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Monday, July 30, 2007
Cleland’s back, and a Woodstock health company’s got him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forty years after he was handed a premature invitation to Kingdom Come, Max Cleland got his first job in the private sector on Monday.
He’ll be a policy advisor for Tissue Regeneration Technologies, a small Woodstock firm that’s attempting to bring shock-wave therapy — think kidney-stone smashing — into the treatment of wounded vets from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two reporters and a Republican state senator — Chip Rogers, whose office was minutes away — showed up to witness Cleland’s transition. The contract to which he put his left hand will keep him busy for two years.
It was 1968 when the grenade in Vietnam stole three of his limbs. Cleland started his political career four years later, as a Georgia state senator. Then came a stint as head of the U.S. Veterans Administration in the Carter administration, followed by a few years as secretary of state in Georgia, and a single term in the U.S. Senate.
Cleland has just bowed out as a Washington D.C. director on the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a job that took his mind off his 2002 Senate loss to Republican Saxby Chambliss. Cleland has an apartment in downtown Atlanta.
Cleland is now 65, and had this explanation for his private sector virginity. ”Nothing ever came along that I was really passionate about,” he said.
Shock-wave therapy is at the heart of that machine you see hospitals advertise on TV and billboards, which explodes kidney stones while they’re still inside you. TRT CEO John Warlick says an unexpected side-effect of the therapy is tissue regeneration in surrounding areas.
The company, which employs about 50, wants to use that side effect in the treatment of wounded vets. The use of shock-wave therapy is apparently more accepted in Europe than in the United States, where the Food and Drug Administration has withheld approval. (A first study of TRT techniques is currently underway at Walter Reed Army Hospital, focusing on burns and hard-to-heal wounds that can lead to amputation)
It will be Cleland’s job to be the public face for the company, particularly when it comes to access to federal officials. Warlick said — only half in jest — that in the past the company has had trouble getting past the receptionist.
“It’s a rare and unique opportunity to get someone of Senator Cleland’s stature to lead us, because our biggest difficulty having people take us seriously. It’s somewhat of a voodoo technology in many circles. We’re talking about shock waves in medicine. It’s not accepted in the medical community,” the CEO said.
Cleland admitted he doesn’t quite understand how shock-wave therapy works, and doesn’t much care — as long as he sees results that can reduce the number of amputees coming out of the Middle East.
“We are drowning in war. Long before the expose in the Washington Post, Walter Reed was overwhelmed. First of all, the physical injuries are injuries we’ve never really seen in combat before — and having so many survive.
“The majority of wounds are due to explosive devices. I know what an explosive devise does to the body. I know what it does to the flesh. I know what it does to the bone. I know what it does to traumatize you for the rest of your life,” Cleland said.
His new job, while it could boost his profile as an advocate for wounded war vets, is also likely to reduce Cleland’s political activity, even as Chambliss gears up for his re-election campaign to hold onto Cleland’s old seat.
You’ll remember that Cleland was extremely active, and vocal, in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, a fellow Vietnam vet. Cleland said he intends to stay out of the political fray at least until Democrats settle on a presidential candidate late next year.
Hank Johnson pitches his tent with the Obama camp
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hank Johnson has plighted his troth to Barack Obama — the first Democratic congressman in Georgia to publicly align himself with that candidate’s presidential campaign.
As we recall, U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Macon) sides with John Edwards. Otherwise, Democrats have tried to remain non-aligned.
Iraq is the issue for Johnson:
“Today more than ever, a fundamental change in the way we do our business in Washington is crucial,” said the DeKalb County representative in the release from Chicago. “Barack Obama, who had the sound judgment to oppose the Iraq War early on, is the only candidate who will turn the page on this disastrous foreign policy and lead our nation to a new standing in the world.”
Max is back, working with a company exploring war-wound treatment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nearly five years after his defeat at the hands of Republican Saxby Chambliss, former U.S. senator Max Cleland is coming home.
Cleland, a Vietnam vet and triple amputee, has quit his job as a director on the Export-Import Bank of the United States in Washington, and has signed up as a senior policy advisor for Tissue Regeneration Technologies, a Woodstock firm.
TRT is exploring new techniques to “certain combat injuries, including those sustained from improvised explosive devices,” the press release says.
