By Bob Gibson
Charlottesville political blogger
    Former U.S. Attorney John Brownlee of Roanoke, a GOP candidate for Virginia attorney general in 2009, addressed a Danville audience on leadership Tuesday night and discussed the huge Purdue Pharma case he won at some risk of being fired.
    Brownlee, who won a $635 million settlement and guilty plea from the drug manufacturer for its role in hiding the addictive nature of OxyContin, was placed in jeopardy of being fired by the Bush administration for not backing down in his pursuit of the drug manufacturer.
    His response to a question about the case and why he did not back down when asked to do so by a Bush Justice Department official is interesting.
    Listen as Brownlee described how Purdue Pharma had a history of sort of buying off U.S. Attorneys and other law enforcement officials trying to bust the manufacturer:
http://www.sorenseninstitute.org/newsroom/entry/files/uploads/audio/files/uploads/audio/brownleeqanda6.10.08.mp3
    Brownlee was responding to the first question after his talk on leadership at the Southside Public Leadership speaker series sponsored by the Sorensen Instutute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.