Is this the kind of judgment we need in Washington?

 
Talk about poor judgment. Brian Bilbray took money from Metabolife, now defunct maker of the banned substance ephedra. They were large contributors in his last two congressional campaigns of 1998 and 2000 and employed him as a lobbyist.

In 2000, after losing his seat in Congress, he chose to stay in the D.C. area and be a lobbyist. He has lived in Virginia for the past six years. During that time, he lobbied for Metabolife, whose owners were pleading guilty to a number of federal charges, including tax evasion, lying to federal drug regulators and weapons charges.

The FDA banned ephedra in 2004, due to the fact that this amphetaminelike substance causes increased blood pressure by constricting arteries, which led to many deaths from heart attacks, strokes and seizures. There were over 16,000 reports of harmful effects from it. Yet Brian Bilbray continues to defend his support of Metabolife and touts the benefits of ephedra, comparing it to aspirin (Union-Tribune article, May 2).

Is this the kind of judgment we need in Washington?