In Bed with Big Pharma

In politics, you'll often hear the term "in bed" bandied about with a negative connotation. Like, "You're in bed with the oil industry!" or "He's in bed with the gun lobby!". It's never happened to me before, because I'm a good, honest, and decent man (John McCain says so!) that can't be bought off by monied interests. But this time it's different. This time I can't escape the cold, hard facts...

I'm in bed with Big Pharma.

Yes, it's true. My wife, Hadassah, works as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. She started working for the lobbying firm Hill & Knowlton last year. Hill & Knowlton, who used to work on behalf of the tobacco industry fighting the truthinistas that claimed cigarettes caused cancer, hired her as a “senior counselor” in its “health and pharmaceuticals practice". Just one month after she was hired, I introduced a bill that would give Big Pharma billions in new government "incentives" to produce more flu vaccines. The New Haven Register called my bill a "blank check" to the pharmaceutical industry for "what may be an uncertain or dubious
return."

I know it's wrong. But when Hadassah is lying in bed, wearing that sexy black silk nightie that I really like, it's hard to say no to handouts for Merck and Pfizer. When she's in the hot tub, with the lights turned low and a 'come hither' look in her eyes, I'm not really in a good position to turn down patent extensions for GalaxoSmithKline. Some guys buy flowers or jewelry to get in the good graces of their significant other. In my case, all I have to do is divert large chunks of taxpayer cash into the pockets of multinational corporations.

But I do it for the right reasons. I do it for love.