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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016 Jokes aside, lawyers are part of our communities’ fabric )RUDQ$VWRULDODZ¿UP to produce a governor DQGWZRFRQJUHVVPHQ is astonishing W hen my wife and I lived in Washington, D.C., we knew lots of lawyers. There is nothing special about that. It’s like a Capitol Hill resident know- ing someone who works for the CIA. If you live in D.C., the odds are that you will know someone at the CIA. The striking thing about the lawyers we knew in Washington was their unhappiness. So many of these law- yers were looking for something else to do. That memory sur- faced as Matt Winters and I interviewed law- yers for the April Coast Steve River Business Journal Forrester article on legal services. I was struck by the enthu- siasm of the lawyers we met: Steve Campbell, Larry Popkin, Ben and Megan Lawrence. The Lawrences described the lifestyle advantage a lawyer in our region has over a city-based lawyer. Popkin mentioned the dif- ferential between the number of hours he must bill per month, as opposed to someone in a ODUJHFLW\¿UP More than that, there is a relationship factor that brings more satisfaction. Hal Snow spoke of this during a conversation we had on Mon- day. I told Hal my wife’s observation that a lot of what he does could be called social work. Describing what he does, Snow said “We (a client and he) sit across the desk and have a personal relationship.” Matt Winters also recognizes this aspect of small town lawyering. Matt, like his father, was a lawyer in Wyoming. He remembers his dad often said that at times he felt like he was doing marriage counseling. Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian A plaque reading Norblad and Norblad Attorneys is seen in the offices of Snow and Snow. A.W. Norblad Walter Norblad blad & Norblad. Born in Sweden, A.W. Nor- blad came to Astoria in 1909 and started a he extraordinary thing about the Snow ODZ SUDFWLFH +H ZDV EULHÀ\ 2UHJRQ¶V JRY- ODZ¿UPLVLWVH[WHQVLYHOLQHDJH,WVSUH- ernor (1929-1931). After attending Har- GHFHVVRU ODZ ¿UPV ZHUH KRPH WR WZR FRQ- vard Law School, Walter Norblad joined his gressmen and one governor. They were father’s practice in 1932. He represented our Walter Norblad, Wendell Wyatt and A.W. district in Congress, 1946-1964. Following World War II, Wendell Wyatt Norblad. Gathering research on a feature called “A MRLQHGWKH1RUEODG¿UP+HVXFFHHGHG:DOWHU GD\ LQ WKH OLIH RI WKH $VWRULD 3RVW 2I¿FH´ Norblad in Congress and served 1964-1975. ,WLVUHPDUNDEOHWKDWDODZ¿UPLQDWRZQ some 20 years ago, I saw graphic evidence of WKH6QRZODZ¿UP¶VOHJDF\2QWKHRWKHUVLGH of 10,000 was such an incubator for state and RIWKHSRVWRI¿FHER[HVZKHUHPDLOLVVRUWHG federal political leadership. one may see how names are written beside ER[HV 2Q WKH ER[ WKH 6QRZ ODZ ¿UP XVHV hen you grow up in a small town — as are names from decades ago, such as Wyatt I did in Pendleton — you are conscious and Norblad. of the town’s lawyers. One of my best school $WRQHSRLQWWKH¿UPZDVNQRZQDV1RU- chums’ fathers was a prosecutor when we T W Wendell Wyatt were young. I have a vivid memory of going WR KLV RI¿FH XSVWDLUV LQ DQ RI¿FH EXLOGLQJ and seeing him wearing a pistol in a shoulder holster. That made an impression on a sixth- grade boy. The remnants of Pendleton’s early law practices were evident in the 1950s. John .LONHQQ\ZRXOGOHDYHWKH¿UPKHHVWDEOLVKHG in 1925 when President Dwight Eisenhower made him a federal judge in 1959. When I returned to Pendleton on a visit in about 1972, I was startled to learn that a Native American lawyer, Doug Nash, had set up a law practice. That signaled a dramatic shift in the native culture around Pendleton. L ike every other profession, lawyering is in the midst of technological change. Lawyers we knew in Washington, D.C., were an unhappy lot. But not here. At the same time, lawyers often see social change coming before the rest of us do. Hal Snow sounded the alarm that led to one of Clatsop County’s early successful prosecu- tions of an elder abuse case. Since then, Hal has been appalled to see incidents of elder abuse increase. Upriver, Portland’s Tonkon Torp law ¿UPKDVIRUPHGDPDULMXDQDJURXSWRVHUYH D EXVLQHVV JURXS WKDW GLG QRW H[LVW MXVW ¿YH years ago. Another sign of the times. — S.A.F. The Republicans’ coming train wreck in November By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W ASHINGTON — Yes, the big Wisconsin story is Ted Cruz’s crushing 13-point victory. And yes, it greatly improves his chances of denying Donald 7UXPS D ¿UVWEDOORW FRQYHQ- tion victory, which may turn out to be Trump’s only path to the nomination. Nonetheless, the most stun- ning result of Wisconsin is the solidity of Trump’s core constit- uency. Fundamentalist Trump- ism remains resistant to every cosmic disturbance. He man- aged to get a full 35 percent in a state in which: • He was opposed by a very popular GOP governor (80 per- cent approval among Republi- cans) with a powerful state orga- nization honed by winning three campaigns within four years (two gubernatorial, one recall). • He was opposed by popu- lar, local, well-informed radio talk show hosts whose tough interviews left him in shambles. cans, facing a gen- • Tons of money eral-election choice was dumped into between Hillary negative ads not just Clinton and Trump, from the Cruz cam- would either vote paign and the pro- Clinton, go third Cruz super PACs but party or stay home. from two anti-Trump Trump did not super PACs as well. exactly advance his And if that needed outreach doesn’t leave a can- with his reaction to GLGDWHÀDWWHQHGFRQ- Charles the Wisconsin result: sider that Trump Krauthammer a nuclear strike on was coming off two ZHHNVRIJULHYRXVVHOILQÀLFWHG “Lyin’ Ted,” as “a puppet” and wounds — and still got more “a Trojan horse” illegally coor- than a third of the vote. Which dinating with his super PACs GH¿QLWLYHO\ YLQGLFDWHG7UXPS¶V (evidence?) “who totally control boast that if he ever went out him.” Not quite the kind of thing in the middle of Fifth Avenue that gets you from 35 percent to and shot someone (most likely 50 percent. Not needed, say the because his Twitter went down — he’d be apprehended in his Trumpites. If we come to Cleve- pajamas), he wouldn’t lose any land with a mere plurality of delegates, fairness demands that voters. The question for Trump has our man be nominated. This is nonsense. If you can- always been how far he could reach beyond his solid core. not command or cobble together His problem is that those who a majority, you haven’t earned reject him are equally immov- the party leadership. John Kasich makes the able. In Wisconsin, 58 percent of Republican voters said that opposite case. He’s hanging on the prospect of a Trump pres- in case a deadlocked convention idency left them concerned or eventually turns to him, posses- sor of the best polling numbers even scared. Cruz scares a lot of people, against Clinton. After all, didn’t too. But his fear number was Lincoln come to the 1860 con- 21 points lower. Moreover, 36 vention trailing? Yes, and so what? The post- percent of Wisconsin Republi- Marisa Wojcik/The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram via AP Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets supporters during a rally at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wis., Saturday. Fundamentalist Trumpism remains resistant to every cosmic disturbance. 1968 reforms abolished the system whereby governors, bosses and other party poo-bahs decided things. In the modern era, to reach down to the No. 3 candidate — a distant third who loses 55 of 56 contests — or to parachute in a party unicorn who never entered the race in WKH¿UVWSODFHZRXOGEHDUDGLFDO affront to the democratic spirit of the contemporary nominating process. A parachute maneuver might be legal, but it would be perceived as illegitimate and, coming amid the most intense anti-establishment sentiment in memory, imprudent to the point of suicide. Yet even without this eventu- ality, party suicide is a very real possibility. The nominee will be either Trump or Cruz. How do they reconcile in the end? It’s no longer business; it’s personal. Cruz has essentially declared that he couldn’t sup- port someone who did what Trump did to Heidi Cruz. He might try to patch relations with some Trump supporters — is Chris Christie’s soul still for sale? — but how many could he peel away? Remember: Wis- consin has just demonstrated Trump’s unbreakable core. And if Trump loses out, a split is guaranteed. In Trump’s mind, he is a winner. Always. If he loses, it can only be because he was cheated. He constantly contends that he’s being treated unfairly. He is certain to declare any convention process that leaves him without the nomi- nation irredeemably unfair. No need to go third party. A sim- ple walkout with perhaps a thousand followers behind will doom the party in November. In a country where only 25 percent feel we’re on the right track and where the lead- ing Democrat cannot shake the challenge of a once-obscure dairy-state socialist, you’d think the Republicans cannot lose. You’d be underestimating how hard they are trying. STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Founded in 1873
