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September 17, 2004
MacDougald's Anonymity
Some people don't seem to think MacDougald's anonymity is a big deal. Well, normally this guy has no problem putting his name on what he writes. Here is a link to a typical right wing rant that the guy posted a few years ago, surrender monkeys etc it's all there!
Additionally, the guy writes letters to the editor of what was the Atlanta Constitution and is now the AJC:
Columnist is Clueless About Morality
AJC - Wednesday May 13 1998
Syndicated columnist David Broder's assertion of moral equivalence between House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton proved that one of the grand pooh-bahs of the chattering class in Washington is utterly bereft of any moral discernment. What Gingrich has said about Clinton is true, and everybody with half a brain knows it. Virtually every utterance by Clinton on the subject of his scandals is a lie. For insisting that the American people have a right to know the truth and that Bill Clinton be subjected to the rule of law, Gingrich is accused of making bitter personal, partisan attacks. Yet the orchestrated vilification of Ken Starr, the shrill attacks on Dan Burton and Gingrich, the abusive claims of executive privilege to cover up a sexual tryst, and the lock-step stonewalling and obstruction by Democrats in every congressional investigation of Clinton draw nary a discouraging word from Broder. Broder is a fatuous nitwit, and that he is regarded as a wise man of Washington only illustrates how perverse the culture of the mainstream media has become. HARRY MACDOUGALD Atlanta
And here's more:
Another Sleazeball
AJC Wednesday December 29 1993
The most entertaining aspect of the furor over the president's alleged sexual peccadillos has been watching the anguished contortions of his supporters. For 12 years, liberals and the media have treated the slightest whiff of Republican scandal with all the decorum of starving hyenas chasing a meat wagon. Now, with strong evidence that President Clinton lied on "60 Minutes" and that he has abused the powers of his office to cover up personal scandal, you have said, presumably with a straight face, that none of this is relevant. You will just have to get used to the fact that Clinton is not the prince you dreamt of lo these many years. He is just another sleazeball.
Harry W. MacDougald Atlanta
Look, the point is that this guy is not usually shy. He's practically a local media whore. So why would he previously seek attention in "Lawyer's quest for good government bittersweet" and write letters to the editor, be in the AJC Political Insider earlier this year filing a complaint about electronic voting machines and now all of a sudden on what will be the biggest story of his life he wishes to remain anonymous and not comment on it.
In the extended entry I've included a transcript of "Lawyer's Quest for Good Government Bittersweet" which appeared in the AJC on April 18, 2002. I pulled this and the lettters to the editor off Nexis.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 18, 2002 Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Metro News; Pg. 2G
LENGTH: 563 words
HEADLINE: Lawyer's quest for good government bittersweet
BYLINE: COLIN CAMPBELL
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
Harry MacDougald is a wiry 43-year-old lawyer with a messy little office in downtown's Fairlie-Poplar district and an attitude that reminds some people of a terrier.
Since 1995, he has been suing the city of Atlanta on behalf of various city employees who've been fired after they blew the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. MacDougald has taken detailed depositions from Bill Campbell and many others, and he has learned some curious things about how city government works.
He has also made enemies, grown tired and, through federal court judgments and settlements, relieved the city of about $2 million in back pay for his clients, legal fees, etc.
Obviously $2 million is a tiny fraction of the money the Campbell administration squandered. But it helped support MacDougald's family, it meant justice for a bunch of fired whistle-blowers (most recently Odette Florence of the recreation bureau) and it gave MacDougald a peek into some of the nastier corners of city government.
What that government became, MacDougald said over lunch at the handsome City Grill (where ex-city officials still occasionally dine, some no doubt looking for jobs) was akin to a corrupt enterprise. City Hall turned into a kind of racket. It enriched friends, maintained control, and punished and resisted critics.
"Basically the government was operated as a naked spoils system, and every lever of government was in their hands," MacDougald observed. Contracts and employment delivered goods to loyalists, and the Department of Administrative Services and the Office of Contract Compliance (the latter working from the mayor's office) helped grease the wheels. If you crossed this system, your job or contract might well end. Meanwhile, the law department and outside lawyers could usually be counted on to "defend the system from all external and internal threats."
For several years the city's business establishment tried to get along with, and defend the mayor when necessary. As late as 1999, 33 "civic and business leaders" signed a public letter criticizing an editorial in The Atlanta Constitution that had lambasted Campbell.
That letter --- which deplored the editorial's focus on Campbell himself, and which opined that "a vibrant, successful Atlanta depends on business, government, media and civic leaders working together as we tackle the tough issues" --- irritated and depressed MacDougald "tremendously," he said. But the letter was another facet of how the city worked. Even after business leaders had begun trashing Campbell in private, they felt called upon to assume a unified and vaguely flattering front.
MacDougald was born and raised in Atlanta. He majored in American civilization at Brown University, got his law degree at Georgia and worked, on occasion, for conservative causes, including the Southeastern Legal Foundation. He's a Southern white Republican --- yet most of his whistle-blowing clients have been black.
MacDougald's efforts against the Campbell administration's bitter resistance made his life "extremely difficult," the lawyer recalled. He's proud of his clients, but he doesn't want to do such work again.
Luckily, Atlanta's new mayor, Shirley Franklin, wanted two of his cases settled, and the law department saw to it that she got her wish.
"She has done unmistakably good things," he said. ccampbell@ajc.com
LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2002
Posted by Chris at September 17, 2004 09:24 PM
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