"Because he could"

During the brief tenure of James Rogan as Director of the USPTO, LBE had a chance to hear Rogan give a speech in New York City, which speech contained a story which ended in the punchline "because he could." Rogan had been a Congressman from California, and, as a Congressman, was a manager of Clinton's impeachment trial, which action later led to his targeting by Democrats for defeat. Years later, Dick Morris would write a book about Clinton, entitled "Because He Could," which title text shows up in the chapter "Cracking the Clinton Code" .

But a story with a punchline "because he could" had appeared before Rogan's speech. In the 1999 movie "8MM," the evil lawyer character Daniel Longdale (played by Anthony Heald ) delivers pretty much the same storyline as Rogan in "justifying" certain bad actions of an industrialist with the surname Christian. The evil lawyer also explains to the film's hero, Tom Welles (played by Nicholas Cage), that Welles had been hired BECAUSE Welles was expected to be incompetent (ie, because he "couldn't"). The evil lawyer dies in the movie, shot by the evil snuff film maker Dino Velvet with a cross-bow, but manages to kill Velvet, with evil extinguishing evil, ironically following a discussion by Velvet of a need for "honor among thieves."

Movies portraying lawyers in a bad light are common. In the patent reform debate, patent lawyers have been demonized by authors such as Jaffe and Lerner. At the end of the day, there has to be more than movie stereotyping, and a rationale of "because they could."

***See also


Fed judgeship for former patent boss Rogan blocked by Boxer