Thursday, May 10, 2018

The Flynn Finagle

By Jeff Simpson



Democratic candidate for Governor Matt Flynn, has been the subject of a firestorm lately.    By now, everyone knows about the Catholic Priest abuse scandal.   As one would think, Wisconsin was not spared this nightmare.  While I am not going to re-litigate that tragedy, I would like to address Matt Flynn's role in it. 

There have been stories, and videos, expressing outrage at Matt Flynn and his role in this far reaching scandal. 


While an attorney for Quarles and Brady — the tony law firm that counts the Archdiocese of Milwaukee among its most important clients — Flynn became lead defender in the sex-abuse case with the nation’s fourth-largest number of alleged victims
Flynn issued a press release to answer these accusations:

 I have been a Catholic all my life. When I learned of the abuses, I knew that to be in alignment with my
conscience, I had to do something, not merely voice disapproval. In my work almost twenty years ago, I
worked with others to put into place procedures to identify and remove abusive priests, notify the
authorities, and prevent their transfer. It was imperative that we work to create a system that would
ensure that crimes such as these could never be committed and allowed to persist.
In an era of battling over the 1st and 2nd amendments, the 6th amendment is equally important.   
Sixth Amendment
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer,  the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you.  It has been most visibly tested in a series of cases involving terrorism, but much more often figures in cases that involve (for example) jury selection or the protection of witnesses, including victims of sex crimes as well as witnesses in need of protection from retaliation.
Everyone in our society, from Jeffrey Dahmer, to Henry Kissinger, to John Wayne Gacy, to Joe sixpack to the Catholic church deserves legal representation and the ethics of legal representation are as follows:

 represent their clients with undivided loyalty
*  keep their clients' confidences
*  represent their clients competently
*  represent their clients within the bounds of the law, *  put their clients' interests ahead of their own
While the priests who were the actual pedophiles are too blame, there are many many people who took part in the coverup.    From Bishops, other Priests, law enforcement, church members, etc...  There is much blame to go around but I personally believe that Matt Flynn does not belong in that circle.  No matter how hard he worked for his clients.   

Another thing I want to address, is this from the discussion

If Flynn were to win the nomination, GOP attacks on this front would be a daily occurrence.
 A quick look and we see that Republican Senator Ron Johnson testified in favor of protecting the Catholic Church from lawsuits.  RoJo was not their lawyer, or even a player at all in the game, but decided to pick up this cause as his major cause that he wanted to make his first major public appearance.   

The Sixth Amendment is just as important as every other amendment and it is imperative that everyone has legal representation.    I personally do not like that Scott Walker was never charged in the John Doe investigation, but I do not hold the lawyers he paid a million dollars to keep him out of prison responsible.   

Let us also not forget that the whole of the Republican Party rallied around a known child predator in Judge Roy Moore for Senate recently

They would attack Matt Flynn for sure if he is the candidate but they would have no legs to stand on.

I feel it is imperative that Democrats never make a decision based on what the Republicans might do. 

That all being said, I do not feel that Matt Flynn has handled the fall out of this very well

 Democrat Matt Flynn says anyone who wants him to drop out of the governor's race because of his past work defending the Milwaukee Archdiocese can "jump in a lake."
NOT the best way to handle that.  

I am not endorsing Matt Flynn, nor have I ever.  Everyone has to look at the field and come up with who they support based on their ideals and policies and personality. 

If Flynn is not your favorite candidate, that is perfectly fine and acceptable, but please do not dismiss him for doing his job to the best of his ability or what ads the GOP might run.    

I personally am supporting Michael Crute, so if Matt Flynn does not win the nomination, I am fine with that.   

However, let us talk about the issues that matter.   We win on those issues.   









2 comments:

  1. You're right, Jeff. This is simply a hit job on Flynn. Flynn has some of his fellow candidates scared by campaigning on the most powerful, coherent and courageous commitment in Wisconsin politics: Ending the police-prison state by executive fiat, if necessary.

    A small number of Hillary bots and connected Party hacks see Flynn as a problem. These same hacks worked hand-in-hand with Walker and Thompson in erecting police-state Wisconsin, a project they have no intention of halting.

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