When it comes to drawing faith and solace from the headlines, I had thought nothing could top the news that Eliot Spitzer had lost money through Madoff.

But with the recent release of the complete list of Madoff's direct victims by the bankruptcy court, that news has some serious competition:

On the list are Melvyn Weiss and David Bershad, former partners in the famous Milberg Weiss law firm.  The word "former" stems from the fact that those men, not satisfied with being among the leading practitioners of legal extortion class-action securities litigation, are now based in federal prison for kickback scandals.  The email I received containing this information labeled it with the following heading: "Choose Your Own Punchline."

But fear not: you can't keep a plucky plaintiff's firm down, especially for one of the few instances where the actual conduct outstrips what is usually alleged:

Ironically, the lawyers' former firm, now named Milberg LLP, has been one of the most active plaintiff's firms in rounding up Madoff victims for litigation. It has more than 100 victims already signed up, a spokeswoman says.