Luther's Latest Career Move

BLOGGER COMMENTS:  What does a former state attorney general and former US senator (briefly) do with himself afterward.  In Luther's case as reported on NPR and today's issue of the
Reckon newsletter, he becomes a shill for the rich and odious:  We always knew he was a weasel.

NPR revealed this week that former senator and attorney general of Alabama, Luther Strange, has been being paid “behind the scenes” by members of the Sackler family — owners of opioid seller Purdue Pharma — while working to convince Republican attorneys general that their states should accept an opioid settlement proposed by Purdue.

“According to a source with detailed knowledge of the matter, Strange represented his clients at a gathering of the Republican Attorneys General Association in West Virginia over the summer, where he worked to convince AGs to accept Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan,” NPR reporter Brian Mann wrote.

Strange, a Republican, has “emerged as a prominent critic of opioid lawsuits,” NPR reported.

BLOGGER COMMENT:  Actually NPR comes late to this story.  The AP and AL.COM reported on the RAGA meeting in September:

Luther Strange’s role in the Purdue Pharma opioid settlement embraced by GOP states

The opioid crisis has hit virtually every pocket of the U.S., from rural towns in deeply conservative states to big cities in liberal-leaning ones. But a curious divide has opened up.

The nation's Republican state attorneys general have, for the most part, lined up in support of a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, while their Democratic counterparts have mostly come out against it, decrying it as woefully inadequate.

Exactly why this is so is unclear, and some of those involved suggested it can't necessarily be explained by the fact that the Republican Party is considered more friendly to big business.

Some of the attention has focused on the role played by Luther Strange, a Republican former Alabama attorney general who has been working for members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma.

People familiar with the negotiations say he was at a meeting of the Republican Attorneys General Association over the summer, sounding out members about a settlement months before a tentative deal was struck this week.

Purdue has been generous in recent years to RAGA, contributing more than $680,000 to its campaign operation from 2014 through 2018. The company also gave to the organization's Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, over the same five-year period, but far less: about $210,000.

Strange would not comment Friday.