President Bush's asbestos expert flunks arithmetic

In the debate about reforming asbestos litigation, it helps to have an expert that exaggerates the facts...ten-fold.

In a speech in Michigan earlier in the year, President Bush's asbestos expert, Lester Brickman, a law professor from Yeshiva, said, 105,000 people claimed damages from asbestos in 2003. Each of those claimants, he said, sued “40, 50, 60, 70 different companies, so we're talking about a total of 50 million, 60 million, 70 million new claims generated just in the year 2003.”

But Mr. Brickman’s math was a little off. Actually, 105,000 claimants suing 70 people each would generate 7 million claims a year, not 70 million.

Nice try.