With Friends Like These...

Last night in Westchester, Dems and Republicans hammered out the final details of a long anticipated cross-endorsement deal to elect New York's chief administrative judge, Jonathan Lippman, to the state Supreme Court.

Quick to sing the judge's praises was Ravi Batra, the politically wired Brooklyn attorney. In press statement this afternoon, Mr. Batra referred to Mr. Lippman as "the zenith of merit." He also concluded that "the Lippman cross-endorsement by all major political parties proves that politics loves and celebrates merit."

Of course, Mr. Batra knows much about the celebration of merit. He's received more than a few lucrative appointments from pals in the New York judiciary, two of whom have been censured for presiding over cases that involved Mr. Batra, without disclosing their personal relationships. As we recall, he also knows a thing or two about making judges.

And speaking of Mr. Batra and of Brooklyn, he's also the guy who sued the producers of Law & Order last year... for defamation of character.