In fact, in just 2003-2004 alone, Gregg got $136,500 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry, nearly 10% of the total he got from all PACs.

Look at that number. Apparently, senators make $154,700; here's one group, giving the guy 85% of what his job pays, so that he can keep that job.

God bless America. We're going to need it.™

Many folks are clamorin' for their Vioxx back, tho...

Meanwhile, the Life Extension Foundation (www.lef.org), a leading non-profit organization for "alternative medicine" complains BOTH about too much FDA oversight AND the fact that the FDA leans toward drugs that increase corporate hyper-profits.

I don't think this issue cleanly cuts as a chasm between progressives and conservatives.

Here's something enlightening about Chuck Grassley

$136K is small potatoes change compared to what ol' Chuck gets - $249,921!

The contradiction that emmetropia poses between the FDA's over-reaching oversight and its prioritization of hyper-profit drugs demands further explanation. For instance, could the FDA be over-zealously enforcing homeopathic and herbal remedy prescriptions because of the threat they pose to hyper-profiting drugs developed by Big Pharma? (I've heard it rumoured but not substanciated)

I suspect that Grassley and Gregg are playing, or being played, as a good cop-bad cop team. Grassley has a reputation as a reformer and a tough governmental oversight watchdog. Reform will come, Grassley will guide it to what Big Pharma wants, and the FDA will have new regulatory oversight that helps Pharma more than it hiders it, no matter what the consequences are for the public.

And just how much did the democratic party whore, that lost his presidential bid, take. Let's talk about whordom where he, by following rich women, he would top the list.

IN OTHER WORDS LEAVE THE POLITICS OUT. GREGG IS NOT THE ONLY PERSON THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WATCHING THE FDA.

And just how much did the democratic party whore, that lost his presidential bid, take. Let's talk about whordom where he, by following rich women, would top the list.

IN OTHER WORDS LEAVE THE POLITICS OUT. GREGG IS NOT THE ONLY PERSON THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WATCHING THE FDA.

Actually AC Gambino, John Kerry got less than $8000 from health-related PACs in the last five years. So try again.

Another example of policy bought and paid for. Our congressional representatives are whores, plain and simple.

Fuck the drug companies. 80% of the new drugs bought on line are "me too" drugs that provide no additional benefit when compared to existing ones. If your doctor suggests you take a drug, ask for the generic equivalent; even if its an earlier version. If he refuses, find a new prescription writer.

In (weak) defense of Judd Gregg, I'm not convinced that a new "drug safety office" is the solution to FDA's problems. Food and drug safety is the whole point of the FDA in the first place!

The only real solution is to make the FDA more independent of Congress and the White House, so bought-and-paid-for politicians couldn't interfere so easily with its work.

And that's a tall order. A "commission" model a la the FCC or the Federal Reserve could help, as would a guaranteed source of funding. But it's obviously no panacaea, as even those agencies have been "captured" by the industries they regulate.