Remember Hillary Clinton's claim that she's a smarter Democratic choice to face Republicans this fall because she's been fully vetted by her years in public life? That conceit went down in flames, so to speak, over Bosnia last week, the victim of the candidate's carelessly shooting off her mouth.

We refer, of course, to the falsehood Clinton has been telling regarding a visit she made as first lady to Tuzla. For months now, Clinton has given a detailed story on the campaign trail about how she and daughter Chelsea flew into a war zone and skittered across the tarmac, ducking to avoid sniper fire. The story was supposed to make her seem more experienced on foreign affairs.

Except it wasn't true. Networks aired stock footage last week of Clinton's 1996 trip to a by-then-pacified Bosnia, showing the smiling first lady and her daughter arriving at the Tuzla airbase with the insouciance of starlets deplaning at Palm Beach for the weekend. Clinton acknowledged the mistake, saying, "It proves I'm human."

To err is human; to tell this self-serving whopper for months on end is Hillary — or at least it fits the image many Americans have of Clinton and her husband. Fair or not, the Clintons have a reputation as Machiavellians who are willing to say anything to protect their political interests.

The Tuzla fabrication is a big deal because it goes right to Clinton's greatest political vulnerability: the issue of trust. A recent Gallup survey found that only 44 percent of Americans view her as "honest and trustworthy" — far behind the number who say the same thing about Barack Obama and Republican nominee-apparent John McCain.

When Obama stepped on the Jeremiah Wright land mine, he handled the political crisis with intelligence and grace, which helped define his character in the public mind. Clinton's problem is not that the Tuzla flap tells the public anything new about her — a problem that adept crisis management could contain — but that it serves to remind them of what many already believe.

— The Dallas Morning News

Several of the richest and most powerful plaintiffs' attorneys in America may soon be shuffling off to federal prison — further tarnishing the negative image surrounding trial lawyers.Class-action tort king Melvyn Weiss pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges related to his role in a scheme to give kickbacks to plaintiffs in lawsuits filed by his firm, Milberg Weiss.One of Weiss' former partners, William Lerach, was sentenced last month to two years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in the scheme.Then this bombshell hit: Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs pleaded guilty March 14 to trying to bribe a judge in Mississippi. Scruggs burnished his reputation as one of the most feared lawyers in the country after taking on Big Tobacco and reaching a $206 billion settlement in 1998 on behalf of 46 states.In the world of trial lawyers, the trio of convictions was like finding out that Ruth, Gehrig and Mays took steroids and fixed baseball games.In their own way, Weiss, Lerach and Scruggs played Davids to business Goliaths. They took on entire industries, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from companies for aggrieved individuals.Some suits brought about positive change in corporate behavior and improved product safety. Along the way, the lawyers pocketed millions in fees and became fabulously wealthy.Weiss and Lerach almost single-handedly invented the securities class-action suits, often filing claims after a company's stock sank or bad news hit.Scruggs, meanwhile, revolutionized American tort law, by rounding up thousands of plaintiffs to take on major businesses and industries, including cigarette makers, drug companies and construction firms. The crush of litigation often forced companies into major settlements.Each man became the scourge of many corporate corner offices, which were forced to spend time and money battling legal claims the companies often deemed frivolous.But plaintiffs' attorneys argued that their legal action helped to keep Big Business in check.There's a little bit of truth to both sides.Just consider the tangled mess surrounding asbestos litigation, which has dragged on for decades. Thousands of people who were harmed or died from asbestos have received some compensation. But many of the claims have proved to be bogus, cooked up by sleazy lawyers, aided by shoddy doctors.The same goes for silicosis litigation, where a federal judge ruled in 2006 that thousands of claims had been manufactured for money.The lesson here is that the trial lawyers play a key role in our legal system. But in pursuing fraud, the trial lawyers can't commit fraud.Many state courts and the Supreme Court have issued recent rulings that amount to major setbacks for the plaintiffs' bar. But it's hard to rally support for trial lawyers when the leaders of the field are going off to prison.The trial bar has long been held in low esteem in polls. All the more reason why attorneys must maintain high ethical standards.Weiss, Lerach and Scruggs did lots of good in their day. But they got greedy and broke the law.Now, it's their turn to pay up.<b><i>— The Philadelphia Inquirer</i></b>