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THE FALL OF THE HOUSE THAT TROY BUILT
As many here know, former FDA Chief Counsel Dan Troy earned his stripes in his successful efforts on the part of Brown & Williamson to block FDA regulation of tobacco during the Clinton years. That effort, and other deregulatory struggles against FDA especially regarding off-label promotion, made him the perfect candidate for FDA's top lawyer--and close to de facto Commissioner--during the first four years of Bush II. He is now Chief Counsel and #2 of Glaxo.
Given the FDA's successful bid to regulate tobacco, much to the house that Troy built has now been successfully dismantled. His arguments in favor of preemption were dismissed as essentially irrelevant by both sides in Wyeth v. Levine. With the regulation of tobacco, another piece of the Troy legacy goes into the dustbin.
Of course, one should never underestimate the persistence of those who fight for the agenda that Troy championed, and almost certainly still champions, from inside the walls of Glaxo. The Washington Legal Foundation and other hard-right "think tanks" have not given up their aims. They are only a bit more quiet about it at the moment.
The take-over that the hard-right engineered that culminated in the Bush years was a long time in the making. They are patient people. And they continue to sit on more money, as Philip Morris once put it, "than God."
Monday, June 22, 2009
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Money is their god, and preemptors have spent a lot of it buying baloney to feed the public. The truth is, while the middle-class has been drowning, they’ve been working overtime sabotaging our civil rights, health and safety. However, like Lincoln said, folks aren’t fooled forever.
ReplyDeleteThe preemptors are not gone and I hope never forgotten. We should never forget what a powerful group they are.
They never will be gone. The "Tories" are an American tradition, and gilded ages of robber barons come and go. Preemption is the least of it. What they call "oligarchs" in Russia and what Rumsfeld called Saddamn's "dead-enders" in Iraq is more like it.
ReplyDeleteWho needs money when you've got lightning bolts?
ReplyDeleteDan, need a light?
Dan boy, ya done good! However, looks like all your efforts are going to Hell.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been nice working with you. I look forward to your visit.
If I may say, even though I put up the original post, I think we make a mistake to focus too much on the particular person of DT.
ReplyDeleteMuch as he was the "Godfather of preemption," and key legal strategist behind related efforts, he has always been part of a very large team, including the resources of big pharma, big tobacco, hard right family foundations, the Chamber of Commerce, and other central K Steet players.
Meanwhile, you have the fomrer administration and key politicians who continue to push in the same direction. Newt Gingrich, for example, was the "executioner" of this agenda through the 90s, and nobody calls him (that often) evil incarnate. He is taken seriously as a presidential candidate even by some folks who consider themselves some version of moderate.
So look to the whole arrary of the last administration and most of the leadership of the Republican party and the funding sources for both, many of which remain very far behind the scenes and do not appear in news articles or public appointments.