Justice Italian Style

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

Give it up for the Italians, they just have more interesting political trials than we do.

I can’t tell you how many times I almost fell asleep during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial for not semantically properly having sex with a big-haired intern. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on the other hand, knows how to party.

The Roman press is awash in tales of the Italian Stallion hosting “bunga bunga” sex parties, not with one or two ambitious interns, but with dozens — dozens — of women, all of whom seem to be awarded cash prizes just for attending. I’m not sure what “bunga bunga” sex is, but it may explain why he never returns my calls.

Lest you think the Italian authorities are mere moralizing adulterers, like the geezers in the United States Congress, Berlusconi is accused of handing out one of the cash prizes to a 17-year-old. Under Italian law she just misses the safe zone of legal prostitution. Berlusconi isn’t one to hide behind Clintonian language precision, though while he isn’t denying he actually did have sexual relations with that girl, he does think that technically he may be entitled to a refund.