While Conservative bloggers toss cafeteria trays at one another, a Gulf Coast fishbowl lurks under toxic waters. It's not the BP oil catastrophe, but New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, where 35 patients died in Memorial Medical Center. Tenet Healthcare owned Memorial, renting a floor to The Carlyle Group's LifeCare Hospitals, responsible for 25 of the deaths.
Lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie hit the Oval Office on behalf of Tenet. They talked to President George W. Bush's White House on corporate governance changes.
The Bush Lessons Learned report made no mention of Memorial, the hospital with the highest patient death toll. A year later John Ellis "Jeb" Bush joined the Tenet Board.
It's hard to look into the cesspool, especially when those buying and selling influence offer diversions, like the current food fight. Unprecedented events bring unprecedented opportunity.
Update 5-1-11: Jeb Bush helped Carnival Cruise Lines land Hurricane Katrina recovery work. I can't wait to see Bush White House e-mails during and after Katrina.
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