Tauzin resigns as panel chairman

[TacticalPeek]

Tauzin resigns as panel chairman

By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES



Rep. Billy Tauzin told House Republican leaders yesterday that he is stepping down from his powerful chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and that he will not seek re-election in the fall.
The Louisiana Republican officially made his decision Sunday night and hand-delivered a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, yesterday around 6:30 p.m., said Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson.
It had been speculated that the 12-term congressman was considering leaving Congress because his name has come up for top positions at lobbying groups for both the motion picture and pharmaceutical industries.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040204-121101-6395r.htm

[DemoTex]

1. Tauzin gone a whorin', doo-dah, doo-dah

Tauzin gone a whorin', doo-dah-doo-dah-day.

Yawn... what else is new in Louisiana?

[Dover]

2. Public Citizen is calling for an investigation of Tauzin

Public Citizen is calling for an investigation of Billy Tauzin, the Republican Congressman from Louisiana, who had a key role in writing the Medicare prescription drug law -- and now that he's done with that, got a big thank-you in the form of a sweet offer to lobby in Washington for the pharmaceutical industry. The compensation package, rumored to be somewhere from $1 million to $2.5 million a year, would be "likely the largest compensation package on record for anyone at a trade association," Public Citizen says. Tauzin hasn't said yet whether he'll accept it; he seems to have been given pause by the drumbeat of indignation that's risen at the idea.

"The record size of the contract and the fact that the offer became public less than two months after the drug industry scored a major victory with this legislation raises serious questions about whether Representative Tauzin's actions were tainted," says Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen's president. "While Rep. Tauzin was writing the bill, he put out the word that he was retiring from Congress and looking for new work. This doesn't pass the smell test."

Tauzin is not the only politician who seems to be cashing in his chips with the drug industry. Tom Scully, the White House point person on the Medicare bill, recently quit government to go work for law firms that represent pharmaceutical interests. "So we have a situation where the lead administration person on the bill and the lead manager on the bill in the House of Representatives are going to work for the pharmaceutical companies," Pelosi says. "I think it would be important to the American people to know when the negotiations for these positions began."

-- from The Nation

[R Hickey]

3. How many old people will die because of Tauzin's greed?

How many sick and elderly US taxpayers will now die before their time because Billy Tauzin sold them out? Playing keep-away with affordable drugs, is a pretty low thing to do.

But who can blame congressman Tauzin? For this $2,500,000/year
'sluff job,' almost any Republican elected official would dig up their own dead grandmother and kick her rotting bones down the Capitol stairs.

Bribery has its privlages, any GOP politician will tell you that, just look what graft has done for Dick Cheney.