Vino, skiing, sports tix, food, strip club & fat checks

Wine-tasting outings to California's Napa Valley. Ski trips to Colorado. Tickets to sporting events. Gourmet meals at swanky restaurants. Forays to "adult entertainment" clubs. Fat checks for what some see as questionable work.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Sounds like Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) lifestyle as a Senator? Sadly, no. This is not a campaign-wrecking expose into the sordid lifestyle of Norm. This is an article about Sen. Amy Klobuchar's latest effort at holding the medical industry to higher standards. While Norm is all for cracking down on scofflaw MDs, he's definitely not into this:

Such payments to doctors by medical device companies -- often disguised as "consulting agreements" meant to encourage use of their products -- were the subject of a packed, daylong hearing Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Called "Surgeons for Sale?" the hearing was intended to bolster support for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

For Sen. Klobuchar who does believe in oversight and accountability, this is yet another example of her standing up to corporate abuses. For Norm, his campaign donors cannot be pleased with this legislation. I imagine they're confident that they've bought off Norm on this one. Here's Norm's statement:

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who sits on the Senate Aging Committee, said in a prepared statement that "creating a national standard for all companies to report gifts to physicians will go far to enhance transparency." Coleman supports the changes proposed by the med-tech industry as a way to ensure "transparency while not causing harm to Minnesota's medical device industry."
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

That caveat at the end sounds like Norm-speak^TM to me. I'm sure that the lobbyists who'd purchased Norm's votes on issues like this rest easy in the knowledge that Norm will do nothing to damaging their ability to market their products. I wonder if in the end Norm will oppose this bill.

Clearly, investigating corporations who give away gourmet meals, sports tickets, vacations, bribes and visits to strip clubs do not fit under Norm's version of oversight:

1. No Republicans would be hurt
2. An institution Republicans hate would look bad or be hurt
3. It would embarrass or hurt a Republican who has already been thrown under the bus