"Stink?? What Stink? This Is the Chicago Way!"

Whassa problem, folks? The fact that a very, very, very close adviser to Obama....

Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama’s White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obama’s top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan. The other firm is Washington-based GMMB Campaign Group, where partner Jim Margolis was also an Obama strategist.
This year, AKPD and GMMB received $12 million in advertising business from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, that is seeking to build support for a health-care overhaul, said the coalition’s spokesman, Jeremy Van Ess.

Hewitt points out the problem here. Cliff's Notes version:

Axelrod sells the company, but he's owed $2 million by the purchaser (his kid.) The Company makes the payments at least partially with the money it collects from PhRMA--the drug company front which is now campaigning for ObamaCare.

Hmmmm.

Was Axelrod involved in any way, shape, or form with the PhRMA/Obama mutual back-scratch?

Hewitt:

If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that's a conflict of interest. Laundering the money through a "coalition" doesn't remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety. The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod's severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly.

Politico will run a story on this today, and according to Politico's Vogel, Axelrod ain't talking.

HT: Memeorandum