Word: cases
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...case, Obama has made fairly conventional Cabinet picks, even for departments where he has called for dramatic reform; it's hard to imagine him picking a dramatic reformer for a department where he hasn't. That's especially true for the intensely politicized Agriculture Department. Any serious opponent of the farm lobby - like the six implausible candidates, including rural-affairs activist Chuck Hassebrook and organic farmer Fred Kirschenmann, that a group of prominent foodies recently suggested to Obama - would get ripped to shreds by the aggies on Capitol Hill. Vilsack probably won't launch a Nixon-goes-to-China initiative...
...even on advanced biofuels; switchgrass would clearly be a big improvement on corn, but it's not yet clear if it would be an improvement on gasoline if there isn't enough unproductive land. Perhaps advanced biofuels from crop waste or even municipal waste would work better. In any case, it was interesting to see Obama make two references Wednesday to "advanced biofuels" and none to ethanol. And it's interesting that Vilsack has thought about this stuff in some detail...
...Asked why he would take Blagojevich's case - given that the two-term governor reportedly owes another law firm upwards of $2 million, was denied by the Illinois Attorney General state funds to pay for the impeachment hearings and is facing the prospect of having his campaign fund frozen by the feds - Genson was his usual mischievous self. "I take the cases that are fun," he said. As best-selling author and famed lawyer Scott Turow put it in an e-mail to TIME, "He is a great lawyer who would have been almost as good as a circus ringmaster...
...That much was clear from the moment Genson, a Northwestern University grad, took the case. Right off the bat, he said he was going to trial. During an appearance in Springfield, he mocked the impeachment process, saying that too many of the 21 members on the panel had already made up their minds and that there were no clear standards to govern the proceedings. At one point, a member suggested, "You really should go back to criminal-law school." Genson quickly retorted, "Well, I have been doing it for 44 years, and maybe you should go back to law school...
...While Genson spends much of his time in federal court, one of his more notable acquittals came in state court, where pop and R&B sensation R. Kelly faced child-pornography charges after being accused of making a sex tape with a teenage girl. Genson won the case, getting Kelly acquitted of all 14 counts. And in a 2003 verdict that stunned some court observers, Genson teamed with three other top-tier lawyers to win the acquittal of Bruno Mancari, the brother of a well-known Chicago-area auto dealer, on charges he murdered a childhood pal 18 years earlier...