June 13, 2002

9:12 AM

Georgian Rep. Bob Barr is a fragile and delicate man. So fragile, in fact, that he has filed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, James Carville and Larry Flynt for "loss of reputation and emotional distress" and "injury in his person and property." He's seeking damages in excess of $30 million. This from the man who called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton before the whole Monica thing. James Carville said, "To call this suit 'frivolous' would be to elevate the status of 'frivolous.'"
posted by crunchland (16 comments total)

I generally disagree with Carville, but I think he's pretty dead on here. Someone needs to hand Bob Barr a hanky and tell him to shut the hell up.
posted by insomnyuk at 9:18 AM on June 13, 2002

Funny, I've always loved Caville. Bob Barr is a creep and a moron. Clinton ought to sue him. I can't believe these are the people that we've chosen to represent us. Depressing.
posted by aacheson at 9:20 AM on June 13, 2002

Ummmm, I meant Carville, not Caville.
posted by aacheson at 9:21 AM on June 13, 2002

Makes me ashamed to be from Georgia. BB's district, no less.
posted by mariko at 9:21 AM on June 13, 2002

Maybe I oughta sue Bob Barr for the emotional distress he's caused me for begin such a completely horrifying half-wit on the national stage. I figure that's worth at least the same amount of money he's asking for from the Clintons.
posted by Irontom at 9:27 AM on June 13, 2002

The great part is that with a trial, we'll get to hear actual testimony about how Barr paid for his wife's abortion and slept around. How can he sue someone for damaging a reputation he has so freely given away?
posted by troybob at 9:27 AM on June 13, 2002

So good to see a representative setting a nice example for his people. And the rest of the nation for that matter.

"Hey look, even Congressmen sue people, surely we can too."

Add this to my comments in the earlier Student Fails, Sues thread, and you can clearly see that the downward spiral continues.
posted by eas98 at 9:33 AM on June 13, 2002

Here's a no brainer: counter-suit.

"loss of reputation and emotional distress" and "injury in his person and property" allegedly caused by these three -- who Barr claims conspired to "hinder [the plaintiff] in the lawful discharge of his duties."

This is almost an exact description of the GOP strategy against Clinton for 8 years. Not that I'll waste one minute defending Slick Willie, but Barr needs a special kind of chutzpah to attempt this.

Here's an interview from March '97 (pre-Monica, which broke in Jan. '98) in which Barr raises the issue of impeachment.

This quote from the interview reads quite differently now:
Because of the unwillingness of members of Congress to stop the usurpation of power by the President, they are acquiescing in it and they are part of that overall problem.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:33 AM on June 13, 2002

I believe Barr's district has suffered from a bit of gerrymandering, it's not as Republican as it used to be, so the election race he will be in is going to be very tight... he's probably just trying to get some free publicity and maybe donations from sympathetic party faithful.
posted by insomnyuk at 9:53 AM on June 13, 2002

I've never really cared too much for the man, ever since he decided to dabble in local affairs here in Washington, bullying the Metro system (governed locally, not federally) into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to change the all of the Metro maps and signs in the locally run system to reflect the name change of National Airport to "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport."
posted by crunchland at 9:56 AM on June 13, 2002

Among other things.

Bob Barr is such a shitsmear.

In other news, I've been trying all day to come up with either the Flynt press release that Grove mentioned, or the text of the complaint Barr filed, and absolutely nothing. Not even on LarryFlynt.com. I'd try some of his other sites, but uh, I'm at the office.

How could this lawsuit have been filed in March and this is the first we're hearing of it? I can understand why Barr would want it that way, but wouldn't the suit be public record? Given the fact that Barr is such a popular target of public ridicule, you'd think this would have gotten out sooner.
posted by Sapphireblue at 10:08 AM on June 13, 2002

Sapphireblue, I'm coming up emtpy too. I've looked all over the net for any sort of verification or other media report about this case. I got nothing. Either my search foo is off today, or the info is cleverly hiding itself from me.

That being said, I still think Barr is a philandering, mealymouthed little dweeb.
posted by dejah420 at 10:24 AM on June 13, 2002

Huh. Now there *is* something on LarryFlynt.com, but all it is is an except from the Grove story linked above. Weird...
posted by Sapphireblue at 11:34 AM on June 13, 2002

In due course, the strangely reticent Klayman said: "I don't wish to comment on the substance of the case. However, it is serious, and the congressman is confident of prevailing."

The congressman is confident. Note the distinct lack of a lawyerly we.

Barr: Ah want y'all t' sue thet there Lar' Flynt.
Klayman: Er, for what exactly.
Barr: Fer anythin' thet comes into yer mahnd!
Klayman: Um, the law doesn't work that way ...
Barr: An' I want y'all t' sue thet devil Billy Clinton, an' ... an' ... Carville! Ayah! Thet there Jimmy Carville sure does deserve a good, hard suin'!
Klayman: I'm not sure that I ...
Barr: Y'all talkin' back to me now? Y'all don' like whut ah pay y'all, out o' mah own tax-par'-funded pockets? Y'all are mah lawyer or ain't y' mah lawyer?
Klayman: Um ... well ...
Barr: So get on an' skitch 'em! Gee up now!
Exeunt Klayman, scurrying. Barr leans back and lights up a cigar.
Barr: Ah sure do love th' law!

Apologies to anyone offended by the silly accents bit, which I borrowed from Homer Stokes of O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Ash.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:11 PM on June 13, 2002

What a sore looser. Doesn't he realize that the impeachment probably turned a certain landslide for Gore into a race where Bush actually looked competent?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:15 AM on June 14, 2002

Feh. Salon has an article ... but it's Premium ( paid subscribers only).
posted by Sapphireblue at 10:32 AM on June 14, 2002