In his Political Capital column for today's WSJ($), Alan Murray notes the vast importance of tort reform for the business lobby:
Now that the wolves of organized labor have been defanged, it is the hyenas of the trial bar who loom largest in the nightmares of corporate CEOs. Most can recite by heart the results of a Tillinghast-Towers Perrin survey that says torts cost the U.S. economy nearly $250 billion a year. They know from personal experience the headaches that class- action lawsuits have caused in their boardrooms.
For big business, the defeat of the trial lawyers was Election Day's sweetest victory. The tort bar provided heavy funding to the Democratic Party, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce boasts that it backed legal-reform candidates in 16 state Supreme Court and attorney general races around the country, and won 15 of those races.
In the election's wake, business lobbyists have been salivating over the prospect that legal-reform bills would be the first measures to benefit from a new political climate. First up, they argue, should be a bill to curb class-action lawsuits, which enjoys the support of a majority of senators and nearly passed earlier this year. Soon to follow, they hope, could be bills to create a fund for resolving asbestos-related lawsuits and a measure to rein in medical- malpractice suits.
I won't rehash the arguments here; I'll content myself with disclosing that I regard tort reform as good politics (defunding the left's biggest bankrollers) and good policy.
Murray goes on to note, however, concerns that likely Senate Judiciary chair Arlen Specter would oppose tort reform (a point that's been noted in these pages, as well):
[The] business lobbyists worry their victories might be diluted if Sen. Specter claims the Judiciary chairmanship. He supported the class-action bill and worked hard to reach an asbestos settlement, but he also is one of the rare Republicans who enjoys support from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Lawyers and lobbyists were the top contributors to his Senate campaign this year, providing nearly $1.8 million in campaign cash. His son, Shanin Specter, is a well-known trial lawyer in Philadelphia, and his firm, Kline & Specter, which specializes in lawsuits against doctors, provided $93,250 in contributions to Sen. Specter's re-election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"Why would Republicans, after defeating [Sen. John] Kerry, Edwards, and Daschle...hand the Judiciary Committee gavel to someone who shares this triumvirate's disdain for tort reform?" asked Tad DeHaven of the National Taxpayer's Union in an open letter to senators.
Fortunately, Murray suggests that the kerfuffle over Specter led by pro-life forces may force Specter to modify his position not only on judges, but also on tort reform:
In the end, Sen. Specter probably will get his chairmanship. And he will repay his obligations, not to the trial lawyers who funded his campaign, but to the senators who elected him chairman. He will support the President's judicial nominees, regardless of their positions on abortion. He will move quickly to limit class- action lawsuits, complete an asbestos settlement and possibly even curb medical-malpractice suits. As a result, 2005 could become a watershed year for reining in the excesses of the U.S. tort system.
From his lips ....
