The RNC Chairman is now Mel Martinez, a former trial attorney from Florida. He made his bones in Florida working personal injury cases, and now leads the cause for the recently thumped GOP. My guess is his Hispanic heritage was a key factor, since Hispanics deserted the GOP in droves earlier this month in the mid term elections. "Although between 40 and 44 percent of Latinos voted for President Bush in 2004, almost 70 percent of Hispanic voters cast their lot for Democrats last week, according to exit polls." Source here.
In Florida, a trial attorney is now Lt. Governor. He was a member of one of the state's most aggressive trial lawyer firms, Morgan & Morgan. A good background article on him can be found here.
How will a Hispanic Trial Attorney accept the personal debasing that is such a part of the hysterial dialogue on immigration while working the byways of the USA? Will the medical malpractice mess of laws in Florida be revisited? Kottkamp himself had a brush with death that may have changed him, and it turned into a malpractice claim.
The article notes that he was a plaintiff in an October 2005 lawsuit alleging that improper maintenance of the hospital's roof allowed mold to infiltrate the room where he had surgery. That event almost killed him.
Perhaps each will be able to avoid the demonizing that goes on in the litigation arena. Perhaps each will be able to fight the splitting that goes on at the highest levels of the GOP. Time will tell.
