Friday, March 14, 2014

Ky Gov. Beshear hires campaign donors to defend KY marriage law

The latest press release from The Family Foundation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2014

LEXINGTON, KY—"The fox is in full control of the henhouse," said The Family Foundation’s spokesman today after it was revealed that Gov. Steve Beshear had hired a law firm whose partners are big donors to Democratic campaigns to defend Kentucky's Marriage Amendment.

"The opponents of the Kentucky Marriage Amendment like to talk about being fair, but there has been nothing fair about the defense of the right of Kentucky voters to define marriage so far," said Martin Cothran. "First, we have an Attorney General who was charged with defending the rights of Kentucky's voters on this issue and waited until after a judge ruled against him to reveal that he agreed with the other side. Now, we have the Governor appointing a law firm whose partners donated to his campaign."

"The venue for deciding the fate of Kentucky's Marriage Amendment is now officially a kangaroo court," said Cothran.

Cothran said he hoped the firm taking the case would not follow the path of Attorney General Jack Conway, who filed a weakly-argued brief in the case, failed to show up for meetings with the judge and refused to sign motions in the case.

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5 comments:

Singring said...

Martin, I'm getting really confused here...

A couple of weeks ago, you were outraged that the lawyer in charge of the appeal would be paid a measly $125 and hour. Your response was this:

'$125 an hour? Whuuuut!!!

That may sound like a lot to some people, but $125 per hour won't buy you a paralegal in this day and age. No wonder we can't win in court anymore: the government that is responsible for defending these laws are against them, their representatives (e.g. Jack Conway) pretend they're for you while their trying to spike the case, and then they go to Budget Rent-An-Attorney to replace the guy who quit on you and who wasn't trying real hard in the first place.'

Now you're all in a huff because Beshear hires a firm that donated to his campaign as if he was doing them a favour.

If $125 an hour are such a joke, then why on earth would this firm benefit from it. The way you maid it sound, it's almost as if they're doing this pro bono at that kind of fee!

Do make your mind up, please...

Martin Cothran said...

Singring,

That's a good point on the face of it, but I think you're missing my point.

The point is not that they will financially benefit from it: They may or may not. The point is that they are apparently Democrats with ties to a liberal Democratic governor.

This is not the kind of people you first think of when you want to defend a conservative law.

So now we have a double problem: Not only do they not have the financial incentive to defend it, they don't have an ideological incentive to defend it either.

KyCobb said...

Martin,

Liberal? Isn't Beshear the same Governor who approved tax credits to help get the "Ark Park" built? Lots of Democrats in Kentucky are pretty socially conservative. And as an aside, the hypocrisy of the religious right in crying about "persecution" for their anti-gay beliefs is reavealed in Franklin Graham's statement in admiration of Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin's persecution of homosexuals.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/14/franklin-graham-putin-gay-obama_n_4966399.html

Art said...

A suggestion, Martin - YOU should offer to defend KY's statute in court. You surely cannot be mistaken for a liberal who would ignore conservative sensibilities, and almost assuredly have no conflict of interest as far as the Governor is concerned (although I'll admit that, in the Commonwealth, stranger things have probably happened). You'd be the perfect advocate.

Heck, you can make more points that just defending conservative values with respect to marriage. You could charge, say, $5 per hour. This would save taxpayers lots of money, and you'd be thumbing your nose at the socialistic abomination known as the minimum wage. (Of course, Beshear would have to pay you minimum wage, in spite of your protest. Imagine the headline - Cothran offers to save taxpayers bundles of money, Obama says no!)

KyCobb said...

Head hate-mongering homophobe Fred Phelps is dying, and he has reportedly been excommunicated by the church he founded, Westboro Baptist (membership of which consists solely of his family members, afaik). So it appears that the only people who will be at his funeral will be his own brood of vipers celebrating his damnation to Hell. Karma is a b**ch.