You know, Lanny Davis is right. Sen. Ted Stevens, like all individuals under federal indictment, is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Ted Stevens has been indicted by a grand jury for committing seven felonies. And last Thursday, in new filings in the case, prosecutors revealed that Ted Stevens turned a $5,000 investment into a $155,000 profit through the use of an $31,000 interest-free loan that was both improper and never disclosed in his senate filings.

I don’t disagree with Lanny Davis about the importance of the principle of presumed innocence. But I do wonder why Lanny Davis wrote a column defending Ted Stevens in the Moonie Times. At the bottom of the column, it is noted that Lanny Davis:

“…is a prominent Washington lawyer and a political analyst for Fox News. From 1996 to 1998, he served as special counsel to President Clinton. From 2005 to 2006, he served on President Bush’s five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.”

But it does not say that Lanny Davis, or his firm, has been retained by Ted Stevens or that Lanny Davis is being paid to represent Ted Stevens. But I wonder. Lanny Davis was probably the most high profile person that has never held public office to advocate for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. Ted Stevens is a Republican. Ordinarily, Democrats do not race out to write opinion pieces in right-wing rags reminding people of the principle of the presumption of innocence when high-ranking members of the Republican Party get indicted. I don’t begrudge the point that Mr. Davis is making. Ted Stevens deserves a fair trial, competent counsel, and all the civil rights that Americans have been taught to expect are their birthright.

But why is Lanny Davis offering this free service to Ted Stevens? Is it really a free service? Is it possible that he and the Moonie Times neglected to disclose something here? I don’t know any lawyers as exalted as Lanny Davis but my understanding is that their services don’t come cheap. I can see how Mr. Davis might be moved by friendship and political affinity to donate his services as an advocate to the Clinton family. But it’s harder for me picture exactly why Mr. Davis would do the same for an 84-year old Republican from Alaska.

But then I note that Lanny Davis is “a political analyst for Fox News” and that he chose the Moonie Times to publish this piece of lawyerly advocacy. And I notice two interesting pieces from Lanny’s Wikipedia page:

As an undergraduate at Yale, he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. According to an item in U.S. News & World Report, as part of his initiation into the fraternity, Davis underwent hazing by, among others, the future U.S. president George W. Bush…

In 2005, President Bush appointed Davis to serve as the only Democrat on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Something here has the rotting stench of what some people call the ‘Permanent Government’ or ‘PermaGov’. Are we looking at some kind of scam where certain elites adopt positions in one or the other of the two major parties and look to make sure their interests are protected under any conceivable government?

After leaving the White House, Davis returned to Patton Boggs. As part of his work there, he worked as a lobbyist for the nation of Pakistan prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001.[8] In 2003, Davis became a partner in Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. There, he provides counseling to corporations and government contractors on crisis management.

That resume just doesn’t look very Democratic to me. Let’s look a little more carefully.

In 1999, Davis wrote a memoir of his work in the White House entitled Truth to Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education. His most recent book, which appeared in 2006, is entitled Scandal: How “Gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America. The book received praise from politicians and commentators across party lines, including Senators Evan Bayh and Lindsey Graham.

I note the presence of Evan Bayh. And that Lindsey Graham guy spends a lot of time with John McCain. Do you begin to see why progressives threw a fit when we saw Evan Bayh’s name on the short-list for Barack Obama’s running mate?

In 2006, through opinions expressed in the Wall Street Journal (August 8, 2006) and on Fox News, Davis strongly supported longtime friend Joseph Lieberman in his losing bid against Ned Lamont for the Democratic Party nomination for the post of U.S. senator from Connecticut. He then continued to support Lieberman when he ran and won the General Election as an Independent.

With a client list that has included Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistan and ‘corporations and government contractors’ and with a history of backing DLC champions like Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, and Evan Bayh, maybe it isn’t all that surprising that Lanny Davis is willing to provide pro bono services to Sen. Ted Stevens.

Once the primary was over, Fox News was quick to snap up Team Clinton members Howard Wolfson and Lanny Davis as ‘political commentators’, and Clinton ‘chief strategist’ Mark Penn immediately went into business with Karen Hughes. Lanny Davis also joined Clinton advocate James Carville in his character witnessing and apologetics for Scooter Libby. Carville, you might remember, is married to former Cheney staffer Mary Matalin, who is the publisher of the latest ‘swiftboating’ book on Barack Obama. This is something that disgusts even Wanker Emeritus Joe Klein.

What, exactly, is it that Mr. Lanny Davis of the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe sees as such a threat from the election of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich to Ted Stevens’ seat in the U.S. Senate? Why are Evan Bayh and Lindsey Graham so eager to promote Lanny Davis’ books? Wonkette thinks Lanny Davis is off his meds, but I think Wonkette fails to understand the nature of the bipartisan permanent government that seeks to maintain control of both parties, no matter who wins individual elections. They are the people that agreed to embark on George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure in Mesopotamia and that, ever since, have sought to cover-up for that mistake and protect their interests.