The New York Times published Thursday a rather infuriating editorial piece that is authored by Adam Cohen and blames the downfall of Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor on revenge-minded Republicans.

Minor's the attorney who helped the State in its lawsuit against tobacco companies that led to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. His firm received $70 million for its work, and Minor has since spent a percentage of his wealth on the campaigns of Democrats. Now he's serving an 11-year sentence for bribing judges.

There is no way I can pick apart Cohen's work as deftly as Walter Olson did at Point of Law. His entry today is a perfect example of critical thought of a complex issue delivered with a style that is as easy to follow as a Snoopy cartoon.

The highlights? Olson recognizing Cohen's column as the suggestion-weighted piece it is and his response to input in the column from one of Minor's attorneys ("no doubt a very objective source," Olson wrote). Cohen, instead, took the attorney's word as gospel.

Paul Minor bribed judges, got rich and got caught. Now he's in jail for 11 years for compromising the public's faith in the judicial system. Cohen argues that his prosecution has helped kill the Democratic party in the state, because trial lawyers are now afraid to stand out in their contributions. They, too, may be convicted without proof by a jury of smelly Republicans.

Yes, Republicans hold a two-seat advantage in the state's Senate, but ask Republican Sen. Charlie Ross what good that is. His bill calling for stricter transparency laws in the Democratic Attorney General's office passed through the Senate, but might as well have been torn to shreds afterward.

It never had a chance in the state's House of Representatives. Why, you ask? Because there are 73 Democrats and only 46 Republicans in the House. The bill died in the House Judiciary Committee. I never received that call from Ross that I requested in an interview to update me on its passage.

"The case intimidated trial lawyers into stopping their political activity," Cohen wrote.

What?

Didn't trial lawyer Richard Scruggs just run a smear campaign against George Dale, the eight-term Insurance Commissioner? Scruggs wasn't even on a ballot. He just wanted Dale out, and he got his wish.

Scruggs bought ad space in newspapers, put out press releases from his Scruggs Katrina Group website and wasn't shy with his words when a reporter called for his viewpoint. He called an elected official, supposedly sympathetic to the same cause that ordered Minor rubbed out, a pig in lipstick.

I don't know if you could call Scruggs intimidated by what happened to Minor.

If Cohen knows his stuff, he would be quick to come back with the fact Scruggs is now facing criminal contempt charges.

Scruggs was ordered to return confidential documents leaked by a pair of former employees to a private insurance company's attorneys, and instead gave them to Attorney General Jim Hood. Then he gave those employees $150,000-a-year salaries.

A U.S. Attorney even declined to pursue the charges until a judge ordered someone else to do it because the evidence against him, the judge thought, was so overwhelming. Hardly sounds like another frame-job, especially considering this is all taking place in Alabama.

In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of Minor's family, firm and attorneys who think he was the victim of a setup.

It sounds more like the revenge of the courtroom, a man who abused the judicial process so defiantly it eventually turned on him.