Tort Reform Fever

by digby

K-Drum writes about a colleague’s new book regarding the conservative tort reform crusade. Conservative hostility to liability laws has always been around, but “tort reform” as we know it was evidently one of those Grover Norquist specials where he rightly observed that trial lawyers tended to be Democratic contributors so going after them hard was a neat political two-fer.

But I’ve noticed for several election cycles now that Republican crowds go completely nuts whenever a candidate says the words “tort reform.” It’s always struck me as completely bizarre that they would have such an emotional reaction to such a dry issue. Does anyone know if it’s got some dogwhistle quality that I’m missing? Or is it just a recognizable applause line that mindless Republican robots get hysterical over without having a clue as to what it really means?

edited for clarity
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