Hornberger's Blog. Waksal undoubted pleased both his prosecutors and his sentencing judge when he pled for mercy: "I am deeply distressed and so very sorry for my actions. I want to apologize to all the people who may have had confidence in me and whose confidence I betrayed."
It's the type of statement that some people wanted the Dixie Chicks to make. It's also the type of statement that would have pleased those running the North Vietnamese reeducation camps after the communist takeover of South Vietnam.
If only Waksal had known that the judge intended to throw the book at him regardless of what he said, he could have instead told the truth:
"Judge Pauley, I'm just a regular American who established a company that benefited my family, consumers, and me. I'm proud of that. My company has made money, which means that we have served the consumer well. I'm also proud of all that I have accomplished for cancer patients and all that I've done to advance charity with the money I've made. Unfortunately, my company has to deal with such tyrannical and destructive federal agencies as the FDA, whose parasitic bureaucrats have destroyed so many lives through their delays and rejections of so many beneficial health products. As part of that process, I have had to keep track of all the bad things that the FDA is doing to my company. And when they do one of those bad things, I'm going to do my best to protect my family, my company, and myself from financial harm. Everyone else is free to do the same thing. That's what economic liberty and a free market are all about. I'm not sorry for what I have done. I'm proud of it and I would do it again. It's the federal government's stupid and ridiculous socialistic and fascist economic crimes that are the true travesty. You should do the right thing and dismiss the case that these people have brought against me, and these Justice Department prosecutors ought to apologize to the American people for wasting their time and money." [The Future of Freedom Foundation]
9:49:21 AM 
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