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Tenenbaum wanted to let me know that the committee he is heading up for the VCBA is focusing on educating the public on legal issues, including working with kids in schools, which is a different focus from what the Public Education committee used to be, which was defending trial lawyers against "attacks" from the US Chamber of Commerce.

The VCBA's website has been updated. The committee Tenenbaum is heading is now described thusly: "The Public Education Committee was newly re-formed in January 2006 with the goal of educating the public about the law. The committee will arrange visits by lawyers to student classrooms, invite newspaper columns on topics of interest to the general public, and serve generally to educate citizens about the law. An inaugural meeting will be held this spring."

I have archived the old VCBA page, which read, "The Public Education committee was formed to fight back the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attack on trial lawyers. The committee is currently developing a ready response team, which is prepared to deal with attacks made against the legal profession, the Speaker's Bureau, and Law Talk."

To verify Tenenbaum's statement that the committee had a prior incarnation with a different focus, and was not just scrubbed because this issue arose, I checked out online archives, and in fact, there was an old version of the VCBA site, with a Public Education Committee headed by Rob Sawyer. This committee has the original 'trial lawyer defense' statement, word-for-word.

So Michael Tenenbaum's story holds up just fine. Ah, but the story is not done. It turns out that GOP shill Robert Novak accused Tenenbaum of having “strong ties to the trial lawyer lobby” in his email newsletter to however many thousands of readers. From Novak's newsletter:

California-24: This week's events here will go down as one of the more bizarre happenings of the 2006 election cycle. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) waited until the last minute to announce that he would not be running for re-election due to an undisclosed medical condition. Unfortunately, the announcement came so close to the filing deadline that no one else could get in, and Gallegly did not get his name off the ballot. For a time, it seemed that Michael Tenenbaum (R), an obscure candidate with strong ties to the trial lawyer lobby had just hit the jackpot, and would, by default, become the next congressman from this Republican-leaning district.

So Tenenbaum fired off a letter to Novak requesting a retraction:

From: Michael Tenenbaum
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 11:49
To: 'Editors@EvansNovak.com'
Subject: RETRACTION

Hi Bob. I’m not sure where you came up with the idea that I have “strong ties to the trial lawyer lobby,” as you reported just the other day, but I suspect you might have based it on an unchecked reading of an outdated website description of a long-defunct incarnation of the Public Education Committee of the Ventura County Bar Association. (See the current description of the committee here: http://www.vcba.org/about/committees.shtml#PUBLIC.)

In fact, my only connection to the Public Education Committee began this year, when I asked the bar’s executive director whether there were any organized efforts within the bar to help educate the public about the law generally through, e.g., visits to student classrooms and Q&A-style newspaper columns. Since there were none -- and the committee by that name had been dead for years -- I decided to take the lead on creating a *new* Public Education Committee that will get lawyers to volunteer to help the public better understand everyday legal issues and to talk to schoolchildren about careers in the law. We’ll be holding our first meeting sometime this spring, and -- so long as I am involved with such a committee -- we’ll have nothing to do with fighting any chamber of commerce or helping any trial lawyer lobby.

One thing that should make my views on our litigation culture clear is my active involvement with the Los Angeles chapter of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a “grassroots public education organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog over the legal system and those who would seek to abuse it for undeserved gain.” I believe our legal system is in serious need of reform to weed out unmeritorious cases and reduce the cost and delay associated with resolving legitimate disputes. I would therefore appreciate it if you would print a retraction to set the record straight for your readers. Please feel free to call me in the future if I can clarify anything else you report (ideally before you report it).

Thanks.

Michael Tenenbaum

Michael Tenenbaum for Congress
2219 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Box 301
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Tel (805) 435-2520
Fax (805) 435-1771

Now, I'm not sure where Bob Novak got the idea that Tenenbaum has “strong ties to the trial lawyer lobby.” Tenenbaum assumes it is because of the VCBA website, but that isn't clear, and perhaps Novak has other sources. If Novak's sourcing is solely the VCBA website, then claims that Tenenbaum has strong trial lawyer lobby ties are essentially non-existent, and Novak should clarify this with his audience. I have emailed his organization directly asking for clarification.

But if there are retractions to be issued, Tenenbaum should start with the Ventura County Bar Association. A public website, for a bar association no less, very clearly stated that Tenenbaum was heading up a committee that squarely placed him in the trial lawyer box. If Tenenbaum was going to be head of a committee, and that information was to be published on the web, the text should absolutely have been vetted by Tenenbaum's team and a decision maker at the VCBA. This is a self-inflicted wound by a neophyte campaign that created what may very well be an inaccurate first impression.

It was very nice to get a call directly from the candidate. I appreciate it and respect him for it. I invited Michael to become an author on The Ojai Post, and it was of some interest to him - I hope he gives it a try.

The original story I wrote was not about "trial lawyers BAD" or Michael being a trial lawyer. It was about the GOP making every issue black and white, and polarizing the American public. If you do not blindly support this administration, then you are called treasonous, unpatriotic or un-American. I will give Michael Tenenbaum's candidacy the benefit of the doubt, but I see the political and policy actions of his party as being bad for this nation, and I hope that Tenenbaum reaches out to both sides of the aisle and refuses to play into the polarizing politics espoused by Rove, Cheney, Bush and the rest of the people at the top of his party.