What you have to keep in mind when running for president ~ something that no presidential candidate EVER keeps in mind ~ is that YOU are your own worst enemy.
It would appear Rudy Giuliani is learning that lesson the hard way.
Remember that company, Giuliani Partners, that Rudy never really talks about?
Everyone wanted to know what they did ~ consulting, who were their client ~ not saying. All very hush, hush.
Well, here's what the hush, hush was all about.
There's a company called Purdue Pharma. They manufacture a drug call OxyContin, or O.C. if you're looking to buy it without a prescription from someone who is in no way licensed to sell it.
According to the New York Times, the DEA described the promotional campaign for OxyContin as perhaps the most aggressive for high powered narcotics, ever. Further, they aimed their physician campaign not only at pain specialists, but also family doctors with little experience in treating serious pain and who are not as well trained to identify drug abuse or drug seeking behavior. This marketing strategy alone increased the amount of the OxyContin that would end up out on the streets.
And there were some other problems.
Security at the manufacturing facility wasn't particularly good. And the record keeping was a bit questionable.
O.C. became a very popular street drug and proved to be highly addictive. Even the time released version could provide an immediate high if ground up and snorted.
Then there were the overdoses and the deaths. The abuse, addiction and death occurred in place where the community wasn't used to deadly drugs, places like Appalachian Virginia.
Purdue has an image problem, a government oversight problem, and in Virginia, a legal problem. They needed an image makeover. A new face.
So they hired Rudy.
He became their face with the federal government: the Federal Court, Members of Congress, the DEA ~ He was their crisis control.
How does Giuliani defend his part this?
In the OxyContin case, Mr. Giuliani’s supporters suggest that as a cancer survivor himself, he was driven by a noble goal: to keep the company’s proven pain reliever available to the widest circle of sufferers.
“I understand the pain and distress that accompanies illness,” Mr. Giuliani said at the time. “I know that proper medications are necessary for people to treat their sickness and improve their quality of life.”
Nice try, there, Rudy. I might actually believe you if your had bone cancer or had survived some form of cancer that's known to be physically painful. But prostate cancer is almost always a slow growth tumor. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is rarely accompanied by symptoms, forget pain.
So what have we learned about Rudy? If it weren't for that pesky campaigning he might be doing crisis management for those Chinese manufacturers that keep forgetting that lead paint is not appropriate for toys?
Well, yes.
But more importantly, he can't be counted on to use his powers for good.
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