Archive for September, 2011

WASHINGTON — Since announcing his run for the presidency, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) has had to fend off allegations of crony capitalism. Such critiques have revealed the governor’s easy relationships with lobbyists, and his awarding campaign donors government contracts and influential positions on state boards. But Perry has also personally profited from these same relationships. His own deal making has helped him become a millionaire, and it has not gone unnoticed.

In the late ’90s, federal law enforcement authorities investigated allegations that Perry had engaged in insider trading, sources involved in the inquiry tell The Huffington Post.

On Jan. 24, 1996, Perry purchased 2,800 shares of stock in a company, Kinetic Concepts, Inc., owned by a San Antonio businessman soon to be one of Perry’s top donors, James Leininger. It was great timing. Later that day, a group of investors bought up 2.2 million shares in the company, sending the price soaring and netting Perry a nice gain.

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Inside Health Policy

New Bipartisan Lobby Shop Opens With Focus On CMS, FDA

Posted: September 29, 2011

A new Washington-based lobbying firm that includes two long-standing CMS and FDA lobbyists coupled with a major Democratic fundraiser has already amassed approximately a dozen clients and could become a major player as the medical industry tries to protect itself from cost-cutting proposals floated as part of Congress’ deficit reduction exercise and the FDA user fee debate on Capitol Hill heats up.

The firm — Roberti+White, LLC — is pitching itself as bipartisan and covering a wide-variety of issues, albeit with a strong background in health care from partner Rich White’s 15 years working on coverage and reimbursement policy coupled with partner Steve Irizarry’s background in FDA approval from being a lead congressional negotiator on user fees during the early Bush administration. Their background in health is coupled with partner Vin Roberti’s two decades of advising clients on finance and communications, and his close ties to Democrats as he provides messaging assistance ahead of the 2012 election.

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As Rick Perry might say, “It really ain’t that hard.”

If you’re a Northeast elite hoping to crack the code on GOP presidential primaries while impressing your friends at Fifth Avenue dinner parties with insightful political prognostications, always remember one simple rule: Crazy never wins.

You heard right, my Upper West Side friend. Crazy. Never. Wins.

Despite the crop of nutty right-wing candidates that sprout up in GOP presidential fields every four years, despite the gasps and growls that regularly rise from Manhattan cocktail parties aimed at extremists who are hijacking the Republican Party (in ways that past GOP extremists would never have dreamed of hijacking the party), despite the cries from right-wing radio hosts predicting the rise of Ronald Reagan’s ghost and the nomination of an unelectable candidate, in the end this political chatter always proves to be sound and fury signifying nothing.

A few caveats to my rule: (1) Thank you very much for the invitations to your Manhattan cocktail parties. Anything written in the preceding paragraphs should not be interpreted to suggest that I am not delighted by your company or future invitations to said events; and (2) Reagan was never the right-wing tool that talk show hosts claim.

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