David Axelrod On the Take From Drug Lobby Firm? Barack Obama’s own Senior Adviser and Chief Astroturfer Raked in MILLIONS of Dollars from Big Pharma!

 

From Michelle Malkin and Bloomberg:

FIRST THIS:

Axelrod’s profits: Uh, who’s on the take from the drug lobby again?!?!

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 18, 2009 11:03 PM

I’ve reported several times over the last few months on Team Obama’s hefty funding from the health care industry/drug lobby — see here and here — as well on the deep pockets behind the Astroturf HCAN/SEIU/ACORN campaign.

Culture of Corruption also homes in on the cozy cash deals involving Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Sher, and David Axelrod to create faux grass-roots support for the University of Chicago Medical Center’s patient-dumping scheme.

Now, Bloomberg’s Timothy Burger brings news about Axelrod’s latest health care conflicts of interest that will come as no surprise to those who have fully informed themselves of the Chicago way. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assails the motives of grass-roots activists by falsely smearing the movement as corporate-funded shills, Barack Obama’s own senior adviser and chief Astroturfer raked in millions of dollars from Big Pharma.

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.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the HEN coalition also includes left-wing Families USA, the sellouts at the AARP, and the Purple Army at the SEIU.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

 

THEN FROM BLOOMBERG:

 

 

 By Timothy J. Burger

Obama Campaign Ad Firms Signed On to Push Health-Care Overhaul

 

 

Aug. 15 (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.

Hiring Obama’s campaign advisers makes sense, said Julius Hobson, a senior policy adviser in the Washington office of the St. Louis-based law firm, Bryan Cave LLP.

“If you’re in support of the president, then you use the people he used,” said Hobson, 61, who teaches a graduate course in lobbying at George Washington University in Washington.

Coalition

HEN’s other members, according to its Web site, are the AARP, the biggest advocacy organization for retirees; the Advanced Medical Technology Association; the Business Roundtable; Families USA; the Service Employees International Union, all based in Washington, and the American Medical Association based in Chicago. PhRMA represents 28 drugmakers, including New York-based Pfizer Inc. and London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Larry Grisolano, a partner at AKPD, said his firm and GMMB are splitting the fees on the $12 million campaign, though neither firm would specify its take. In an e-mail, Margolis declined to comment.

Grisolano said an interview that the firm’s history with Obama made it “kind of a logical place to go” for the health- plan ad work.

“We were one of the president’s ad firms, and so we have familiarity with how he spoke about health care during the campaign, what his viewpoints were on health care during the campaign,” he said. “And so I think if you’re interested in reform, we bring some valuable insight in that regard.”

Firms’ Fees

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.

Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, said Axelrod “sold his ownership stake in the firm before the administration began.”

Grisolano, 45, said AKPD has had no contact with Axelrod “with regard to the Healthy Economy Now work.” He said he works with Axelrod, 54, on “strategy and research” for the Democratic National Committee.

‘We’re the Best’

“We get business for the same reason anyone else would get business: because we’re the best ones to do it,” Grisolano said.

At the White House, Axelrod’s role in the health-care debate ranges from Sunday talk show appearances to meetings with House and Senate lawmakers.

Read the rest of this article HERE:

 

End note:

The White House is now spinning that the insurance companies are evil; they are only out for profits.

BUT

What is more corrupt than the White House connected to David Axelrod on the take from Drug Lobby firms?

The “Octopus ARMS” of Obama’s gangster government are enveloping the Legislative branch and  a majority of the Representatives and Senators don’t even realize it. 

America!  Do NOT let up in your push against this government controlled Healthcare Bill! 

 The “octopus arms “of the White House are spewing out its ink of “smoke screens and decoys” to make America think they are on their side and to obscure the side-dealings of those within the White House!

 

Oh, By the Way:  “Fake” Doctors still showing up at Townhall meetings!

Dubious “doctors” keep turning up at congressional town hall meetings to support a government health care takeover plan that sane medical professionals are revolting against in force.

Blogger Patterico smoked out fake pediatrician Roxana Mayer at a Sheila Jackson-Lee town hall.

Now, bloggers have raised questions about a left-wing activist who turned up at Barney Frank’s raucous town hall.

She’s Dr. Sheila Leavitt, identified in press reports as a “physician from Newton (MA).”

But the folks at AR15.com can’t find anyone licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts under the name “Sheila Leavitt.”

Kate at Small Dead Animals does the Googling the rest of the MSM won’t do and finds Leavitt’s trail of nutty, anti-Bush, anti-war activism.

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit and Steven at Buck’s Right have more.

At Buck’s Right, a commenter who says he is Leavitt’s 16-year-old son says his mom did go to medical school — but “stopped actively practicing medicine 26 some odd years ago.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/19/sheila-leavitt-another-weird-doctor-for-obamacare/