Health Critic Brings a Past and a Wallet / Get ready for sleezy Republican tactics.

[wisteria]

The Republicans can not win on the issue of health care fairly so they are about to go "Swift Boat" Sleezy. This time, I hope all Dem's band together- politicians and supporters- to fight for this important issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/us/politics/02scott.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

WASHINGTON — Richard L. Scott is unusual in these tough economic times: a rich, conservative investor willing to spend freely on a political cause.

Mr. Scott is starring in his own rotation of advertisements against the broad outlines of President Obama’s health care plans. (“Imagine waking up one day and all your medical decisions are made by a central, national board,” he warns in a radio spot.) He has dispatched camera crews to other countries to document the perils of socialized medicine.

He visited with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, and his new group, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, has hired a leading conservative public relations firm, CRC, well known for its work with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that attacked Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, during his presidential campaign.

Mr. Scott’s emergence this spring as the most visible conservative opponent to Mr. Obama’s not-fully-defined health care effort has former friends and foes alike doing double takes, given Mr. Scott’s history.

Once lauded for building Columbia/HCA into the largest health care company in the world, Mr. Scott was ousted by his own board of directors in 1997 amid the nation’s biggest health care fraud scandal.

[SharonAnn]

1. HCA is the company that the Frist family has run for years. Fined $1.2 BILLION in 2002.

This fine occurred when former Senator Frist's father was Chairman and his brother was President and CEO.

So the Frist connection is probably there, too.

[rwheeler31]

2. Frist ?

[wisteria]

3. Frist- former Rebublican Senate Majority Leader. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

4. and infamous cat-killer.

[wisteria]

5. I have heard rumors about that. n/t