In this world, we are often disappointed by the behavior of people we once respected. I'm not disappointed by most of the people I see out there treating Donald Trump like an honest, unjustly-maligned man because I never expected better of most of those folks…but I once did of Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. He once stood for religious freedom and battling hatred but at some point, he seemed to decide that taking the contrary-to-common-sense view on vital cases was noble…or maybe just a good way to get on television a lot.
Back when he was defending O.J. Simpson, he failed to convince me that Simpson had been framed by the L.A.P.D. He also failed to convince me that he — Alan Dershowitz — even believed what he was saying. I saw another attorney on TV one time explain it this way: "Alan heard that someone was assembling a 'dream team' of attorneys and then it was like, 'What do I have to do or say to be on it? And not that it matters but what is the case about?'"
He's been out lately taking up the cause of Donald Trump and here we have Jonathan Chait shredding Dershowitz's latest arguments.
Back in 2002 on this blog, I posted the following quote from Mr. Dershowitz. I thought it was worth quoting again…
Perry Mason was my dream and then my nightmare. He started as my dream. I wanted to be Perry Mason. I dreamed of the courtroom battles that Perry Mason had fought. But then he became my nightmare because I learned that the clients that Perry Mason represented don't exist in real life. Most of my clients were guilty.