David Axelrod still drawing checks from a consulting firm employed by the pharmaceutical lobby

[link to www.politico.com]

GOP targets Ax's ties

The House Republican Conference digs in today to a fact reported recently by Bloomberg's Tim Burger: That the pharmaceutical lobby, PhRMA, has hired the firm David Axelrod founded, AKPD Media — a fact that raises eyebrows because Axelrod sold the firm under an agreement that left it owing him $2 million, a lot of money for a political media company.

It's hard to imagine a situation in which, say, Karl Rove was still getting checks from a firm that was, in turn, employed by the drug lobby not drawing fire from the left, and Axelrod's arrangement is, a bit belatedly, getting that attention.

E-mails HRC spokesman Matt Lloyd:

As the pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions supporting a government takeover of health care — one which drug companies obviously believe will increase their profits, even as it raises Medicare premiums for seniors — some may wonder whether White House senior advisors earning millions of dollars paid for in part by the pharmaceutical industry represents the kind of change Americans can believe in.