Obama seems to be running out of folks who believe he is waging a war against lobbyists.
The Washington Post’s T.W. Farnam combed through Obama’s White House visitor logs and came out with a good story of access and broken promises. Here’s a highlight:
Tony Podesta, brother of former Obama aide John D. Podesta, has visited 27 times. And Robert Raben, who represents many liberal causes, has been 47 times.
But lesser-known names are also among the frequent lobbyist visitors, including Tim Hannegan, an informal adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign with clients such as Comcast and Taser International. He has been to the White House and executive buildings more than 30 times for social events or meetings.
But lesser-known names are also among the frequent lobbyist visitors, including Tim Hannegan, an informal adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign with clients such as Comcast and Taser International. He has been to the White House and executive buildings more than 30 times for social events or meetings.
Peter Suderman at Reason lays out some of the moral of the story:
Is it any surprise that an administration which presided over wholesale regulatory overhauls of multiple major sectors of the economy, that allowed budgets for regulatory agencies grow by 16 percent and employment at those agencies grow by 13 percent to some 281,000 souls, that added regulations to the books costing businesses more than $46 billion each and every year — in addition to $11 billion in start-up costs — would also be so close with the professional influence peddlers it claims to despise?;
Remember the Post story next time Obama says anything about lobbyists. Also remember:
- Obama has hired at least 50 ex-lobbyists to policy-making jobs including four cabinet members.
- The White House moved meetings with lobbyists across the street to the Blair House and to Caribou Coffee to avoid having them entered on the visitor logs.
- Obama’s Housing and Urban Development Department demanded confidentiality orders from lobbyists with which it was meeting.
- Former White House tech-policy aide/Google lobbyist-in-chief Andrew McLaughlin discussed tech policy with Google lobbyists in violation of ethics rules.
- A telecom advisor Obama’s transition team did not disclose, was pushing policy that helped his client.
- The State Department has used flimsy reasons to reject a FOIA request over a former pipeline lobbyist now working on pipeline issues for State.
- When Obama sent his Transparency Czar to the Czech Republic, he never replaced him, giving his duties to a partisan ex-lobbyist who believes “disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned.”
- Non-registered lobbyists, directors of lobbying departments, and even presidents of lobbying firms are donors and fundraisers for Obama’s reelection.
