“At 5:30, she said,’I want to come out.'” Actually what she said was more complicated. She was speaking through a fetal monitor. Sometimes they are hard to interpret. But this is the way John Edwards summed up the case of a child born with cerebral palsy before a jury (in a Saturday NYT story). “She speaks to you through me, “Edwards said in his summation. “And I have to tell you right now’and I didn’t plan to talk about this’right now I feel her.” The jury returned a verdict of $6.5 million.
From my days as a reporter in New Orleans, I’ve loved the hokey magic of a good trial lawyer. But it should also be noted and noted again that Edwards opposed a bill that would have given all children born with cerebral palsy in the state, and not just the ones who hired Edwards, money. It would have meant no more multimillion-dollar verdicts for him.
A good trial lawyer is an awesome thing, and Edwards was one of the best. But, like summation in the cerebral palsy trial, remarks really don’t quite mean as much as they seem to. Nevertheless, the Inside Washington gang was in full Edwards swoon Saturday night. On the show, Charles Krauthammer pointed out that all Edwards was actually saying in the speech in question was that we aren’t that popular in France. Not that that affected the swooning.’The rumor in political circles is that the charmless Kerry and the charming Edwards have already cut a deal regarding the second spot on the ticket. I relish the idea of Edwards debating Cheney, but otherwise this is a pretty scary thought.