The latest, most recent example of the careful balance that appears to be falling toward padding special interests over responsibility is the recently-issued draft Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entitled, “Establishing Centers of Innovation for Advanced Development and Manufacturing (ADM) as Public – Private Partnerships.”

Capitol Confidential has learned that this draft RFP is the first step by the Obama Administration to develop and build a national vaccine center with a projected cost of at least one billion dollars.

After the influenza pandemic last year it is fair to question whether the Federal government should take on more responsibility in the area of vaccine production and distribution particularly since there is a vibrant and competitive industry in the private sector, but the real questions here are why is this happening now and who stands to benefit?

We must recall during the presidential campaign, Candidate Obama told voters over and over again that he would change the way business is done in the nation’s capital.  His administration would end the pay to play, special favors, cut off the special interests and shutter the revolving door.  It was a central part of his argument: lobbyists and special interests have corrupted the process and they would have no place in an Obama Administration.

Fast forward almost two years, and we find ourselves in a situation where lobbyists, former and current administration officials, special interests and the corrupting influences have positioned themselves to haul in nearly one billion in taxpayer dollars in what could be one of the most lucrative government payoffs in history and, most disgracefully, they are doing it in a critical area of national and public health security.

If the Obama plan is implemented in its current form, this so-called “Center of Innovation” most likely would be located at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).  With all the research centers and universities across the country, how does UPMC – with absolutely no strong biotechnology pedigree – have a leg up on everyone?

Well, it starts with the fact that deceased Congressman John Murtha, along with outgoing Senator Arlen Specter, were knee deep in pushing UPMC for this very project and worked behind the scenes to establish an entire enterprise of lobbyists, third party organizations and administration nominees to achieve one end: get this facility built in Pennsylvania so they and their friends could enjoy the payout.

Specter, for his part, took his Senate Committee on the road in August 2009 to do a field hearing – in Pittsburgh no less – in support of the facility, using taxpayer dollars to fund the junket and packing the panel with members of the UPMC team.

Remarkably, during that hearing, HHS’ top vaccine expert, Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Policy Office, blasted the very plan HHS is now proposing at UPMC’s urging, saying, “Of all alternatives examined, the [multi-product facility] potentially has the highest risk of supply chain failure and, compared to the two other alternatives, carries the highest cost.  In addition, the time required to develop reliable systems for long-term, full scale manufacture of biologics (large molecules) could impede progress toward needed FDA approval.”

Yet, the Murtha/Specter/UPMC plan clearly has influenced HHS’s thinking.

To prove those points, take note of the following facts:

As has been reported, Murtha directed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to give UPMC three million dollars to draft a report concerning “Advanced Development and Manufacturing Capability for the United States Government.”  And even though the report contains numerous factual inaccuracies and errors, it is now the baseline for the billion dollar award and has placed the Pittsburgh university in a leading position.

Secondly, a natural follow up would be, who worked on the report?

Current Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Undersecretary for Science and Technology Tara O’Toole was an advisor on the UPMC report and project.  Previously, before entering DHS through the wide open revolving door, she led the Center for Biosecurity, which is connected with UPMC and is tied into an underground network of third party organizations and lobbying efforts, which is tied to and donated heavily to Murtha.  In spite of being questioned extensively during her nomination hearings about conflicts of interest due to her relationships with Murtha and his affiliated groups, O’Toole now is in a position to deliver the payback some of these folks have been working toward for nearly a decade.

The Washington Times recently reported, “President Obama’s nominee at the Department of Homeland Security overseeing bioterrorism defense has served as a key adviser for a lobbying group funded by the pharmaceutical industry that has asked the government to spend more money for anthrax vaccines and biodefense research.”

Third, who are some of the third-party groups that have both worked on the DARPA report and lobbied on behalf of the project?

One major player comes to mind, PharmAthene.  This is a company that is comprised almost exclusively of Murtha cronies, has a long track record with O’Toole and UPMC, and has been built for one purpose: to be the conduit in the private sector for the payoff.

The company is in dire financial straits nearly being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange andbeing slapped by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for making false allegations about one of its products.

PharmAthene’s newly minted Chief Scientific Officer, Tom Fuerst is the principle author of the UPMC report.  As has been reported by The Washington Times, Fuerst left the Obama Administration just as O’Toole was entering.  Having been a senior official in the very HHS office that requested the UPMC report and now heading the vaccine facility project, there is a clear line linking government and corporate payback.

But it doesn’t stop there.  The financially floundering PharmAthene, which relies exclusively on government contracts, many of which are awarded on a specious basis, which has been reported by Capitol Confidential, was founded by Joel McCleary, a founding partner at a DC-based private equity firm named Four Seasons Ventures.  Interestingly enough, McClearly was also a named advisor on the UPMC report to DARPA.

McCleary’s partner at Four Seasons is James Ervin, a former aide to Murtha who has lobbied for PharmAthene and still lobbies for UPMC.  To add a little more fuel to the fire, note that Four Seasons is heavily invested in PharmAthene and stands to gain millions when this taxpayer-funded boondoggle is awarded.

And that’s where today’s politics intersects with policymaking and payoffs.

Fox News reported earlier this year, “McCleary and executives at Four Seasons Ventures, LLC, the Georgetown-based private equity and lobbying firm he founded – also one of PharmAthene’s top investors – have collectively given at least $110,000 to various Democratic Party arms and candidates over the last six years. McCleary personally gave $2,300 to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in November 2007.

“Federal records maintained online by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) also show PharmAthene executives contributed nearly $10,000 to Democratic organizations and candidates over the same time period, including $1,200 to the Obama presidential campaign.

“Close scrutiny of CRP’s online records reveals that on the same day – Nov. 6, 2009 – McCleary contributed $4,800 and two PharmAthene executives gave a combined $1,500 to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Harkin is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the panel that oversees HHS and its operations.”  He also gave $4,800 to Specter’s failed Democratic primary bid, in addition to another $10,000 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

No wonder Specter had the field hearing in Pittsburgh in support of the national vaccine facility and packed it full of UPMC team members.

So the promise of “change you can believe in” has turned into a promise of “payoffs and gifts to special interests you can count on.”

Left holding the bad yet again, if this project goes off as planned, the American taxpayer who  will subsidize a massive payout to a black market of lobbyists and third party groups who will enrich themselves on a hugely expensive project that literally came from the pen of a former private sector official who just entered the government (i.e. O’Toole) after being authorized and funded by a government official who just entered the private sector (i.e. Fuerst).

The revolving door is spinning so furiously that one can only hope it hits someone in the ass and soon…

The budget relies on $2.7 billion in federal aid, including $850 million in Medicaid funds (FMAP) that has yet to pass Congress.  Indeed, no one believes Pennsylvania will get that much, if any, as the legislation doesn’t have enough support in the US Senate.  Gov. Rendell, along with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, New York Gov. David Paterson and others were in Washington last week to lobby for more federal aid.

The state will use $121 million from Tobacco Settlement Funds for teachers’ pensions, which will then be backfilled, and another $35 million from other one-time sources to balance the budget.   Still unresolved are a projected $4 billion annual pension contribution hike and a $3 billion Unemployment Compensation Fund deficit.

Finally, the budget deal includes increasing the debt ceiling for the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) by $600 million.

RACP (pronounced R-Cap) is effectively state borrowing for pork barrel projects.  RACP was created in 1993 with a debt limit of $700 million, but has been increased regularly, with the latest deal raising the ceiling to just over $4 billion. Separate legislation itemizes $300 million in new-debt financed projects under RACP, including:

• $10 million for “Philadelphia University, including the Arlen Specter Library.”
• $10 million for the “John P. Murtha Center for Public Policy.”
• Over $90 million in projects—one third of the total—for which the recipient is not even named, as reported by the news service Capitolwire (subscription).

With his final budget, Ed Rendell has both cemented his legacy—spending beyond his means while rewarding political allies with pork—and cemented two more monuments to Pennsylvania’s political aristocracy.

My business partner and I received a call on Friday May 14, 2010 providing us an opportunity to spend the weekend in Pennsylvania as part of the ground team of the Tim Burns campaign.  We both have extensive military backgrounds, so the trip could only have been made better if we had been allowed to parachute into PA12, unfortunately Southwest Airlines wouldn’t play along.

We arrived in Washington, PA around 2:00 AM Saturday morning and after a few hours of much needed sleep we made our way to the Burns Campaign headquarters. Within moments of arriving we had our instructions and began loading the GPS with polling places in Fayette County, PA, some of which were fact and some fiction.  We spent the majority of the day searching out these obscure, out of the way polling places and reporting the results back to the Burn’s headquarters.  It would seem someone didn’t want us to know where to go to vote.

It is important to note that we were joined by people from New Jersey, Illinois, Montana, Indiana, and Massachusetts. Does this happen often? We don’t think so.

With our first mission behind us we decided to visit the local Mark Critz Campaign Headquarters and found very little in the way of political activity, so we turned our attention to Tim Burns Republican opponent in the Pennsylvania primary. We gained a tremendous amount of information about this historical race for the seat of the late Rep. John Murtha.  This coming Tuesday will bring a Special Election to fill the seat of John Murtha until the November election and the primary to determine the permanent replacement. For those who like to vote for the same candidate twice this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this legally!

Mark Critz is the unopposed Democrat nominee for the November Election, while Tim Burn’s has been selected by the Republican Party to run in the Special Election and is simultaneously running against Bill Russell for the Republican position in the General Election in November.  Russell is not involved in the special election.

What makes all of this extremely interesting is that Bill Russell has been quoted at PA2010.com as follows: ““I still think I am the best candidate to take over in the 12th,” Russell said. “So I’m going to vote for myself as a write-in.”

It has been conveyed to us by constituents in his district that Mr. Russell is pushing the write-in concept with his supporters.  This approach is contrary  to the views of all conservatives, and displays a divide-and-conquer mentality.  Our best advice to Mr. Russell is “Don’t Tread on Us”, as the grassroots conservatives that support his campaign are not going to respond well to his campaign when he trips up his a fellow Republican in a time when the larger goal is to put our government back on course. The best advice we could offer Mr. Russell would be to drop his personal agenda where the special election is concerned and run a conservative campaign in the Primary.  The write-in approach looks very similar to an Alinsky tactic aimed at a fellow Republican.

So here is an idea. Let’s concentrate all of our efforts on winning PA-12, which has been in Democrat hands for as long as I have been alive. Tim Burns won’t work with Nancy Pelosi and his opponent, Mark Critz will work with Nancy Pelosi. Surely, we can agree that Tim Burns should win this election. If we can’t our country is in great peril and may God have mercy on our Republic!

The 30-second ad uses new technology for political ads with humor and cutting-edge animation similar to watching a Pixar movie. In the ad, Speaker Pelosi transforms into an enormous menace as she defies the will of the American people by pushing the costly liberal agenda including higher taxes and bailouts.  The Pennsylvania voters fight back to subdue Speaker Pelosi with Tim Burns campaign buttons and save America.

Founded in August 2008, RightChange.com, Inc. supports policies and candidates dedicated to fiscal responsibility and a strong national security for the United States, while upholding the principles of freedom, competitiveness and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people.  RightChange.com, Inc. will continue to focus on battleground states and races in the 2010 midterm elections and to engage the America people on key policy issues facing the entire country.

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We’re all about the headlines this week as we’ve got Mark Steyn calling in from Arizona at the white hot center of the immigration debate, author John O’Hara discusses his new book “A New American Tea Party” and his recent appearance on “The Daily Show,” and we talk to Tim Burns the Republican candidate in the hotly contested race for Jack Murtha’s seat in Pennsylvania. Questions? Comments? Write us at podcast@ricochet.com or come join the discussion on or Facebook page.

BIG GOVERNMENT has learned that a little known entity named the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is adding millions of dollars to a contract awarded way back in 2003 that PharmAthene inherited, rather than conducting a fair and open competition. In government speak, that means PharmAthene is about to get huge sums of additional cash without ever having competed for it. Coverage of this sole-source award has already received significant news coverage and attention from numerous outlets, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

But it’s not as if PharmAthene is hiding it. They’re actually promoting the fact that they’re getting sole-source contracts that do away with any competition and fatten their bottom line.

According to a recent PharmAthene press release:

“David P. Wright, President and Chief Executive Officer of PharmAthene, commented, ‘In consultation with BARDA, today PharmAthene submitted a White Paper for advanced development of SparVax(TM) in response to the BAA. If BARDA finds our submission acceptable, a formal proposal will be requested. We believe that, if awarded, funding provided under this BAA, along with potential additional funding under our existing contract with BARDA, will be sufficient to advance SparVax(TM) to a stage where it will be eligible for consideration for a Project BioShield procurement contract.’”

In spite of the fact that Candidate Obama ran and was elected on a pledge to eliminate just these kinds of sole-source contracts, his administration appears to be taking it to a whole new level, particularly when one considers this has do with national security.

The BIG GOVERNMENT question is, why?

BARDA and the Obama Administration (i.e. Tara O’Toole) are propping up PharmAthene all in an effort to position the company to become the national vaccine maker despite having less than 50 employees and a questionable balance sheet .

A little background will be useful here…

Prior to entering the administration, Tara O’Toole ran the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and advised the Alliance for Biosecurity. As has been reported, PharmAthene basically controlled the Alliance and has been working feverishly to get the Center for Biosecurity to become the nation’s government-owned vaccine maker, meaning literally billions for O’Toole’s friends at PharmAthene, who have already enjoyed both earmarks and government contracts at the American people’s expense.

But the timeline here is very interesting. Apparently, the Center for Biosecurity left the Alliance in October of last year, right before O’Toole’s nomination cleared numerous hurdles and she got the job at DHS. Furthermore, in December, with no fanfare whatsoever, PharmAthene got their sole-source contact from BARDA.

And go figure what happens in January? The Center for Biosecurity unceremoniously makes public the fact that they are no longer members of the Alliance, even though they actually resigned in October, just prior to O’Toole’s confirmation and only after PharmAthene got its sole source contract… Makes one wonder, why?

The answer seems to be that media coverage of the Alliance’s exploitation of lobbying rules forced the Center to leave the group because it was threatening O’Toole’s nomination. And in response, they are being rewarded for their profile in courage…

All of this leads us back to PharmAthene being positioned to serve as the federal government’s vaccine maker once the industry is socialized, enriching O’Toole’s friends in the process.

And BIG GOVERNMENT has found something interesting on page 56 of the Obama Administration’s FY 2011 HHS budget request titled “Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund.” Tucked in the budget request is an item stating, “BARDA expects to issue an RFP to support functional design plans for facilities to develop and manufacture biological products.”

What are they referring to? You guessed it folks, the UPMC pork project. They are literally drawing up the plans, and once again, footing the bill for the pay-to-play scheme, the middle class families Obama is planning to burden with additional tax increases.

So let’s sum up, PharmAthene’s radical and Manchurian nominee lands in a key DHS position overseeing the nation’s bioterrorism program after working with PharmAthene’s private equity investors and founders and the company receives highly dubious gifts from Uncle Sam. The quid-pro-quos continue to roll with BARDA serving as the vehicle to pay off Tara OToole’s business associates while positioning a questionable corporate entity – PharmAthene – to become America’s national producer of vaccines.

Spokesman for Rep. John Murtha says the Pennsylvania Democrat has died at 77.

ED Note: Rep. Murtha was a close political ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was her choice for Majority Leader, but he was edged out in a caucus-wide vote by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). He became a darling of the on-line left as a fierce critic of the Iraq War. For many conservatives, he was a personification of the Congressional earmark system and its potential for abuse. His final months in office were marked by serious questions surrounding his steering of millions of dollars in Pentagon appropriations.

Consider this an open thread.