Well, well, well... Where "Redmond Justice" is concerned, "ask and ye shall receive" seems to be the order of the day. Yesterday we mentioned that government lawyer David Boies, despite an auspicious beginning, has been slacking off a bit in the courtroom melodrama department in recent weeks. But scarcely a day elapsed following our offhand comment when we received word from faithful viewer Jerry O'Neil that things were changing fast. Quoth he: "Apparently in response to what you said earlier, Mr. Boies was heard to say, 'I'll show those AtAT guys.'" And then he pointed out a nifty Yahoo News article which, indeed, shows a Boies returning to his old witness-shredding form.

The poor sod who bore the brunt of Boies' remarkable comeback in the Cool Race was Gordon Eubanks, the CEO of Oblix, Inc., who was testifying on behalf on Microsoft in this ever-so-epic trial. Reportedly, Eubanks had an easy morning as he defended the Redmond Giant's alleged predatory and anticompetitive practices as just run-of-the-mill Silicon Valley business. But once Boies launched into his cross-examination this afternoon, poor Gordie didn't stand a chance, and by the time the dust settled, Eubanks was bleeding profusely from the gaping wound where Boies had torn out a solid chunk of the witness' credibility. Boies "seemed to have a document handy to contradict every statement Eubanks made," and also managed to make the poor guy look like nothing more than a Redmond lackey who occasionally does personal favors for Bill Gates; for instance, he "wrote" a pro-Microsoft op-ed piece for the New York Times-- an article whose first draft may in fact have been penned by Microsoft. When Boies was through, he characterized Eubanks as "someone they call on when they want someone to talk to the press, to write an op-ed piece, who believes monopolies are good."

It's good to see Boies get back into the game. After all, there's only one witness left-- economist Richard Schmalensee (all together, now-- "SCHMALENSEE!"), who takes the stand on Monday. After that, we'll have to see whether Microsoft feels beaten down enough to offer a real settlement deal, or if they want to fight it out to the bitter end. And if it's the latter, we're very interested to see just how bitter the end can be...