Shot Heard `Round The World

On Monday, Floyd Landis struck back at Dick Pound for Pound’s comments in a New York Times Magazine article published the previous day. The magazine piece, along with the Mark McClusky’s article in Wired and the L.A. Times series by Michael Hiltzik have certainly brought Dick Pound and the anti-doping system he runs into sharper focus.

Floyd’s response to Pound’s latest attack of verbal flatulence is getting coverage in a number of different media outlets from around the world, as noted over at Trust But Verify (TBV also quotes one of my favorite Warren Zevon songs — well done, TBV). What I find most heartening about the coverage of Landis’ response is that Landis is getting so much coverage.

I’m not sure we’ve quite reached critical mass, yet, but it does seem that the mainstream media are beginning to shine a bright light on the whole anti-doping process, and especially on the man who leads it. Could this be the shot heard `round the world for the current anti-doping process? We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Landis Adds More Legal Firepower

The Floyd Fairness Fund announced the hiring of Maurice Suh, a partner at the law-firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (Gibson Dunn) in Los Angeles, to assist Howard Jacobs in the defense of Floyd Landis against doping charges stemming from results of a drug test after Stage 17 of the 2006 edition of the Tour de France. According to the press release (available at TBV):

Mr. Suh’s expertise in complex litigation proceedings and experience in prosecuting public corruption and official misconduct cases against federal and state law enforcement officials allows him to bring significant prosecutorial strength to the complexities of a multi-jurisdictional case in which the various anti-doping organizations and sports federations have acted with gross misconduct, denying Landis the basic right to due process while violating their own charters and rules.

Suh was retained in December and appears to be a very good addition to the Landis team of legal eagles. Given the resources that the anti-doping world can bring to bear, it appears that the Landis defense team will be formidable. And, I believe, it’s an encouraging sign. I suspect that this is part of the long-term strategy that Jacobs and Floyd’s advisors formulated some time ago.

It’s going to be interesting to see what new legal efforts may come of Suh’s addition to the Landis defense team. Judging by his credentials and specialties, he sounds very well suited to the tasks that lie ahead.

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RP’s Little Red Book

Whatever you may think about Dick Pound and the job he’s done to put an organization like WADA into place with such relative speed, the man seems to have an uncanny knack for making comments that are uncalled for and out of place for a person in his office — and that garner a lot of media coverage. The Canadian magazine Maclean’s has a good recent sampling of Quotations from Biggus Richardus that illustrate just how accomplished he is in this respect. And they have links to the original articles where Mr. Pound’s comments appeared.

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Truthiness and Factiness For All

Stephen Colbert, who coined the word “truthiness” (just ask him, he’ll tell you) on the first episode of The Colbert Report, has done it again. His new word of the day is “factiness.” (Take a look at Colbert’s riff on facts.)

Truthiness, in Colbert’s world, means that whatever you claim to be true is, in fact, the truth. Even when it isn’t. Ditto for factiness. Let’s see, who could that also apply to? Hmmm.

I’m thinking that Stephen Colbert should have Dick Pound on his show. Since Pound is known for both his truthiness and factiness, I’m sure he and Colbert would have a lot to talk about.