Crush Liberalism

UPDATED: Obama’s adviser Axelrod on the dole for Big Pharma

UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

Well, well, well.  What a massive coinkidink we have here!  From Bloomberg:

Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama’s White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obama’s top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan. The other firm is Washington-based GMMB Campaign Group, where partner Jim Margolis was also an Obama strategist.

This year, AKPD and GMMB received $12 million in advertising business from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, that is seeking to build support for a health-care overhaul, said the coalition’s spokesman, Jeremy Van Ess.
…
Last year, the Obama campaign paid $2.77 million in consulting fees to AKPD and $340.53 million to GMMB to produce and place ads, Federal Election Commission records show. Firms such as GMMB typically receive a low-to-mid single-digit percentage of ad spending as their fee for an account of that size, said Glenn Totten, a Democratic political consultant.

Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until he sold his interest after Obama’s victory, government records show. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, which it’s due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. Axelrod’s son, Michael, still works there. He didn’t return a phone call. The firm’s Web site continues to feature David Axelrod’s work on the Obama campaign.

That same firm also employs Axelrod’s son.  No word on whether or not his son wears Brooks Brothers attire to work.

I mean, wasn’t the administration and their sycophants on the left concocting conspiracy theories about how health care town hall protestors were shills for Big Pharma?  Then what does that make Axelrod?  Notes Darlene Click at Protein Wisdom:

If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that’s a conflict of interest. Laundering the money through a “coalition” doesn’t remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety.
…
Let’s run this again … Man owns firm, man takes government job, man sells firm and firm owes man $2 million (if firm goes bust, man out $2 mil), firm lands multi-million dollar contracts from organizations doing business with the government on a top issue for the person man works for and man is out advocating for.

Doesn’t pass the smell test, no matter how many times it’s being run through the washing machine.

Culture of corruption, Chicago-style.

UPDATE (08/20/2009 – 10:44 A.M. EST): You have GOT to be kidding me!  Axelrod is speaking in Lincoln, NE, as part of the…I couldn’t make this up if I tried…Integrity in Public Service Lecture Series! 

August 20, 2009 - Posted by crushliberalism | corruption, health care, Obama