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... Mr. Tauzin, 66, will retreat, to contemplate the apparent collapse of the grandest in a career of fearless deals — a pact to trade the drug industry’s political support for favorable terms under President Obama’s proposed health care overhaul. Mr. Tauzin is leaving his $2 million-a-year job as the top lobbyist for the drug industry amid complaints from drug makers that he bargained away their profits too cheaply, spent too much in his $150 million advertising campaign to sell the overhaul and miscalculated in his assessment that the passage of the legislation was all but inevitable. Other drug industry...

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White House visitor logs dumped late in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve show that Billy Tauzin, the top lobbyist for the prescription drug industry and once a favorite target of Barack Obama, visited the White House at least 11 times in Obama's first six months in office. The White House's open door for Tauzin, whom candidate Obama attacked as the embodiment of the revolving door and the corrupt collusion between politicians and industry, further dismantles the myth of Obama as the scourge of special interests. It also bolsters the conclusion that health care "reform" has become a...

Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal Charming Liar’: Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal http://www.breitbart.tv/charming-liar-progressives-turn-on-obama-as-air-america-exposes-fascist-drug-deal/

As a political strategist, Big Pharma lobbyist Billy Tauzin is starting to look less like Dr. Faustus and more like Jack, trading away his industry for magic beans. Last week Mr. Tauzin ostentatiously blabbed to the media that his industry's deal to help fund ObamaCare with $80 billion in prescription-drug discounts was really protection money. In particular, he bragged that he had secured promises from the White House that President Obama would fend off Congressional Democrats who want to "negotiate" drug prices, which in practice means price controls. For days, the White House continued to confirm Mr. Tauzin's understanding: "We...

The LATimes is once again trying to sell another Obama healthcare fairy tale to an unsuspecting public. This time, ABC is reporting that Obama has “given a seat at the table” of the healthcare debate to former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin who now represents some powerful drug companies. The Times is reporting this as if it is meaningful news. Unfortunately for all concerned it is not. For the Times, Tom Hamburger starts off mentioning how Obama lambasted Tauzin and his lobbying interests during the recent presidential campaign but that he’s done an about face by inviting Tauzin to the White...

THE ETHICS SCANDALS SWIRLING ABOUT Capitol Hill make it all but certain that the 2006 elections will be unusually focused on character. That's a good thing, of course, except that it obscures a different development, one that stands to be equally influential in determining the personality of our national legislature--the rise of the heirloom congressional seat.In the 109th Congress, there are 30 members of the House and Senate whose parents also served in Congress, four sets of siblings, and four wives who succeeded their husbands. There's also a gaggle of congressional offspring back home, quietly positioning themselves for their parents'...

Filed at 4:32 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. House of Representatives committee chairman, who earlier this year ended negotiations to head the pharmaceutical industry's top lobby after critics questioned the ethics of the move, has now accepted the post, the group said on Wednesday. Rep. W. J. ``Billy'' Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, announced in February that he would step down as the Energy and Commerce Committee chairman and leave Congress because of a bleeding ulcer. Democrats criticized him for considering the high-profile post leading the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which lobbies Congress on behalf...

BATON ROUGE, La. An official count from the 13 parishes comprising Louisiana's Third Congressional District shows Billy Tauzin the Third lost ground. Unofficial results from Saturday night's runoff between the Republican and Democrat Charles Melancon gave Melancon a 523-vote margin from more than 104-thousand votes cast. The parishes opened their voting machines this morning. A survey by The Associated Press determined that Tauzin lost 62 votes, while Melancon gained one vote. The parishes will send their tallies to the secretary of state, who will make the count official.

Boustany, Melancon top vote Tauzin III awaits final tally By PATRICK COURREGES and ANGELA SIMONEAUX Acadiana bureau Southern Louisiana voters Saturday appeared to have decided the last two congressional races in the nation, electing Democrat Charlie Melancon in the 3rd District and Republican Charles Boustany Jr. in the 7th District, giving the Democratic and Republican parties a split of the final two seats available. But the 3rd District race was decided by slightly more than 500 votes out of more than 114,000 cast, and 3rd District Republican candidate Billy Tauzin III is not conceding the race. In the 3rd District,...

NEW ORLEANS -- Republicans picked up a congressional seat in southern Louisiana on Saturday, but gave another right back to Democrats in a second, much closer runoff election that was also in Cajun country. A longtime Democratic bastion in Louisiana's 7th District went to Republican Charles Boustany, a retired heart surgeon. With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, Boustany had 72,223 votes or 55 percent, and Democratic state Sen. Willie Landry Mount had 58,968 or 45 percent. Farther south, Billy Tauzin III narrowly lost a race to succeed his retiring father, a Republican House of Representatives powerhouse. In the 3rd...

Thougths, comments, concerns? One thought I have, if Tauzin III loses, he should be shot. If he wins, he should be given the worst possible committee assignment.

South Louisiana voters will replace their two representatives in the U.S. House today during elections in the 3rd and 7th congressional districts, ending rancorous campaigns that drew national attention and millions of dollars from special interest groups and the Republican and Democratic parties.

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 3 - This year's political campaign, which began in the cold and snow of Iowa and New Hampshire, will come to an end at long last on Saturday in the bayous and Cajun country of South Louisiana. Two Congressional elections in adjoining Gulf Coast districts will determine whether Republicans add to the majority they secured on Nov. 2, when races for national office were decided in the rest of the country. One of the elections will determine whether a familiar name remains in the House. Vice President Dick Cheney has campaigned on behalf of the Republicans ("I...

What a drive. But so worth the time, because the Beatles are playing. Or is it the Stones? Or Outcast? Or Maroon 5? Actually, it’s Cheney’s band. Here in Louisiana, that would be Jindal, Vitter, Boustany, and Cheney, the man. Cheney’s up close and personal, very much in action. It’s hard to explain the phenomenon, but I took some pics that might help…. Because I’m a little horrified to tell you…that in his way…Cheney is…well,…a rock star. Yes. He has that quality. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, felt the heat with my own body, I would...

A Message from Wes Clark December 2, 2004   Dear Loyal Supporter,The holiday season is here, but the election season isn't over yet.  So it is with great urgency that I write you today.  My friend, Charlie Melancon, won a place on this Saturday's Louisiana run-off ballot for a seat in Congress, and he needs your help in these final few hours before the election.Charlie Melancon is a native Louisianan who has the experience to get the job done in Washington.  As a state legislator and community leader, he's fought to improve schools and provide our families with health care. ...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney will stump for Louisiana's two Republican congressional candidates Wednesday, making a morning appearance for Billy Tauzin III in Houma and an afternoon showing for Charles Boustany in Lake Charles. In the final week of campaigning before Saturday's runoff, the races in both the 3rd and 7th Districts are heating up, with a slew of tough ads hitting the airwaves on both sides. The Lake Charles event takes Boustany's fight for the 7th Congressional District seat to the heart of his opponent's home turf — Democrat Willie Mount is the town's former...

He have a huge chance to expand our majority in the House of Representatives.The elections are on Saturday, 12/4. Bill Tauzin III (Rep.) vs. Charles Melancon (Dem.)Charles Boustany (Rep.) vs. Willie Landry Mount (Dem.)

Naturally we are all pumped after the President's BIG WIN yesterday, but I wanted to drop a note to let you all know that the 2004 campaign has not ended in Louisiana. We are on a roll here however; Bush outpolled Kerry 57% - 42%, we elected our first Republican Senator since the Reconstruction Era in David Vitter, and we have secured four of five congressional seats that have been decided across the state for the Republican Party, including our newly-elected star Bobby Jindal. But there are still two congressional races that remain to be settled and the leading vote-getters...

U. S. Senator 208 of 4,124 precincts reporting Results by Parish will be available later this evening 1,728 2% Richard M. Fontanesi, O - 642 1% R. A. "Skip" Galan, O - 31,624 32% "Chris" John, D - 15,197 15% John Kennedy, D - 650 1% Sam Houston Melton, Jr., D - 1,291 1% Arthur A. Morrell, D - 47,803 48% David Vitter, R - U. S. Representative, 1st Congressional District 1 of 499 precincts reporting Results by Parish will be available later this evening 0 0% Roy Armstrong, D - 0 0% "Bobby" Jindal, R - 0 0% M....