People v. State

Jamison Koehler, who deserved the top honors he received this year in the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 Criminal Justice category, for all the reasons eloquently described by Scott Greenfield in his post commemorating the occasion, had some classy things to say about Greenfield on the occasion of Greenfield’s announcement that he’s retiring from the blogosphere. Jamison wrote: “His kind words recently – almost two years after I was banished from his blogroll as a self-promoting marketer — meant far more to me than any ABA award.”

But then Greenfield’s right hand man, the malodorous Brian Tannebaum, appeared in the comments on Jamison’s post and had this to say:

I didn’t want to break your heart on Valentine’s Day, but did you read Greenfield’s post about you carefully? I mean really carefully? Read it again. Make sure your door is closed and there are no sharp objects around.

Jamison replied:

From my previous dealings with Greenfield, it did occur to me that he was pulling my leg. I concluded that, based on my communications with him after my father died, he wouldn’t have brought my father into the equation if he was in fact making fun of me. Although Greenfield can be a bastard sometimes, nobody could be that classless and cruel.

Then again, you know him far better than I.

See, Greenfield had written this in his post about Jamison’s ABA honor:

My wild guess is that he gets it from his father, a poet of both renown and great talent.  Jamison’s occasional homage to his father, who lives on his writing, is both heartwarming and moving.  They say the apple never falls far from the tree, and if that’s true, then Jamison’s fabulous writing style comes to him as honestly as can be.

And you know how Tannebaum replies? Like this:

Classless and cruel is textbook happysphere talk for “truth.” Maybe I know something buddy.

Norm Pattis struck exactly the right tone in his own post on Greenfield’s departure (and I thought that even before seeing Tannebaum’s vile remarks, and considering their vile implications), and in this comment on Jamison’s post:

I stopped reading him a year or so ago when he seemed to go off the deep end and began to write more about blogging than the law. Getting out for a while will be good for him. I hope he clears his system of whatever it was that transformed him from a bright guy into a tedious scold. He’ll be back soon in some form or another; the satisfaction of attending your wake lasts only so long. When he returns, I hope he writes about practicing law rather than writing about those who write about those who practice law.

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