How to Win Friends and Influence People, Washington Edition

At the tail end of a piece on the surprise resignation of PhRMA chief Billy Tauzin, Politico offers this description of how the drug industry's top D.C. lobbyist, who previously served as a Republican legislator, was able to buddy up to Democrats on the Hill:

Though a Republican himself, Tauzin stacked senior jobs with well-liked and respected Democratic Hill veterans and spent money advertising on behalf of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers and some of the party's key issues. The moves laid the groundwork for the cooperative relationship between the industry and Democrats during the health reform debate.

Comments

[sage]

LOVE that sign in the background. We need more candid displays of truth like that.

[P Brooks]

"We get our votes the old-fashioned way. We buy them."

[suckitupcrybaby]

Billy is able to bob and weave as the political climate changes. No allegiance to any thing but the mighty dollar. He would sell his Grandmother for a dollar.
http://www.suckitupcrybaby.com

[sage]

Hey spammer, you're outdone here. We got the bot. You hear? We got the bot.

[Episiarch]

Yeah, and our bot--Anonymity Bot, not SukiJohnBot, of course--can melt your brain. So take it somewhere else, Inferior Bot.

[Alan Vanneman]

But I thought lobbying was a good thing! Anyway, he's protecting drug industry profits, which is what's important.

[sage]

But I thought lobbying was a good thing!

And I thought you would respond to an assertion that someone's actually made. No dice, eh?

[Warty]

No you didn't. This is Vanneman, remember?

[sage]

*slaps forehead*

Sorry, I forgot. He is forgettable, after all.

[Jordan]

Thinking something should be legal and approving of it are two different things. But you just wanted to make a drive-by dumbass comment, as usual.

[Episiarch]

Hey Alan, maybe you should just stick to reviewing The Constant Gardener instead. You'd make more sense.

[ChrisH]

If you're going to go rent seeking, use a GPS.

Of course, PhRMA does a fair amount of defensive rent seeking, as well.

[Tired of lobbyist]

I guess cooperative relationsh is the new term for patient and profitable thievery.

[splash]

Sarah Palin would never do what Billy Tauzin is doing.

[P Brooks]

Lobbying is not necessarily a "good" or "bad" thing. The government inserting itself into what should be voluntary and private transactions is unequivocally bad.

Does that help?

[Hope-A-Dope]

Democratic senators launch effort to kill filibuster - The Hill
Democratic Senators Tom Harkin and Jeanne Shaheen are introducing a bill to eliminate the filibuster from the U.S. Senate.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/02.....ilibuster/

[R C Dean]

I see they have forgotten the Iron Law:

Me today, you tomorrow.

Let's see if these Democrats' principled stand against the filibuster survives the next Republican majority.

[PR]

I wonder if they've lined up the 60 votes they'll need.

[Nick]

Bwahaahaha! Winner.

[kinnath]

They need 67 votes to change the senate rules . . . Slate had an article about a week ago that explained it was basically impossible to get rid of the filibuster.

[RichN]

Filibustering the filibuster Bill? Brilliant!

"You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think."
- Milton Berle

"So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot." -George Orwell

[Hope-A-Dope]

Warren Eschenbach, an 86-year-old a retired Wausau Water Works employee volunteers his time as a crossing guard at the Riverview Elementary School in Wausau, Wisconsin. After the Wausau School District built an area just outside an intersection at the school's location for parents to pickup their kids from the school, the intersection became busier than usual for a short time every day. So, Eschenbach did a noble thing. He went over to the school and spoke with parents, kids and administrators, and he volunteered to patrol the area at pickup time to make sure kids got to their parents' cars and that others crossed the streets safely. After all, he worked for five years as a crossing guard at the Franklin Elementary School up until three years ago. He lives two doors down and it's for a half hour every day. Who could take issue with that?

Well, apparently union bosses can.

http://laborunionreport.blogsp.....nteer.html

[Robert Frost]

Fireflies in the Garden

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

[RCTL]

Can you recite from memory or not?

[Alea Iacta Est]

Funny how things change over 5 years...

Wheres the "gang of 14" again.

[PIRS]

Loosing elections, that is where they are. McCain is losing in his primary race (thank God)!

[John Tagliaferro]

Really? Did you leave a word out or can I start cheering for real?

[John Thacker]

Why exactly would JD Hayworth be better?

[Voros McCracken]

Yeah, that's the big problem.

I think even more interesting is that McCain would be pretty much unbeatable in the general, while Hayworth might be vulnerable (though the political tides might protect him this time).

[John Thacker]

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Are you suggesting that we'd be better off now if the other Republicans had mistakenly succeeded, and precedent had been established that the majority could eliminate the filibuster?

[PIRS]

No, my Thank God comment was only directed to John McCain. That is all. I am very thankful for the institution of filibuster.

[John Tagliaferro]

Yeah, and our bot--Anonymity Bot, not SukiJohnBot, of course--can melt your brain. So take it somewhere else, Inferior Bot.

You really are one fucked up fuckup. New medications, not organic, believe in chemistry.