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From: hawk@oliven.UUCP (Rick)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Proxmire's Reply
Message-ID: <408@oliven.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Aug-84 14:25:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: oliven.408
Posted: Tue Aug 28 14:25:40 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 10:47:09 EDT
References: <981@ulysses.UUCP>
Organization: University of Waikiki
Lines: 19

>To say that making an out of court settlement is not losing strikes me
>as playing with words.

Not at all.  Defending yourself in a suit may be much more expensive than
making the out of court settlement.

Immunitity to libel suits for Senators and Representatives is an important
issue, even though the immunity is abused at times (Sen. Joe McCarthy, for
example). The restriction of this immunity to the floor of the Senate/house is
equally important.  The immunitity enables Senators to make accusations and
have them investigated rather than fearing to investigate for fear of a libel
suit.  If he says it again off of the floor without adequate proof, however,
it's open season on the Senator, and he should be stuck paying for his own
defense.

yours in awkward sentences,
-- 
   rick                                     (Rick Hawkins @ Olivetti ATC)
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