Dozens Of Former Lobbyists Serving On Obama's Transition Team

New York Times:

President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers.

Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[blueskybigstar]

Only the lobbyists know how to take down the lobbyists for good.

[rollingdivision]

During the campaign he made sure everyone thought he would have no lobbyists in his administration. He made statements specifically stating no lobbyists would find a job in his white house and denouncing McCain for having ex-lobbyists in his campaign. It was all a lie. Red meat for liberals.

[blueskybigstar]

He is dismantling the lobbyists. None of the people on his team can work on an issue they have worked on in the last year.

[rollingdivision]

So he brings in lobbyists and prohibits them from working in their areas of expertise. Then why bring them in? There are no other fully qualified Democrats other than lobbyists for these positions? Really, in the whole country he now only has lobbyists left to select?

[trucap]

maybe the obama administration could use the experience of trent lot too. the one who resigned his seat to be a lobbyist . true change = new and young generation . i maybe wrong....if am ,please tell me where i went wrong.

[markkraft]

Oh, please.

FORMER lobbyists? In Washington?! Say it ain't so!

Sorry... but even Ralph Nader is surrounded and advised by former lobbyists.

[Harmony1812]

Hasn't everyone in Washington been a lobbyist? Besides some lobbyists serve a necessary function representing groups that have specific needs.

[clarenoi]

OK anyone out there who expects Obama to put together a White House team that is squeaky clean is delusional. Do you all get that?

I am a diehard Obama fan but I am not stupid, nor do I expect Obama to be stupid. You pick the people who can get things done and then spell out the rules. Then you insist that the rules are followed. Done. No discussion. Relax, you dopes.

[Jaybot]

And as long as you don't expect anything, like 'Change', you won't be disappointed. Dopes indeed.

[sacto92]

I love it! This is one of the first in what will be a long string of discussion threads by the HuffPo crowd in which they totally ignore what they have been railing against for the last 4+ yrs. The outrage over everything Bush will quickly be forgotten as Obama starts playing the same political games.

[wanked]

Get ready... here comes the change we can believe in.................

[AZterritory]

OK, he didn't take campaign money from lobbyists and now he is paying a salary to FORMER lobbyists for THEIR work and they can't work in certain areas based on their past employment. I'm not seeing much of a problem here yet.

[obamagal]

Yes... key word is "former".

[retspan11]

I agree. There's no denying that these people helped Obama in the campaign. He trusts these people. And since these people haven't failed him yet (thus Obama's trust in them), I say just let them do their thing.

[RDSOregon]

Wow! If Lobbyists are the only ones in this nation with any experience, maybe the best choice for President would have been a Lobbyist.


For the record, I voted for him, encouraged many others to do the same and donated money. I'm also very happy he won the election. But I'm not a Kool-Aid drinker and I'll criticize when I see something I believe deserves criticism. In this case I think it does.

Just because he's my guy, doesn't make it okay. Instead, it makes me wonder what's next.

[ArmyCentrist]

Notice that people who were former lobbyists in a certain area cannot work on the transition team in that same area...do you think McCain would've done that? Bush? HILLARY? No, no ,and absolutely NOT! What did you expect his team to be made up of, Chicago guys with no Washington connections? That didn't work too well for Jimmy Carter, as I recall...

[BethinIllinois]

No, no, and no. "Former" isn't the key word. The key words were Obama's: Lobbyists will not work for me. He didn't make distinctions. So -- he lied. He's going back on his word, Again.

[SpaceCadet]

Politico has a "gotcha" article today about how Obama hired a man for his transition team who was a lobbyist up to last Sept., in "apparent violation" of his ban on lobbyists. The man in question was with a public-interest group and lobbied unsuccessfully for tougher regulations to keep children from smoking.

To the corporate media, these dastardly public interest lobbyists are worth a story. But most of the media didn't find it worth informing the public during the campaign that McCain had lobbyists like Charlie Black,who lobbied for the right-wing African terrorist organization UNITAS, or the other corporate lobbyists who pushed for the lax business regulations that helped make our current economic collapse possible

It's those anti-smoking fanatics working for Obama that are the clear and present danger to our great nation.

[karela]

"Former" lobbyists would be the key words. They have to sign statements and contracts that put them out of work as lobbyists pertaining to the area they serve for two years---one before they serve and one after. He has to have expert help. He's doing the best he can with the work force available and he has to hire 8,000 people. But remember this, Obama is absolutely committed to not having special interests control his administration. He won't be making policy decisions based on political contributions because he doesn't need to. We financed his campaign before and we'll do it next time. Nobody owns Obama or his White House. If you listen to him talk, every word is about ordinary people in America and how he can best meet our needs. Remember who he's shown himself to be and feel good about what we've accomplished. Lincoln and FDR are the presidents he wants to emulate and neither of them were for sale either. We've been blessed, right when we need it most, with a President of honor, courage, integrity and judgment. We need to all stay tuned so that we can do our part, because he won't be able to do what he wants to do for us without the political pressure that millions of us can bring to bear. This is a time of together we stand/divided we fall.

[kmdippenger]

Obama has a large circumference of support and advisors, not a narrow one that will be able to be demanding of him, there is no one interest group or person who can exert control over our Obama government. He's tapping into experts who were lobbyists at some point because for the past 8 yrs, there were no jobs for them in the Bush controlled White House.
The only experience that has been available was working for the Clinton administration during the President Clinton years.

[rollingdivision]

Obama Faults McCain on Lobbyist Influence WaPo May 2008
Obama attacked McCain, "But it's noteworthy that two of the most influential corporate lobbyists in Washington have taken time off to run his campaign. And they are still at the helm today"

Now, when lobbyists take time off to run President elect Obama's transition it's not a problem. In McCain's case they were running a campaign which may or may not have been successful so they may or may not have gained influence. In Obama's case it's a done deal, there's no doubt about it, these lobbyists are for sure gaining influence with the new president.

[ObjectiveRealist]

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/klain_arrives_with_k_street_ro.html

[
“This is the strongest ethics and lobbying reform policy in history,” asserted Obama transition spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Lobbying was a small part of Klain’s job at O’Melveny — “approximately 10 percent of his work in any given year,” Vietor said, pointing out that Klain hasn’t lobbied since he left the firm.
]

10% v. 100% means Obama's pick is 10x less a lobbyist, 10x more a genuine statesman and employee of the public, supervised by President Obama.

[norkas]

Lobbyist know how to get things done and most of them are very smart..So Barak is restricting what they can do so there is no conflict.

Those that have issues with this have issues with Barak Obama. Please study what they have to sign off on before shooting off your mouths. There are restricted and you may read the details.

If you still complain cozy up to your friend Rush Limbaugh and leave us alone

[weatherwaxx]

Read the article. If someone lobbied for the canned-sardine industry, he can't work fish-and-game areas.

And the rules are changed so they can't pop out of a government job and jump into the cushy contract they've set up for themselves.

And you know? Someone lobbying ON BEHALF of the environment, against big corporations? Would not bother me a bit to see someone like that in government, because you know damned well they weren't doing it for the ca$h.

The issues need to be cleaned up. The isolation period may be the best they can do right now.

I don't think we're going to see President Obama handing over the country's energy policy to Halliburton, the way bush did.

[Harmony1812]

Thank you.

[SekhmetHathor]

Not a good thing.