Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms

[stop the bleeding]

Frist denies protection was added in secret

By BILL THEOBALD
Gannett News Service


WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play.

The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member.

In an interview, Frist, a doctor and Tennessee Republican, denied that the wording was added that way.

Trial lawyers and other groups condemn the law, saying it could make it nearly impossible for people harmed by a vaccine to force the drug maker to pay for their injuries.

~snip~

"They (committee staff members) were given the language and then it was put in the document," Kennedy said.

About 10 or 10:30 p.m., Democratic staff members were handed the language and told it was now in the bill, Obey said.

He took to the House floor in a rage. He called Frist and Hastert "a couple of musclemen in Congress who think they have a right to tell everybody else that they have to do their bidding."

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., also was critical of inserting the vaccine language after the conference committee had adjourned.

"It sucks," he told Congress Daily that night.



http://www.gallatinnewsexaminer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/NEWS02/602090405/1309/MTCN04

[rodeodance]

1. good, this story is being kept alive (and i do not care by which press)

[Jane Austin]

19. This is very encouraging,

That something we here at DU knew about at the time has broken through into the mainstream press, and 6 weeks after it was buried, too.

I wonder if the domestic spying scandal is emboldening a few news people.

[KansDem]

2. Why the Hell do we even have a congress?

Why go to all that trouble and expense to pay US Senators and Representatives and maintain the capitol buildings? Why not just dissolve Congress and have each of the Fortune 500 corporations send one representative to DC. They can haggle over "legislation" and leave the American people out of it. Let's just put an end this charade of democracy.

[AlCzervik]

5. like Charlie Rangel always says "throw the bums out"

it's beyond frustrating.

[biscotti]

3. Great article

and in the Tennessee paper yet! Creep Frist, your states paper is finally on to you. The culture of corruption sure is being moved into daylight at long last.

[twaddler01]

4. It does SUCK!

:thumbsdown:

[rodeodance]

6. and it is a Repug who let the beans out--te he:--looky here.

....A spokeswoman for Stevens, Courtney Boone, said last week that the vaccine liability language was in the bill when conferees approved it. Stevens was not made available for comment.

During a January interview, Frist agreed. Asked about the claim that the vaccine language was inserted after the conference members signed off on the bill, he replied: "To my knowledge, that is incorrect. It was my understanding, you'd have to sort of confirm, that the vaccine liability which had been signed off by leaders of the conference, signed off by the leadership in the United States Senate, signed off by the leadership of the House, it was my understanding throughout that that was part of that conference report."

But Keith Kennedy, who works for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., as staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at a seminar for reporters last month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert, R-Ill., after the conference committee ended its work.

[rodeodance]

7. so Frist is caught in a lie!

But Keith Kennedy, who works for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., as staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at a seminar for reporters last month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert, R-Ill., after the conference committee ended its work.

[rodeodance]

8. and now Hasturds office has no comment--(about Frist ealier denial)

.......When asked about Frist's earlier denial, spokeswoman Amy Call said: "Bill Frist has fought hard to protect the people of Tennessee and the people of the United States from a bioterror emergency and that's what he did throughout this process."

Hastert's office did not provide a response.

[rodeodance]

9. k and r

[stop the bleeding]

10. rodeodance -I LOVE your research - thank you

[wordpix]

24. Hasturd, Frist and Stevens: unholy trinity of thieves and liars

[KittyWampus]

13. Bet you a donut that it's coming from Trent Lott

:D

[Jane Austin]

20. Oooh, good catch about Lott!

n/t

[wordpix]

23. not the first lie insider trader Frist has told---he's one of best at LIES

[rodeodance]

11. FRIST AND HASTERT TEAM UP TO SECURE BACKDOOR FAVOR FOR DRUG INDUSTRY:

ETHICS -- FRIST AND HASTERT TEAM UP TO SECURE BACKDOOR FAVOR FOR DRUG INDUSTRY: "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play." On December 18, as Congress was scrambling to finish up its legislative business, members of a bipartisan conference committee met to work out the final details of the 2006 Defense Department appropriations bill. At the meeting, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) reportedly asked the conference chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), whether a controversial provision exempting drug makers from damage liability would be included in the final bill. "Obey and four others at the meeting said Stevens told him no. Committee members signed off on the bill and the conference broke up." Keith Kennedy, the staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee who works for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), said last month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert after the conference committee ended its work.

[wordpix]

22. Stevens, another asshole who thinks he's in charge, just because Alaska

has oil and other resources. He's another emperor with no clothes, good Bush buddy-imperialist asshat

[KittyWampus]

12. "witnesses including a top Republican staff member" Want to bet that

staffer works for Trent Lott?

[Wordie]

14. K&R

[leQ]

15. don't ya just love how they lie?

that last line:

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that, while the group favors liability protection, it did not take a position nor did it lobby on behalf of the law that passed.

really takes the cake. they're playing word games with us when they use language like that.

[0007]

16. 'Tis time to start kicking some serious butt

Frist has received $271,523 in campaign donations from the pharmaceutical and health products industry since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

Does anymore need to be said.

[Jane Austin]

17. Has Frist always been a liar?

Or did that just start when he became a politician?

It doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to lie, about pretty much everything, if you were a practicing surgeon at a teaching hospital.

[stop the bleeding]

18. Is a frog's ass watertight? Yes he was born that way and will die that

way.

[wordpix]

21. where does the Frist insider trading scam investigation stand? Seems like

it's time to move that along to get this lying scam artist out of Congress.

[stop the bleeding]

25. that is a good question - I am busier than a one legged man in an ass-

kicking contest right now, so we will have to wait and see.

[snippy]

28. Well . . . he has bragged that he lied to adopt the cats that he killed.

So he has admitted that he was a liar before entering politics. And the Frist family business settled a criminal complaint after having committed the largest Medicare fraud in US history. So lying may be genetic among the Frists. Based on the evidence, I think it likely that he has always been a liar.

[RazzleDazzle]

26. Just make your own damn rules if you don't like the real rules

and do whatever you want, no matter what others' have said or agreed to, but be sure to sneak around behind everyone's back.

What a FINE democracy we've got here.

[VegasWolf]

27. Outlaw all drugs from Canada. We all know that the Canadians are

dying by the millions! Yeah right.

:sarcasm: