Is Billy Tauzin the Fredo Corleone of health care reform?

In most endeavors, you find one guy willing to sell out his principles because he is so smart, and so shrewd that he and his allies will benefit at the expense of the folks he used to work alongside. One rather extreme example was the Godfather charater Fredo Corleone. Passed over for family leadership by little brother Michael, he decides to prove his worth by working alongside rival mob factions.

This year's version appears to be top PhRMA lobbyist Billy Tauzin 

Much as Fredo sold out his family, Tauzin is selling out free enterprise,

Tauzin was once a Democrat from the Louisiana bayou who saw the partisan light after the 1994 tsunami. Then he spent a decade as a Republican and failed to hand the seat off to his son when he retired. Following his departure from Congress, he settled in as top dog for Big PhRMA, an interest group of drug makers heterofore staunchly opposed to socialized medicine.

Well, now, not so much. Tauzin and the Obama camp have made a secret deal to make sure that the taxpayers guarantee the drug companies windfall profits in the health care "reform" bill. And Billy Drugbucks will pony up $150 M in corporate cash for a media blitzkrieg favoring health care "reform" to try and undo the damage ordinary folks have done speaking their mind at town halls.

Needless to say, very few people other than the co-conspiritors have much nice to say about this sleazy deal.

Here's what liberal  former Labor Secretary Robert Reich had to say.   

When the industry support comes with an industry-sponsored ad campaign in favor of that legislation, the threat to democracy is even greater. Citizens end up paying for advertisements designed to persuade them that the legislation is in their interest. In this case, those payments come in the form of drug prices that will be higher than otherwise, stretching years into the future 

On the other side of the ideological aisle, National Review, blasted Tauzin's deal as a scam. Now House Republican Leader John Boehner unloaded on Tauzin's scheme. A few highlights  Boehner accused Tauzin of caving to a bully ( I think he is being waay too charitable, but )

The “bully” in this case is Big Government.  At your behest, PhRMA has chosen to accommodate a Washington takeover of health care at the expense of the American people in hopes of securing favorable treatment and future profits.  It’s a short-sighted bargain that leaves your own customers and employees behind.  And it now has all the markings of a deal gone sour. 

The Wall Street Journal expressed similar sentiments

Yep, now the Democrats think they can get more concessions from PhRMA.  Sorta like if Eliot Spitzer expected a second night of services from the Emperor's Club for the price of one.

Getting back to the Fredo parallel,  all that guy got for buddying up to Hyman Roth and Moe Greene at the expense of the "folks who brought him" was the undying hatred of his brother, who now deemed him "dead to me now".

Conservatives now aren't going to buy the corporate lies about health care from K Street.  That bridge is now burned down. We think the principles of free enterprise are worth more than some secret government payoff.  PhRMA are now no better than any other group that sells out at the taxpayer's trough seeking corporate welfare. This group is "dead to me" now. 

I hope Billy Tauzin has a long healthy life. But after he finds he's spent over  $100 million of his client's money only to be left with no one in Washington who trusts him, or whom he can trust, I suspect his life as a lobbyist will be cut short.