Rudolph Giuliani, Oxycontin Defender

One way that Rudy used his post-9/11 hero status was to go to bat for the makers of the drug Oxycontin. They were being criminally investigated for misleading the public and health care professionals about the potential dangers of using the drug. As head of Guiliani Partners, the lobbying firm hired by the Oxycontin makers, it was Rudy's job to thwart that criminal investigation. How is that representing the best interests of the American people? If he was President, what highest bidder would he sell us out to as George Bush has done vis-a-vis being owned in business by the bin Ladens and the Carlyle Group?

In western Virginia, far from the limelight, United States Attorney John L. Brownlee found himself on the telephone last year with a political and legal superstar, Rudolph W. Giuliani.

For years, Mr. Brownlee and his small team had been building a case that the maker of the painkiller OxyContin had misled the public when it claimed the drug was less prone to abuse than competing narcotics. The drug was believed to be a factor in hundreds of deaths involving its abuse.

Mr. Giuliani, celebrated for his stewardship of New York City after 9/11, soon told the prosecutors they were wrong.

In 2002, the drug maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., hired Mr. Giuliani and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, to help stem the controversy about OxyContin. Among Mr. Giuliani’s missions was the job of convincing public officials that they could trust Purdue because they could trust him.

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