Rotten Roots

Rotten Roots Monday Guest Post by Juan Caruso (SC)
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Well-intended legislation that aims to reform South Carolina’s anti-competitive legal climate gets watered down in the State Senate, usually thanks to a handful of wealthy trail lawyer-legislators who reap hundreds of thousands of dollars each year based on the failed status quo. FITSNews: It happens every year … Lawyer-Legislators Water Down SC Tort Reform Bill, May 4, 2010

Vincent A. Sheheen, a 39-year-old member of South Carolina's Senate, is the Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina.

The income tax returns Sheheen released Tuesday show his income rose from $73,641 in 2000 before he won a state House seat to $372,509 in 2009 as he served in the state Senate and launched his bid for governor. Nearly all the income is from his Camden law practice. - COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - WTLX NEWS19 Vincent Sheheen Releases Income Tax Information, 7/20/2010

The party crafty enough to present SC voters with Alvin Greene for U.S. Senate in 2010, also picked lawyer Vincent Sheheen for Governor. (Greene faces felony obscenity charges from indictment in a 2009 arrest, and although not expected to win a senate seat, is the first African-American nominated for the U.S. Senate by a major SC party.) African-American voter turnout in November will be unusually high despite any discouraging problems in Washington's oval office.
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Sheheen's hope to recapture the Governor's office for SC trial lawyers clearly hinges on the strength of Democrat turnout in November.
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The bumper sticker (above) is much closer to the truth than this one. Lawyers are a crafty bunch, who connive to deceive voters from noticing their lock on major political parties.
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What is at stake in SC and throughout the country are contests that will determine whether the lawyer-political complex tightens its parasitic stranglehold or is forced to loosen its grip for the next 4 years.
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Juan Caruso is an occasional guest cartoonist and author of the poem Extreme Creatures. A veteran submariner, Juan was raised in Puerto Rico and is currently a professional chef living in the South with his lovely wife and two young children.