Bill McCollum's Good Judgment

I love how lawyers always double down, rather than just confess error and move on.

When you have a lawyer who is also a politician, that tendency is multiplied by the number of 'long stroke' massages one can obtain by a Rentboy in the world's most totally gay continent (Europe):

Attorney General Bill McCollum Tuesday defended his personal intervention into the selection of an antigay expert witness in the case defending the state's gay adoption ban, saying his office "searched a long time" for someone and that George Rekers was the only one of two they could find.

Records show that McCollum personally requested that the state's Department of Children & Families hire Rekers at $300 an hour to help the state defend the case. When the agency balked at the price tag, McCollum's office persisted, ultimately leading to DCF paying pay him $120,000 over two years.

McCollum said that while he would not hire Rekers again knowing what he knows now -- that Rekers vacationed for two weeks in Europe with a gay male escort from Miami and received sexual massages from him -- he suggested that without Rekers the agency would not have been successful.

Note to Big Bill: the agency was not successful, and Judge Lederman found your $120k man to be thoroughly not credible (incredible?) as an "expert."

Also, if you can only find two "experts" -- total -- in the whole country willing to defend your position, maybe your position is insupportable?

Do they not have Daubert at custody hearings?

Worse yet, you now got them all mad and twittery:

Because of this, the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus calls on McCollum to immediately refund the state of Florida $120,000 whether it’s from his campaign account or his own pocket. “Bill McCollum showed incredibly poor judgment when he hired Dr. George Rekers to spew hate-filled propaganda on the stand,” said Phillip Perry, spokesman for the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus. “The only way that McCollum can make this right is if he immediately apologizes and pays back taxpayers for this egregious mistake. Floridians expect their leaders to spend taxpayer dollars wisely during these tough times, not waste it on hiring quacks posing as scientists to pursue a narrow, hate-inspired political agenda.”

You know what I always say: any stroke worth doing is worth doing slow, long, and well.

UPDATE:

The good Doc's prior expert testimony experience didn't go so hot either:

But three years before Florida hired Rekers, an Arkansas judge in 2004 denounced him during a similar state adoption case.

"The Arkansas judge, Timothy Fox, said Rekers’ testimony was worthless as evidence because it was only his personal view," according to an editorial this week in The Arkansas Leader.

The Arkansas Supreme Court also concluded Rekers’ testimony "was pointless'' and declared the state’s antigay adoption rule unconstitutional, the editorial continued.

Sheesh, how do you prep an expert for a cross on something like?

"Well, worthless is a state of mind."

"Pointless is as pointless does, I guess."