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From: gsp@ulysses.UUCP (Gary Perlman)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Proxmire's Reply
Message-ID: <981@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Aug-84 20:04:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.981
Posted: Sat Aug 25 20:04:22 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Aug-84 01:20:46 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 47

From all the hoopla about my advertisement of Senator Proxmire's
Golden Fleece awards, I conjured a letter to the senator asking
about some of the charges on the net.  What follows is a transcription
of his reply.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Dr. Perlman:

     I was in fact sued by a researcher who felt that I impro-
perly represented his work.  I did not lose the suit. The
Supreme Court determined that the researcher did have the right
to sue me.  The case was settled out of court and I made a payment
of $10,000 to the individual who had sued me for $8 million.

     The leadership of the Senate felt that the right to Congressional
immunity was an extremely important one and therefore suggested that
I be represented by a private lawyer whose fees would be paid for by
the Senate.  Until the Office of Legal Councel for the Senate was
created, this private lawyer did represent me and his fees totaled
a little more than $100,000.

     While I am under no legal obligation to do so, I have submitted
to the Treasury the royalties obtained from the sales of my book,
The Fleecing of America in order to reduce the cost of my represen-
tation by a private attorney in the case.

    Finally, no [sic] a penny of federal money was used in paying for my
hair transplants.

                        Sincerely,

                        (signed "Bill")

                        William Proxmire, U. S. S.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To say that making an out of court settlement is not losing strikes me
as playing with words.  I have to think that the researcher's costs
well exceeded the amount of the settlement.  It may be that the Senate
Counsel was set up BECAUSE the Court allowed the suit.  We can only
wonder how much this service costs the taxpayer.  As usual, the
big winners in court are lawyers, and the losers are the people paying:
here, primarily the taxpayers.
	Gary Perlman
	AT&T Bell Labs 5H-106
	600 Mountain Ave.
	Murray Hill, NJ 07974
	(201) 582-3624
	uucp: ulysses!gsp