Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Watching watchdog

Thursday, July 20, 2000 | 11:51 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

What a waste.

A waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of an obvious talent and a waste of a precious national resource -- our democratic ideals.

Perhaps I have been a bit too hasty in portraying the Washington, D.C.-based conservative organization, Judicial Watch, and its one-man band, Larry Klayman, as waste. But I just can't help it. Klayman would, hopefully, argue that what he is doing by laying waste to the personal and political lives of people with whom he disagrees is a calling from some higher authority that out-trumps good sense, good manners and good citizenship.

I use the word 'hopefully' because I actually think he believes a lot of the junk he is probably sending through the U.S. mails on its way to our federal courthouses. If not, then he is the kind of waste to which no one should lay claim and which most decent people should discard when they chance upon him.

Given his proclivity to sue at the drop of a hat and tie up our valuable judicial resources, the mere thought of criticizing what I believe are his undemocratic legal shenanigans is a sure way to get sued myself. I gave that matter some thought before I decided to express my opinion on the subject of Judicial Watch and its latest client, Gennifer Flowers, and concluded that public service must prevail over timidity in the face of legalized harassment.

Besides, it has been a while since I took on a bully.

Yes, Klayman is a bully. He picks on people who have trouble defending themselves. I know, I know. You are wondering why it is that I believe people like our first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clinton administration ally James Carville and one-time ally George Stephanopoulos have a difficult time defending themselves. The answer is simple.

In their own element, the public forum, they can more than hold their own. In fact, I'd put most anybody up against Carville and dare them to come out standing. But when the full majesty of the federal court system, with its subpoena powers and its discovery attitude, is used and abused to the point of distraction and potentially bankrupting legal fees, there are very few people who can withstand the bright lights or the expense that defending yourself entails.

I am not specifically blaming the judges because they are used to fair play and have come to expect it from all lawyers who walk into their courtrooms. Conniving, abusive tactics that people like Klayman have conjured up to harass those with whom he disagrees are often rare or nonexistent in most courtrooms. Before the judges know what is really happening, they have already signed the orders and lit the light under the litigious Larry to allow him to pursue his prey. Yes, he knows how to work the judicial system better than anyone I have seen in a long time. It won't be until a smart federal judge finally gets wise to his skulduggery and tells him to pack up his trashy ways and get out of town that the other judges on Klayman's string will see the wisdom of following suit.

Until then, we will continue to see the spectacle of a Judicial Watch using our courts to punish political opponents who have dared to disagree.

The reason Klayman can continue his mischief is because he finds clients who are vulnerable and perhaps less than smart enough to know when they are being used or, to the contrary, smart enough to know how to let themselves be used to advance their own agendas.

I have my own opinion about into which of those two categories Gennifer Flowers fits, but I'll save that for another time. All that is necessary to know today is that Miss Flowers, a lady whose career choice has brought her to Las Vegas, has allowed herself to be used to advance Klayman's "lay-waste-at-all-cost" agenda.

Naturally, Larry couldn't care less about the costs involved because they are being paid by people who hate the Clintons and their friends. Besides, in the end, it is the unwitting and easily entertained taxpayers who will wind up with the lion's share of the bills, both in court time spent and in courts clogged to the point that legitimate issues cannot get heard.

I believe that everyone should have his day in court. In this case, though, Larry Klayman and his judicial watching thugs have taken far more than their share and the result may wreak havoc on future court actions. Judicial Watch needs some judicial watching so that it cannot continue to drag political opponents through a system designed to redress legal wrongs. His complaints are political and we already have a system for that -- it is called the voting booth.

The great danger is that this kind of legalized harangue is not confined to just the political nuts on the right. In politics it is often said that paybacks are ugly. What harm may come to our democracy when in later years a Klayman from the left decides to brush off the Klayman briefs and do some damage of his own to those with whom he and his clients disagree? The justification and precedents will be there to allow ill-intentioned lawyers to harass the other side at least as much as their colleagues were subjected to years before. That cannot bode well for an electorate which wants to stay informed about issues but can only get information leaked from court briefs, depositions and sometimes falsely sworn affidavits.

The result will be a continued spiraling down of the public's respect for our democracy and its institutions, including the judiciary, which must retain the public's goodwill for this great democratic experiment to prevail. That's the danger of a Judicial Watch and Larry Klayman.

They care not for legal grievance. They provoke it.