For some reason, pharma lobbyists think it’s better for them to obviously goad politicians into endorsing their position than to just state their position. The result: columns the one Howard Dean published yesterday, insisting that IPAB won’t work. Jonathan Cohn smacks his head.
Since his career in politics ended, Dean has found a home in the K Street establishment he once held in such disdain. He’s a strategic adviser to McKenna, Long, and Aldridge, a major Washington lobbying firm whose clients have included health care and pharmaceutical companies. Dean has never registered as a lobbyist, as far as I know, but the distinction is largely illusory. In 2009, one CEO told the publication BioCentury that Dean was “very helpful” in their efforts to loosen federal regulations on drug development.” Another said that “Dean has been a great addition to our team.” It looks like he still is.
Tory PM David Cameron wants to export gay marriage around the world. That’s your latest installment in “British conservatives are different.”
Brett Kimberlin, the bete noire of the conservative blogosphere, is brought low by sexual abuse charges from an estranged wife.
Alaska Sen. Mark Begich easily leads most possible GOP foes but barely leads the most generic Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell. And this is why he keeps begging Sarah Palin—whom only 47 percent of Alaskans now consider one of their own—to run.
The Romney campaign assures us that its fictional portral in The Newsroom is, indeed, fictional.
Republican donors finally sort of mobilize for immigration reform.
And Kotaku blows the lid off of Chinese salad-stacking.
