David Radler's Clearing The Decks...

...if his settlement with Chicago Sun-Times Media Group is any indication. Under its terms, Mr. Radler himself has to pay $21.18 million, and companies that he owns have to pay $42.23 million, for a total of $63.41 million. Details here.

[UPDATE: The defense is questioning the timing of the settlement: "[Conrad Black's] lawyers immediately leaped into action Monday, seizing on 11th-hour announcements of cash settlements with key prosecution witness David Radler." From this report.]

Mr. Radler isn't the only one who's clearing the decks. The Sun Media group's Peter Worthington has jumped on the "rat" characterization of Mr. Radler, contrasting him with G. Gordon Liddy, a man who toughed it out, took the heat, and ended up winning a lot of respect for it. He ends with the opinion that Conrad Black was done in by his lavishness, period, as well as by his largely absentee proprietorship style.

Significantly, the facts that Mr. Worthington unveiled gibe with this Globe and Mail report that contrasts Mr. Black's recent financial woes with what appears to be Mr. Radler's lack of them. (The fine money he's paying has to come from somewhere.) Those who consider Mr. Radler to be the media-maligned party in this case, or those who get sick of hearing him badmouthed, may very well venture the opinion that Mr. Radler is less like an escaping rat and more like a freed servant.

[Mr. Worthington himself was given a 1/3-or-so-column roasting by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, which ends with Mr. Roeper calling Worthington a "pompous ass." It's the end snippet in Mr. Roeper's latest column, entitled "Oh for Pete's sake."

[Another Chicago publication's Website did admit that a few of the jury candidates didn't exactly show Chicago at its best; it links to a Toronto Life round-up of critical stories.]

To move to a somewhat different subject, the Guardian is showing an interest in Conrad Black's choice of accomodations (the Ritz-Carlton,) as well as in his breakfast, as the headline indicates. This subject has been sufficiently interesting for the Financial Post to pick up on, as the Blacks have a rather well-known fellow resident in the Ritz-Carlton - not a guest of the hotel, but someone who owns five units of the place. That happy resident, or soon to be ex-resident if a factoid in the article can be counted on, is none other than Oprah Winfrey. [I trust a identificatory link isn't needed for this name.]

The author of this piece, Shinan Govani, also has a brief Barbara Amiel Black anecdote: it seems she was 'late' for a fashion show that started on time. Evidently, the local fashionistas have guessed that Judge St. Eve is soon going to have more than a few likesakes amongst the clientele.

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On the comeuppance side, another Blogspot blogger, who runs a blog called "Legal Soapbox," waxes pontifical upon the entrepreneurial personality, which is evidenced by people who succeed "because of their almost preternatural belief in their abilities and their entitlement to success." This kind of psychological armor, though, turns into a petard when real trouble erupts, according to the blogger in question, Legal Eagle. She happens to be a lawyer...and an Australian.