Rep. Obey watching out for us as usual

The American Progress Report Fund had this recently as well. Rep. Dave Obey is watching out for us but it looks like Republican leaders are reaching new lows to protect their special interests.

ETHICS -- FRIST AND HASTERT TEAM UP TO SECURE BACKDOOR FAVOR FOR DRUG INDUSTRY: "Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play." On December 18, as Congress was scrambling to finish up its legislative business, members of a bipartisan conference committee met to work out the final details of the 2006 Defense Department appropriations bill. At the meeting, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) reportedly asked the conference chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), whether a controversial provision exempting drug makers from damage liability would be included in the final bill. "Obey and four others at the meeting said Stevens told him no. Committee members signed off on the bill and the conference broke up." Keith Kennedy, the staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee who works for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), said last month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert after the conference committee ended its work.