The handy-dandy, ever-growing list of celebrities on the 2008 presidential campaign trail

Democrats:Hillary Clinton: Maya Angelou, 50 Cent, Barbra Streisand, Pauly Shore, Madonna, Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Barack Obama: Oprah, Usher, George Clooney, Matt Damon.

John Edwards: Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Jean Smart, Madeline Stowe, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Harry Belafonte.

Chris Dodd: Paul Simon

Bill Richardson: Martin Sheen, Carlos Alazraqui (the voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua)

Dennis Kucinich: Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Willie Nelson, Esai Morales, Ed Begley Jr., Hector Elizondo, James Cromwell, Alexandra Paul, Paul Haggis, Frances Fisher, Ani DiFranco, Larry Flynt.

Joe Biden: ?

Mike Gravel: ?

Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani: Robert Duvall, Ron Silver, Adam Sandler, Kelsey Grammar.

John McCain: Curt Schilling.

Mitt Romney: ?

Mike Huckabee: Chuck Norris, Ted Nugent, Rick “Nature Boy” Flair.

Fred Thompson: Fred Thompson

Ron Paul: John Mayer (love the video).

Tom Tancredo: ?

Duncan Hunter: Chuck Yeager.

Please e-mail me with suggestions and links.

John Edwards: Bringing the bacon to Iowa

From Cogitamus: “Kevin Bacon is now campaigning for John Edwards in Iowa.  Bacon’s extensive connections to every single person in Iowa just might give Edwards the edge he’s looking for next month.”

San Diego private eye indicted

Any of you attorneys who read this blog ever use a private investigator named Victoria Tade? Uh oh.

Tade ran a San Diego private eye firm named C.I. Inc.. Last week, she was indicted in Tacoma, Washington on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and illegal solicitation of tax and Social Security information.

According to the indictment, Tade would pay Emilio and Brandy Torella, who ran a husband and wife private eye firm in Washington, for “confidential employment, financial, tax or medical information.” The Torells would then obtain the information under false pretenses by what’s known as “pretexting.”

Tade was hired by insurance companies, attorneys and collection companies who wanted her to uncover background information on opposing parties and witnesses and to uncover assets and income to satisfy debts.

The indictment doesn’t identify Tate’s clients, but I’ll keep you posted.

A close call

I spent a bit of time reading over Hizzoner Larry Burns’ order on the subpoenas that weren’t and I now realize that I dodged a bullet.

It turns out that Burns never considered the First Amendment arguments made by The Associated Press and NBC’s Lisa Myers.

He didn’t need to because the jury that convicted Brent Wilkes of supplying Randy “Duke” Cunningham with hookers and cash wasn’t influenced by grand jury leaks. And Burns couldn’t go Matlock on us and investigate the leaks himself. That was the Justice Department’s job, “slipshod” as the judge felt it was.

Good thing too because Burns give a sneak peek at how he might have ruled by citing the case of two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who were leaked grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds and other elite athletes.

The court notes, however, that the very same arguments were recently considered by the United States District Court for Northern California and rejected (emphasis added)

Yikes! I could have wound up in jail!

Good thing I never wrote about how Burns was rushing the Wilkes case along at breakneck speed to avoid postponing an upcoming border bust trial. And I guess it was a good idea to avoid examining the whispers of Burns as “a prosecutor in a robe.”

Ohmigod! I did not just say that! I take that back. Judge Burns is a most wise and benevolent jurist, a very fair judge, and a very nice man.

O yes my precious, very nice.

Mystery Solved

I called Hizzoner Larry Burns’ chambers to learn what happened in the case of the subpoena that wasn’t.

Attorneys for convicted Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes, were chomping at the bit to serve me with my subpoena. Burns had been leaning toward issuing the subpoenas, and, on Friday, Burns told Wilkes’ attorneys to go ahead and serve them.

Only problem with this was Burns was still mulling over the request for subpoenas.

On Monday, when the judge finished his research and issued his order denying the request for subpoenas that had been issued, Burns had a change of heart. There would be no subpoenas. Oops!

So I’m left with a worthless piece of paper, a nice souvenir I’m going to hang on the wall.