that was used immediately after surgery to keep weight off the horse’s legs and the epidurals that he required for pain have not been necessary for several weeks. Moreover, Barbaro is now being walked outside each day in a field and being allowed to graze. As a result, the horse is appearing to become stronger by the day. Stay tuned.

Quattrone walks, but what about Andersen?

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frank quattrone.jpgFormer CSFB investment banker Frank Quattrone’s ordeal came to a close yesterday as the Court in the criminal case against him approved a deferred-prosecution agreement under which the charges will be dropped in a year and Mr. Quattrone was not required to pay a fine or admit any wrongdoing.

Thus, apart from the enormous cost of the prior litigation and having this talented businessman out of work for the past five years, at least Quattrone can now get back to his career and, as Peter Lattman notes, recover $120 million that he has coming to him.

But the same cannot be said for Arthur Andersen, which was prosecuted out of business under similar circumstances as Quattrone.

Just as Mr. Quattrone was never charged any criminal offense related to investment banking, Andersen was not prosecuted for providing fraudulent accounting services to its client, Enron.

Rather, appealing to the dynamics of resentment of wealthy and powerful business interests in the aftermath of Enron’s demise, Quattrone and Andersen were both indicted for obstruction of justice and witness-tampering related almost entirely to a single email that Quattrone and Andersen in-house counsel Nancy Temple sent reminding employees of each organization to clean up there files in accordance with each company’s document retention policy.

Instead of undertaking the difficult task of proving that either Quattrone or Andersen were really involved in any fraudulent acts, prosecutors in both cases portrayed the emails as a criminal cover-up. Then, without basis, the prosecutors liberally “suggested” in inflammatory public statements and during trial that Quattrone and Andersen were involved in fraud.

The prosecution of Quattrone was costly, but that cost pales in comparison to the economic damage that the Justice Department caused in prosecuting an American accounting institution and its 30,000 employees out of business. Despite that, similar misguided prosecutions continue.

This is simply not a rational deployment of the prosecutorial resources of our criminal justice system.

John McClain can’t help himself

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pitts_school090704a.jpgGiven the largely meaningless nature of NFL pre-season football, I’m holding off on posting my annual pre-season blog post on the Texans until the first regular season game is close at hand. But given the Chronicle’s blanket coverage of the Texans’ training camp, it’s a bit hard to overlook the cheerleading doozies that the Chronicle writers generate almost daily about their hometown heroes.
With the exception of a couple of comments such as this one last week, Chronicle NFL columnist John McClain has generally been more careful this pre-season than he was last pre-season when he was predicting that the Texans were primed to make a playoff run. However, McClain simply cannot contain his cheerleading for the Texans at times, such as the following comment about Texans guard Chester Pitts, who is competing for a job in the area of one of the Texans’ traditionally weakest areas, the offensive line:

“It seems strange that Pitts is having to compete for a starting job, considering he’s never missed a play in four seasons while moving between left tackle and left guard.”

Pitts has been a member of the Texans offensive line that has been the worst pass-blocking line in the NFL for the past four seasons. Last season, Football Prospectus attributed 40 of the quarterback sacks that QB David Carr endured directly to blown blocks of the offensive line, which was the highest number in the NFL among offensive lines. Pitts had six of those blown blocks for sacks, which was the second-most on the line (Todd Wade, who is no longer with the team, was the leader with eight). Pitts has also been one of the most-penalized offensive linemen in the NFL during his four years in the league.
Thus, from my vantage point, it does not seem strange at all that Pitts is competing for a starting job. In fact, it reflects progress that he is.

What’s really behind the Andrew Young-Wal-Mart flap

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wal_mart logo2.gifThis NY Times article reports on the flap over the recent remarks of Andrew Young, the colleague of Martin Luther King who went on to become the first black congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction and one of Atlanta’s most prominent politicians.
Young had recently become a consultant for Wal-Mart, but that particular job didn’t last long after Young was quoted during a recent interview “defending” Wal-Mart as not being so bad for black people because Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had traditionally ìripped offî black neighborhoods by ìselling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables.î Concluding that Young’s defense of the company was faint praise, Wal-Mart understandably let him go.
As would be expected, the Times article focuses on the angst that Young’s remarks has generated among the folks who are preoccupied with race relations, but Larry Ribstein observes the much more troubling dynamic that is truly behind Young’s remarks:

I don’t believe civil rights hero Young is a bigot. But unfortunately the bigoted nature of his remarks will draw attention from the real prejudice here — against capitalism. It’s really all about people who want to make a profit, and those who insist that this is a zero sum game that has to be ripping off the customers.
The result of this attitude is anti-Wal-Mart laws like the one coming up in Chicago that hurt the very people Young fought to defend. Even when hired to defend Wal-Mart, Young couldn’t resist bashing it, and others who tried to make a buck.

Meanwhile, along the same lines, Jeff Matthews analyzes Senator Joe Biden’s recent anti-Wal-Mart remarks and how they reveal the leadership void within the Democratic Party. Check it out.
Update: The always-insightful Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal chimes in with this column ($) echoing the same thoughts and more.