Trial Lawyers vs. Rick Perry

It remains to be seen if Texas Governor Rick Perry can be a viable presidential candidate over the long term. But one of his principal foes--personal injury lawyers a.k.a. ambulance chasers--could make him worthy of support, the New York Post explains:

If you can judge a political candidate by the enemies he makes, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stands pretty tall. For example, the national tort-lawyer lobby is set to spend millions to try to stop the GOP presidential hopeful in his tracks.

No wonder: Perry, in his 10 years as Texas governor, has managed to implement serious tort reform in a state that even a top litigator concedes was once “the golden goose” for high-end jury verdicts....Since 2003, Texas has become a model for national tort reform.

Along these lines, according to American Lawyer Media, "A fundraising committee backing President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection bid has raised $39 million so far this year, with 11 percent of that sum coming from lawyers, lobbying shops, and law firms such as Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, O'Melveny & Myers and Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom. When it comes to raising campaign cash, no industry has been kinder to the president this year than the legal and lobbying trade, which has contributed a combined $4.3 million to the Obama Victory Fund..."

Could the Democrats ever mount a serious election campaign without unions and trial lawyers? Oh, let's not forget the in-the-tank media, who has subjected Gov. Perry to more scrutiny in a couple of weeks then the ever did Obama in the entire 2008 election cycle. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Jack Kelly published this ominous preview of things to come:

GOP consultant Mark McKinnon says that the editor of a major newspaper told him, "We plan to declare war on Rick Perry and do all in our power to crush him."Mr. McKinnon was outraged. "No pretense of integrity, professionalism or of unbiased news gathering," he wrote in Investors' Business Daily.