YOU CAN'T FIX DUMB

I ran into a fella that knows more than most about the ethics law and lifetime bars. I asked him if I was missing anything in Ralph’s bogus allegation that my legal representation of a client before the commission on a matter the commission commenced of their own volition 3 years after I left state service could violate the lifetime bar. After laughing for a bit he said no but that doesn’t stop this crowd from coming to whatever conclusion they want.

As he said he doubts many of the commission lawyers have actually read the law. That resonated because when I was at the lobby commission we would say that all the time, you would think the lawyers involved in a case would actually read the law before acting but they rarely did.

With that thought in my head I visited the commission to drop off some client filings and got chatting with a couple of my former coworkers and an ethics commission employee when who walks in with a dopey grin on his face? Not Barry but someone who looks like he could be related to Barry with a little Danny Devito thrown in. He just stands their staring at us without saying a word, walks out, comes back in, stares again until one of the former coworkers says “your office is up those stairs to the right push the button for the elevator and get off on the 2nd floor”.

At that moment I realized there is nothing I can do to make Ralph and Barry be rational about what they are doing because you can’t fix dumb.