Slimeball, With Chris Matthews

Clicking on this link at Eschaton, we see that Tweezer is up to his old dishonest tricks, and Dan Abrams is playing along:

MATTHEWS: Dan Abrams is an NBC News chief legal correspondent. He is the chief legal correspondent.
Dan, thanks for joining us.

Is this Mark Geragos up to his old tricks like he did with the Susan McDougal case where he changed the topic from whether she stole money from the Zubin Mehta family or was she being basically persecuted by Ken Starr? ....

ABRAMS: Well, look, I think he did a pretty good job in the McDougal case.

MATTHEWS: By changing the subject from whether she stole the money to whether the Starr team was after her, didn�t he?

ABRAMS: Well, look, in part, that�s what he did.

MATTHEWS: What�s the issue to the jury?

ABRAMS: ... I guess I�m not going to be able to avoid talking Susan McDougal.

OK. Look, you�re-the true legal issue there was not a question of whether Ken Starr had unfairly gone after Susan McDougal, and there�s no question that that issue came up in the case.

Now let's look at a contemporaneous account of the actual proceedings in the McDougal trial (scroll to the bottom):

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept 25 (Reuters) - The wife of conductor Zubin Mehta appeared to contradict her own testimony on Friday, conceding that she had ordered Whitewater figure Susan McDougal to make purchases she had earlier called thefts.

Nancy Mehta is the main accuser in McDougal's embezzlement trial, in which she is alleged to have stolen $150,000 from the Mehtas while working for them as a bookkeeper by forging checks and fraudulently using credit cards.

McDougal's attorney, Mark Geragos, attacked the credibility of Mrs. Mehta in Friday's court session, suggesting that she was either mistaken or lying when she accused McDougal of theft and forgery.

Mrs. Mehta, who earlier had testified to a series of purchases that she said McDougal made with her money, conceded that she had directed her to buy some of the items.

Mrs Mehta also acknowledged that, contrary to her earlier testimony, she let several people use her credit cards for a variety of expenses while McDougal worked for her from 1989 to 1992. McDougal faces a possible seven years in prison if convicted of the 12 criminal counts, including grand theft, forgery and failure to file an income tax return.

Mrs. Mehta is a key witness for the prosecution, and spent two days telling jurors about the alleged thefts. Geragos has portrayed Nancy Mehta as a bitter woman who spent her husband's money to keep it from his children born outside the marriage and drummed up accusations against McDougal after their close relationship went sour.

Zubin is a former musical director of the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is also active in the Israeli Philharmonic.

On Friday, Geragos confronted Mrs. Mehta with a long list of checks that she had called forgeries by McDougal, and pointed out that many of them were purchases made at her direction. He gave jurors a glimpse into the Mehtas' wealthy lifestyle, which included trips around the world and expensive furniture. Geragos suggested to Mrs. Mehta that a series of checks she had questioned were actually used to pay for her cousin's $100,000 wedding.

Mrs. Mehta also said she spent nearly $1,000 to purchase a brand of mattress that she discovered in a hotel in Italy -- a complicated transaction that involved shipping the mattress from its manufacturer in Switzerland.

And, after previously testifying that she was the only one who bought clothes for her daughter, she admitted giving her credit card to a professional buyer to purchase shoes for the girl....

There's no question that McDougal believed Starr encouraged California prosecutors to pursue the case. But as the Reuters article makes clear, Geragos' defense case was focused on Nancy Metha's allegations of theft and forgery, not Ken Starr. Tweezer has no basis to state that Geragos "changed the topic" of the case or, as Tweezer implies, that the jury acquitted Susan McDougal for any reason other than the fact that she was not guilty.

The Slimeball transcript is also worth reading for Nooner's line, "It�s that the American president not only put himself in harm�s way going to see American troopers, but he showed them by coming in on that ship I trust you." Right, Peg. Bush puts himself in harm's way every time he swallows his food.