"The most ethical congress....."

They say it's not what's illegal in congress that's most nauseating, it's what's perfectly legal.

How this isn't an ethics violation and/or an outright illegality, I'll never know.........

Dallas' top Democratic donors will cut big checks to share dinner later this month with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most will be motivated by a desire to protect the party's congressional majority.

Lisa Blue will have an extra reason: to say thanks for Pelosi's efforts when her husband, Fred Baron, was dying of bone marrow cancer. His only option was an experimental drug whose manufacturer refused to give permission to use it for Baron's condition.

"He was a big fan of hers, and now I am as well," Blue said.

Baron, the "King of Toxic Torts," built a fortune suing on behalf of asbestos victims. He died the week before Election Day 2008 at age 61.

A prolific Democratic fundraiser, he served as finance chief that year for his friend John Edwards, who also made his fortune in court. Baron later acknowledged funneling large sums to Edwards' mistress – a scandal that gave ammunition to those who already despised trial lawyers.

But to Blue, first and foremost, Baron was a husband.

The tale she tells of his final weeks is not so different than any widow might tell, except, of course, that the couple had friends in especially high places – friends like Pelosi, who will headline the Aug. 24 dinner to raise cash for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In 2002, Baron was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. By October 2008, his doctors at the Mayo Clinic were telling him he had just days to live.

They also offered a glimmer of hope. Over the years, the couple had donated about $1 million to Mayo. The staff was especially diligent, Blue said. They tested an arsenal of drugs and finally discovered that Baron's cancer responded surprisingly well, in the lab, to a drug called Tysabri.

Mayo had an ample supply, but the drug was – and still is – approved only for treatment of multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. The manufacturer, Biogen Idec, refused to give permission, even under special "compassionate use" rules that protect a drug-maker from a black mark in case of an adverse outcome.

Biogen said it didn't want to jeopardize the drug's availability to other patients. (The company did not respond to a request for comment last week.)

"I told Mayo, 'I'll sign anything, I'll release anything. Just give him the drug,' " Blue said.

Blue, also a top lawyer, began making calls. She started with Lance Armstrong, the bicyclist and cancer survivor, whom she had represented.

"I started going through Fred's Rolodex," she said. "I called every politician, every celebrity that I knew and just begged them to help. ... I must have made 200 calls."

She called clinics in Canada, trying in vain to find doctors willing to administer the drug without Biogen's OK. She hired a lawyer and prepared to sue Mayo to force it to dispense the drug. She even bought some Tysabri online from Australia, intending to send stepson Andrew Baron to smuggle it back, she said.

The younger Baron posted an open plea online to Biogen, noting that Bill Clinton, Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and even the head of the Food and Drug Administration had urged the company to reconsider.

"You talk about mental anguish," Blue recounted. "Fred, every day, would wake up and he said, 'Am I going to get the drug?' "

Others were supportive, she said, but Pelosi "put her heart and soul" into the cause, as did Harkin.

Somehow – Blue still isn't sure how – Pelosi cajoled the FDA to find a legal justification that let Mayo administer the drug, even without Biogen's consent.

More......