At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania has done plenty over the past few years to piss off the pharmaceutical industry. He’s essentially declared war on high drug prices and fought for legislation to make drugs more affordable in the District. And more recently, the D.C. Council on Tuesday voted to proceed with his legislation that would tightly regulate drug sales representatives in the District.

Now Big Pharma is fighting back. Online and anonymously, anyway.

A Web site recently posted at bigpharmarealpeople.org names Catania “Big Pharma Enemy #1″ and attributes to him the following:

• “I want to ’shake the pharmaceutical industry to its core.’”
• “I am a Washington Lawyer whose sole purpose is to invent solutions to problems that don’t exist.”
• “If I am successful, hundreds of DC area residents will loose [sic] their jobs.”
• “I am an enemy to Big Pharma, big business and capitalism.”

Who’s behind the site? Good question: The site’s domain name was registered by a proxy service, making it impossible to trace who runs the site. The “Big Pharma Team” is listed as Managing Editor John Galt, Associate Editor Dagney Taggart, Editor Hugh Akston, and Editor Hank Reardon.

Those names should be familiar to anyone who went through an adolescent Ayn Rand phase: Those are the names of characters from that author’s Atlas Shrugged. (Note, however, that they misspelled “Dagny Taggart” and “Hank Rearden.”) E-mails to members of the “Big Pharma Team” were not immediately returned.

“It’s par for the course,” Catania says. “It’s the way the pharmaceutical industry, much like the the tobacco industry, chooses to engage in the arena of ideas. It’s name-calling.”

The site’s tagline is “Big Pharma is Real People, Saving Lives Is Our Business,” and it features sympathetic profiles of several drug company employees, none identified by their full name. A passage on the site says its purpose is to “point out how the news media, movie and entertainment industries lie and distort the facts when it comes to Big Pharma,” to “fight ridiculous Government rules and regulation that hamper Big Pharma from acting in the best interest of customers, patients and pharmacies,” and to “point out that corporations are not faceless, evil giants that take advantage of the individual.”

Have to say, guys—this anonymous Web site isn’t doing much to combat that whole “faceless” thing.

Catania does offer his kudos to the site’s creators in one respect: their taste in photography. The Web page features a photo of the councilmember dating back at least five years. “I’m flattered that they chose to use a picture that makes me look younger and more handsome,” he says.

Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee just took the mike at today’s D.C. Council school-system oversight hearing. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s preamble, of course, took Rhee & Co. to task for the school-closings plan but started a line of questioning on the DCPS budget.

What came out early: The schools are facing an approximately $100 million shortfall on their nearly $1 billion budget just two months into the fiscal year. About $81 million of that would be covered by a supplemental appropriation asked for earlier in the fall (assuming the council grants it). The rest of the $20 million, however, is going to be harder to find. Between $5 million and $8 million, Rhee said, will likely come from taking currently vacant job positions off the books. For the rest, she said, her people are “looking at sort of supplies, furniture, that sort of thing.”

At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania picked up on Gray’s line of questioning and noted that this is nothing new for DCPS budgeting: “Almost every year, we seem there is a 10 percent ‘ask’ after the budget is passed,” he said. And, like only Catania can, he found a way to get a dig in at the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and its beleaguered chief, Natwar M. Gandhi. He noted that a CFO worth his salt would point out as soon as possible that the school system was outspending its budget. Not happening in this case, Catania alleges.

Now Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry’s putting Rhee through the paces: “She is doing some of the same things that got us in trouble before.”

I guess we can call the Rhee honeymoon officially over. Five months—not bad!

UPDATE, 2:10: Weak defense from Rhee on the botched school-closings announcement: “If I could control what the Washington Post writes, than we wouldn’t be in this position.”

Barry lays into her (rightly), pointing out the leak must have come from someone in her office. The Mayor-for-Life seems especially lucid today.

Gray’s point on finding the closings plan in the Post: “It’s simply become a symbol of the lack of communication with [council] members.”

If only Natwar M. Gandhi had been more of a train buff.

If so, his financial security might be in better shape right now: In April, Amtrak tried to lure Gandhi, the city’s chief financial officer, with a $250,000 salary plus a $100,000 signing bonus. In order to keep the man widely credited with restoring the District’s fiscal health over the past decade, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty decided to up Gandhi’s salary from $186,000 to $279,000.

Now, in the wake of the quickly expanding property-tax scandal, the bloom has come off Gandhi’s rose for the first time in his 10 years of District service. And his most persistent critic, At-Large Councilmember David Catania, now suggests that the raise needs to be rolled back.

“He should go without this recently approved pay increase,” Catania said in an interview this afternoon. “I think that would be in bad form….I’m at the point where that should be rescinded.”

Gandhi was not immediately available for comment.

On Thursday, the council’s committee on finance and revenue will hold hearings on the scandal. Catania, who has clashed with Gandhi repeatedly, most notably on baseball-stadium financing, says he plans to focus on improving oversight for disbursements across the District government.

“I don’t want to pile on with Nat,” he says. “This is not a time to be engaged in that. This is about how quickly we can put a plan in to restore confidence in this government.”

Since the deal to sell Greater Southeast Community Hospital to Specialty Hospitals of America was announced in August, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Health Committee Chair David Catania have made a big deal about gaining unanimous support for the deal. Their pitch to their colleagues: If you don’t get behind this, the only hospital east of the river has no hope.

Such unanimity was nearly foiled this afternoon, as Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. raised questions about whether Specialty was equipped to run a hospital that serves mainly black patients. At one point, Barry introduced an amendment requiring Specialty to come up with a plan to ease his concerns that would then require another council vote, further delaying the approval of the deal.

Catania instead suggested that the Council attach a condition that Specialty work with the mayor’s office on “cultural competency” issues. After Catania’s substitute passed, but Barry’s didn’t, Barry threatened to vote against the deal with a company he said has “no experience with managing a majority African-American population.”

“I’m not gonna have someone coming in experimenting on us,” he said. “Reminds me of Tuskeegee.”

Barry also invoked the Brown v. Board of Education decision, to no particular effect, and promised that if the Specialty did not show progress on these issues within 30 days, he would lead a campaign on behalf of his constituents to boycott the hospital.

Councilmembers Carol Schwartz and Harry Thomas Jr. implored Barry to change his mind, which he did. The bill passed by acclamation.

“President Jarvis told me, ‘This is not a roast,’” said WRC-TV newsman Tom Sherwood, warming up as MC of this year’s Southeastern University Gala at the Washington Hilton.

The yearly benefit for the private school in Southwest D.C., headed by former Ward 4 Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis, is well-known as a forum for elected officials, business bigwigs, media types, and other big shots to loosen up and show their sense of humor. Sometimes they get a little too loose: Last year, Sherwood got in a bit of trouble for referring to himself as “not as white as Jack Evans, [but] blacker than Harold Brazil.” The MC alluded to having to write an apology letter to Brazil for last year’s act.

Sherwood, in fact, did keep things less controversial this year, with a few jabs at the likes of developer Victor MacFarlane and Idaho Sen. Larry Craig. The killer material of the night fell to others. And it did turn into a roast of sorts, mainly of D.C.’s most roastable character, Marion S. Barry Jr.

The entertainment, billed as “As the District Turns: A Humorous Spin on the City We Love,” kicked off with a “Dreamgirls” act featuring the ladies of the D.C. Council. Ward 3’s Mary Cheh, Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser, and Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander all donned slinky black dresses (a sequined number for Bowser), feather boas, and long white gloves for their act. None of the three’s dance moves were ever quite in sync, but Alexander—definitely the Beyoncé of the group—clearly knew the words better than the other two. Not in attendance: At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz, who was represented late in the act by a proxy holding a campaign picket.

Next up was a skit lampooning the distribution of those coveted low-numbered license plates—Channel 9 anchor Derek McGinty played the low-tag czar, and among his supplicants was former Mayor Anthony A. Williams. (Williams, of course, was not included on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s low-tag list earlier this year.) Williams’ begging—”Remember me? Tony Williams? We’re talking…executive baldness”—didn’t get very far with McGinty.

His retort: “Only Marion Barry gets to be mayor-for-life and gets a low tag.”

After that was a Top 10 list of sorts—”If D.C. became a state”—given by a number of other D.C. councilmembers, plus Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi. Gandhi had a lame joke about how the state bird would be a cockatoo because it’s “always talking but never really saying anything”—you know, like a chief financial officer! Ward 6’s Tommy Wells saved the groaner: “I thought the state bird would be the Anthony Williams, because of its propensity to fly.”

At-Large Councilmember David Catania also had a good one: “The state drug czar is….I’m not even touching that one.”

Then WRC-TV weathercasters Chuck Bell, Veronica Johnson, and Bob Ryan engaged in a painfully bad singing sketch, exacerbated by a malfunctioning microphone, that sent dozens to the ballroom doors.

Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton took the podium to put a little bit of a federal perspective on things, lightly bashing Michigan Sen. Carl Levin and WTOP commentator Mark Plotkin. Her sharpest line, however, connected a neighboring state’s proposal to tax immigrants to the long-proposed D.C. commuter tax: “Interesting idea, Virginia: Tax people who cross your borders for good and services. Good thinking!”

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton recorded a video message for the occasion; it made fun of, among other things, her own controversial laugh, but there were a couple of local zingers. The best: “This is an exciting time for the District….There’s a bold new baseball stadium to delight 40,000 fans. And there’s parking for at least a thousand of them.”

The skits were over, but the Barry roasting continued. Council Chairman Vincent Gray took to the podium for a valedictory speech that was supposedly to be low on laughs, but the chairman read a selection of straight-from-the-dais quotations from his colleagues.

His closer: “Marion said, ‘Mr. Chairman, I want everyone to know that everyone should get a piece of the rock,’” Gray recounted. “True story!”

This photo, from Wednesday’s announcement that the city will be spending a portion of a budget surplus on the D.C. Schools, is currently in rotation on the front page of dc.gov:

I know the Mayor & Co. don’t want to look too gleeful when spending taxpayer money, but jeez–turn those frowns upside down!

Look up, guys–you got a $155 million surplus! It’s not so bad!

It was a long day for D.C. Council yesterday, and a lot of important stuff got passed: Allen Lew’s confirmation, the end of single sales along a stretch of H Street NE, and a moratorium on tavern licenses in Adams Morgan. Then, of course, there was the confirmation of Michelle Rhee as chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools.

The discussion leading to Rhee’s confirmation was long and repetitive. Councilmembers were impressed by her diligence and by her late-night e-mails (she’s online well after midnight!). But members carped—predictably and plenty—about being excluded from her selection process.

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. seemed particularly wounded by the mayor’s lack of council consultation on Rhee. He felt disrespected, he said, and ignored. Then At-Large Councilmember David Catania piped up. He was on the council when Barry was mayor (for a brief stretch in 1997), he said, and Barry didn’t consult him on his decisions.

There was a reason for that, Barry said: “I didn’t like you.”

The Palisades 4th of July Parade has long been a place for D.C.’s pols to flex their campaign muscle with an election approaching. Question was, with the seemingly endless 2006 election season finally over, would the usual suspects continue to pull out all the stops on MacArthur Boulevard, or would this be a lower-key affair?

Nope—the keys stayed plenty high.

Now, I got to the parade about 20 minutes late, hoofing across town on my bike, apparently missing Adrian Fenty and a couple of others. But some notes on the rest of the lineup:

As usual, you can break the folks down into riders (folks who like to stay on high ground, taking in the big picture) and walkers (those really into the nitty-gitty, low-to-the-ground work of governing).

The Walkers: Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser (pictured above), Shadow Senator Michael Brown, At-Large Councilmember David Catania.

The Riders: Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Shadow Senator Paul Strauss

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For the moment, At-Large Councilmember David Catania is backing down from his fight against the owners of Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

In late May, Catania had submitted requests for dozens of documents from the hospital’s ownership, Envision Hospital Corp. In a June 13 response, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company balked at the request noting that the troubled hospital can’t be bothered since it’s responding to other District agency requests and didn’t want to “interfere with that process” and make duplicates.

“I thought that was silly,” Catania says. The war appeared to escalate when company officials failed to show at a recent hearing.

But now the councilmember says that the Department of Health has “rallied the troops” so well and issued its own findings and remedies—from protocols on the hospitals reporting to staffing and equipment issues—that if Greater Southeast follows through, there’s no need to go to war over documents.

Catania says he’ll still be watching Envision closely to make sure the company meets a series of deadlines on meeting patient-care and staffing standards. “There may come a time in the future,” he says, when he might again seek the disputed documents.

“It is tempting to get pulled into kind of a posture of fighting with the home office on these other ancillary issues,” Catania explains. “I’m focusing on avoiding the temptation. There’s a tendency for people in these positions to take the bait. I’m not doing that.”

D.C. pols have gotten carried away during this special election season with imitating their heroes.

The campaigns of Ward 4 candidate Muriel Bowser and Ward 7 candidate Victor Vandell shamelessly adopted the green-and-white literature and signs of the city’s latest political darling, Mayor Adrian Fenty.

The candidate in Ward 7 endorsed by council Chairman Vincent Gray—Yvette Alexander—follows the same copycat act, right down to lifting Gray’s “One City” campaign slogan (her version: “Making Ward 7 One”).

But those imitators can’t top Dee Hunter, who is exploring an independent bid to unseat Republican At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz. Hunter is going around town handing out an exact copy of At-Large Councilmember David Catania’s campaign lit.

Hunter isn’t shying away from his attempt to glom unto a successful politician like Catania, who has now been elected to the council in three city-wide elections. “It was copying by design,” says Hunter, who at one time worked for Catania. “Imitation if the best form of flattery, after all,” he says. “I would be a very effective councilmember if I was as good as David Catania.” Hunter claims he would offer up “the same kind of aggressive oversight,” if elected.

Ben Young, Catania’s chief of staff and former campaign manager, passed along this statement from the councilmember: “David was not consulted by Dee Hunter about the literature, but of course, he is flattered.”

Hunter did show some individuality with his literature choice; he chose a different printer than the one Catania uses. “And besides,” he says, “the color is called hunter green.”

On Friday, the D.C. Council passed Councilmember David Catania’s bill mandating human papillomavirus vaccinations for all female students attending 6th grade in the District. A group called Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in D.C. vigorously opposed the bill, but the Council’s vote didn’t stop them from declaring victory. Group leader Faye Williams sent this message out to the press and others this morning:

My Beloved Sisters and Brothers,

We did it! We did it! We did it! We stopped David Catania and his rabid-dogged efforts to shoot our 6th-grade girls with the HPV-Vaccine!!! We did not successfully persuade, convince or influence all of the DC Council members to do the right thing-reject the Catania bill and protect the lives of our girls!!! However, we did cause them to pause and to acknowledge that our organizing efforts,the e-mails and the calls and the visits to their offices,forced them to not be able to do their business as usual.David Catania had every intention to introduce and pass this dangerous bill without much community input…We surprised him/them this time with our constant organizing and demands for health-justice!!!They were forced to take a second and closer look at the bill…That in itself was/is a major victory for us!!!

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Today, the D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole passed the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination and Reporting Act of 2007, which would establish a vaccination program for sixth-grade girls in the city. Kids whose families can’t afford to pay would get free shots.

The bill, sponsored by At-Large Councilmember David Catania, now moves to the full Council for a bunch of readings and a final vote. (What’s the difference between the Committee of the Whole and the full Council? Not much.)

The debate on this issue’s been pretty polarized: It’s either a pioneering initiative to save women’s lives, or it’s a cynical attempt to enrich a drug company by administering an untested drug. Or it’s just plain racist.

I happen to think it’s a pioneering initiative to save women’s lives that stands to enrich a drug company by administering an untested drug. Not racist, though.

A damp and chilly Emancipation Day meant the big parade down Pennsylvania Avenue NW didn’t turn out to be the crowded meet-and-greet event candidates and visibility-seeking politicos had hoped for. Parade participants outnumbered spectators, and most of the pols choose the cozy comfort of waving from an automobile over mixing with the nearly nonexistent crowds in a cold rain.

The at-large D.C. Council race was the only contest that prompted serious crowd-working commitment. Incumbent Phil Mendelson stalked the parade route with an umbrella and campaign T-shirt. He followed closely on the heels of challenger A. Scott Bolden, who also opted for the close-to-the-people approach.

A car carrying a sign bearing the name of At-Large Councilmember David Catania was so fogged up it was impossible to see who was inside. Catania was indeed in the car, according to Mendelson, who says his 5-year-old daughter Adelaide accepted Catania’s offer to keep her out of the rain. She did snag a ride on daddy’s shoulders for part of the route.

The parade’s unofficial sponsor, Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange caught an unlucky break that turned out to be pretty lucky in the end. He was supposed to ride solo in a horse-drawn carriage near the front of the parade route, complete with a sign identifying him taped to the side—an appropriate gesture for the sponsor of the bill that established Emancipation Day. But as Orange tells it: “My horse got scared, and they had to take the carriage out” of the parade lineup.

Instead, Orange rode out front with Mayor Anthony A. Williams in a fancy white carriage decorated with flowers. Williams has taken to giving Orange a freebie now and then. Three times in recent months he’s allowed Orange to present what amounted to campaign speeches at his weekly press conference.

Even though he lost his sign because of a skittish horse, Orange seemed to enjoy the lift from Williams. Why not? It’s likely to be the only time he rides in a parade float that includes a sign identifying him as mayor.

Council Chairman Linda Cropp, who is running for mayor, smiled and waved from heated comfort for most of the parade and then bailed out around 10th Street to walk the final four blocks. She’s figured out that a strong finish is what really matters when it comes to campaigns.

You can’t blame Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown for driving themselves on the route. Neither is running for re-election in the fall. Give them credit for just showing up at D.C.’s unique holiday celebration.

The parade also featured a couple of phantom candidates. Mayoral hopeful and Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty ran a truck with a sign in the parade, but the candidate himself was nowhere to be found. The same goes for Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray. His red, white, and blue sign calling on voters to choose him to be the next D.C. Council chair graced the side of a van packed with campaign volunteers but no candidate.

The other major candidate for chair, Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson, waved from the comfort of a black Saab.

The Gray boosters did nail one time-honored technique for cementing a solid reputation among parade-watchers: They made sure to hand out lots of candy.