|
Many such queries come to members of Congress unbidden, often long before they actually leave.
Former Rep. Bill Gradison, an Ohio Republican, said he was first sought out for a job lobbying for the health insurance industry shortly after winning reelection in 1992. Gradison, who was a senior Republican on an important health subcommittee, resigned from the House to take the job a few months later.
Former Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) said he was deluged with job offers from the day he announced he would not run for reelection. Rather than risk a conflict of interest, he told all supplicants that he would not talk until after he had left office.
"People are best to get out of Congress and then decide what to do," Rudman said.
But a former member of Congress who asked not to be named said he could not afford the luxury of waiting to begin a job search. He said he had extensive conversations with a variety of firms before he left office. "Most of us need a check on the 1st of January," he said. But he objected to what Tauzin had been doing because it was "unseemly" to entertain a job with an industry that so directly benefited from a major piece of legislation he had crafted.
Rumors about Tauzin's retirement from Congress began swirling months ago with reports that he was in line to succeed Jack Valenti as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America -- a job reportedly worth more than $1 million a year. In mid-January, Tauzin unexpectedly turned the position down.
Valenti said Tauzin told him "he was given a very, very generous offer from another enterprise." Tauzin's spokesman said he turned the movie job down because of health concerns. He had been hospitalized twice in the last two months for a bleeding ulcer, and did not want to travel as much as the movie job would require.
After word surfaced that the other job prospect was an even more generous offer from the drug industry group, consumer organizations and Democrats exploded. They said the job would amount to a reward to Tauzin for helping deliver a Medicare bill last year that was strongly supported by the drug industry.
Johnson, Tauzin's spokesman, said that the congressman was not in formal negotiations with the drug group and had not been given a contract proposal. Still, to avoid the appearance of impropriety, Tauzin announced last week that he would recuse himself from healthcare issues.
Even after that, concern spread within Tauzin's party. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) said some Republicans were worried that Tauzin was making it easier for Democrats to continue attacking the Medicare bill as a giveaway to the drug industry. The pharmaceutical group represents major drug companies such as Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson.
Johnson said that Tauzin's decision to step down as chairman was his own and was not forced on him by Republican leaders. Having decided last weekend not to run for reelection, Tauzin said in his letter of resignation to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) that he wanted to step down as chairman to "focus on whatever future awaits me and my family."
|
|
