Wall Street Week: A glimpse at the dark side of the force

If you don’t think Washington is corporate-occupied territory, you should have seen “Wall Street Week with Fortune” on PBS last night. On it was Michael Baroody, criticizing John Edwards, who took on powerful corporations as a trial lawyer. “Asbestos litigation all by itself poses a $250 billion drag on the ability of American manufacturers to fully compete and to grow as they ought to be growing in these dynamic economic times,” Baroody said.

On the other side was Gene Sperling, acting as an apologist to conservatives for Edwards. “He's an enormously reasonable pragmatic guy who has supported pro-growth efforts, pro-savings, pro-wealth creation…He never, and I repeat, never filed a single class action suit…And as a Senator, he has put forward a three-strikes-and-you're-out proposal that has said a lawyer who brings three frivolous suits should not be able to file a case for 10 years.”

Greg Valliere of Charles Schwab attacked Edwards for opposing NAFTA. Sperling then defended Edwards: “Did they mention that he voted for the China trade agreement? Did they mention that he voted for Senate passage of fast track initiative for President Bush…”

When wealthy investors are the audience, the conversation really takes on a different tone. It shows the delicate balancing act the Kerry-Edwards ticket must perform, between the powerful corporations and the rest of us.

http://www.pbs.org/wsw/tvprogram/20040709.html