Oops!: Turns out David Boies is a loyal Democrat . . .

Exhibit 3 showing I am too rock-dumb to be fairly accused of slipperiness or dishonesty regarding my dialogue with Ramesh Ponnuru is that even though I was one of the first associates at David Boies's law firm, and even though I assisted him in the climatic Bush v. Gore case he argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, until today I had no idea Boies is a loyal Democrat with many years of affiliation with the party. Thank you to the reader who e-mailed me about Boies's strong partisan affiliation, and some of the evidence illustrating it.

This point is not an unimportant one, because as I recounted in my previous post, in my initial attack on Ponnuru's article which I posted on my main blog, here, I listed among my qualifications to defend Tribe against a right-wing attack my absence of partisanship; that is, I was not a left-wing partisan attacking a right-wing partisan. Specifically, I represented: "I am not a person who is at all active in partisan politics."

A commentator on my blog quickly challenged me on this point, observing among other things that I was "one of the first associates at Al Gore's attorney's firm" (that is, David Boies's firm), and I "clerked for a quite liberal judge" and "donated the maximum allowed to John Kerry."

My response? Well, regarding my association with Boies, both in general and on Bush v. Gore, my response was this: "David Boies gladly would have worked for George Bush if he'd been hired."

Well, I must admit it turns out there's really no evidence for that statement, at least based on a perusal of political campaign contribution records and a quick read of Boies's recently published autobiography, Courting Justice. In fact, Boies is a loyal Democrat of long standing, and one reason he took on the Bush v. Gore litigation was the importance he placed on Vice President Gore winning the presidency in 2000.

Go back to that website I told you about yesterday, www.opensecrets.org, and search for the political campaign contributions of one "Boies, David" of New York. Turns out that since 1992 (as far back as the records go), Boies has made more than $50,000 in "hard money" contributions, and more than $30,000 in "soft money" contributions. It looks like every penny of that money went to Democrats.

The book is a great read, and I recommend it. It turns out that, in addition to "dating" the wife of his evidence professor while in law school, working through three marriages of his own, and litigating a string of important cases, Boies took two years off from 1977 to 1979 to work for Ted Kennedy (who I hear is quite liberal) as chief counsel of two Senate committees he chaired, including the Judiciary Committee, and during this time Boies worked with members of the Carter Administration (pp. 17-18). In the book, there's even a photo of Boies at a meeting with Senator Kennedy and President Carter.

In the book, Boies states it was important to him personally that Gore come out victorious, which was a main reason he agreed to work on the case when first approached about it by Walter Dellinger, a top Gore lawyer (page 357):

I told Walter that I was not sure how much I would add, that I needed to talk to Mary [Boies's wife] before making any commitment, but that I would like to do what I could to help. Although I had not been active in the campaign and had met Vice President Gore only once more than a decade earlier, during the campaign I had been impressed with his intelligence and judgment. I was also concerned about what a Bush victory would mean for domestic issues including equal rights, the environment, judicial appointments, and the economy.

Boies's liberal leanings are also illustrated by his role in 2004 in assisting Michael Moore in resolving some legal difficulties holding up the release of his anti-Bush film, Fahrenheit 911 (page 470).

Of course, there's nothing wrong with Boies being a longtime loyal Democratic, and I respect him greatly. I just wish I'd learned more about him when I was working with him, or that I'd read his autobiography sooner, before stating on my blog last week: "David Boies gladly would have worked for George Bush if he'd been hired," and then buying up all those websites with Ramesh Ponnuru's name to gain maximum exposure for my comments.

But let me assure you that I was not being slippery or deceitful in telling you Boies would have been happy to work for Bush to defeat Gore. Remember, I'm rock-dumb. I am astonished to now learn that the founding partner of my former firm, with whom I worked on the Bush v. Gore litigation on behalf of a Democratic candidate, turns out to be a loyal Democrat.