Ten Signs People Are Drooling Excessively over Scott Rothstein

Lust. Licentiousness. Lewdness. Smut. As Tom Lehrer said in a musical piece years ago, we love it. Right now we are oozing in it. Drooling over the Scott Rothstein crash and burn. Like gawkers on a highway we are reveling in every moment. Here are ten indicators of how we are overdoing it.

1. On Browardbeat.com, Buddy Nevins does a feature on how Rothstein owes a back due exterminator bill. The guy allegedly steals a hundred million and we are worried about a bill to the guy who killed ants in his house?

2. Tarnished by his now stained association with Rothstein, and attempting to save his already purloined soul, Roger Stone is pleading to the world that he had everything figured out a year ago. Oh, really? If that was the case Roger, you think not telling anyone about it this whole time makes you look good? Come on man, Nixon is dead, try being honest.

3. Kendall Coffey takes us on a public video tour of Rothstein’s office to show us pictures of his sports paraphernalia. He calls the office atypically ‘suspicious’ and ‘secretive’. Rothstein’s eccentricities were secretive? Please! He flaunted his ostentatiousness more than gay queens on Castro Street, from his bodyguards to his private police force, and everyone knew about it and no one cared, as long as the money kept on flowing.

4. Brian Tannenbaum blogs about how Rothstein once stood him up for lunch. Gosh Brian, I hate to break this to you, but Rothstein stood EVERYONE up for lunch. It was a running joke how many people would show up at the same time at Bova Prime for an appointment ‘to meet Scott’ to only find out he was blowing out birthday candles with Charley Crist and the other boys. Speaking of those boys, maybe Scott will have pictures of Charley Crist with one of them. Bob Norman and I have been looking for them for years. Jason Wetherington, where are you?

Speaking of which, a few weeks ago I did a wimpy and intellectual blog about Scott's war of words with Bob Norman. The Jewish Avenger vs the Tabloid Reporter. And I suggested they could both be right in their arguments and claims. Looks like I was wrong. Only one was, and today everyone is reading his columns at the Pulp. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/

And perhaps the most illuminating revelation in this cacophony is the one that Steve Geller made a costume shirt for Scott Rothstein because of the 'Jewish Avenger' article. Do you think he sewed it himself? A little take off on that tourist T: " I gave $50,000 to his campaign and all I got was this t-shirt"

5. Bill Scherer says he represents clients who may have lost $500 million in investment funds. Gosh, Bill, if those rich people were so smart, why did those clients not come to read those contracts with you before they blew their money? I am not feeling too much sympathy for people who did not ask for accountings after the ‘Bernie Made Off’ with everything era. Why are smart rich people so stupid?

6. And Bob Norman, the flight plan that Scott Rothstein took back from Morocco is relevant how? Might have been juicier if he took a Ford Bronco. Still, you are the man to go for those who want the know. And nothing was better than the photo-shopped morphed picture of Scott in a purple suit, being carted away in cuffs. If you want to understand really how out there Scott was, he probably has two more suits just like that in his closet.

7. Does the Daily Business Review really consider it newsworthy to note that amongst Scott Rothstein’s real estate deals the Feds might be looking into is the transfer of a dock easement in 2007? Does that include his wife’s ability to pour a Blue Martini? Talk about Johnny come latelys! The DBR is all over this now, but don’t you think if any newspaper in town should have been checking Rothstein out all along it should have been the county’s legal newspaper.

8. I have not met anyone that really does not like Scott. Sure, he came across bombastic and pugnacious, but he was witty, charming, and supportive. So I do not see lots of people lusting for his demise yet. I emphasize yet. I suspect as the dominoes fall, and they will, the truth is going to reveal Scott as less than charming. But right now I think most people wanted to know why and how Scott was able to pull off what they could not. How did he get into the fast lane and they did not? Like that poster I once saw, ‘I either want less corruption or more a chance to be part of it.’

9. Joel Hirschorn tells the Daily Business Review that the Rothstein debacle is going to be known as the ‘Criminal Defense Lawyers Welfare Relief Act.’ Cute, but I doubt it. Most of the lawyers involved so far are stepping in pro bono to cover the arse of their friends, who by week’s end are essentially out of jobs and paychecks, and have nowhere to turn in a dwindling economy.

10. You know the firm will have a really hard time of surviving when the Receiver asks which lawyer would have the most skill at selling Scott Rothstein’s sports memorabilia on E Bay. He’s got some good stuff there, but I don’t think they allow it in Federal prisons. Ouch! Scotty, my buddy, my lansman, remember Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox scandal, when a young devastated fan cried out: ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe?”

Say it ain’t so, Scotty;
Say it ain’t so!
No, huh?
Damn.

On a serious note:

In this otherwise lighthearted column can I make an honest plea to all the lawyers that are there to please not forget in the midst of your stress, that you have lots of clients, and you need to call them, email them, or otherwise reach out to them and notify them that their files are okay and their cases are not in jeopardy.

I have to tell you what I find offensive about the media in this lust to sensationalize everything about this story, right up to the DBR piece about the firm's lawyers lawyering up, is the complete lack of the printed word about the hundreds, if not thousands, of clients left in the lurch, and what they are going through.

Mea culpa. I am one of them, on a PI case. Aside from appointing a receiver, I would like Judge Streitfeld to direct the remaining associates to take affirmative steps to insure that the legal rights and interests of all those being served by RRA are continually protected. Could there be in this media frenzy numerous clients are freaking out? Especially hearing that the FBI is seizing files?

Whether or not the firm can survive, individual lawyers have duties and responsibilities as members of the Florida Bar to reach out and ameliorate their clients' concerns, and it should be done proactively by those attorneys.

Update-http://www.abajournal.com/news/rothstein_firm_running_on_fumes_newspaper_says/?from=widget