Posted on 01/25/2009 6:34:42 AM PST by markomalley
A former Raytheon lobbyist nominated to be deputy defense secretary despite President Barack Obama's ban on hiring lobbyists will sell his stock in the military contracting firm.
However, William J. Lynn won't be forced to step back from decisions related to his former employer, the Pentagon said Friday.
Instead, Lynn's dealings at the Defense Department will be subject to ethics reviews for one year, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
The Obama administration's decision ended around an executive order that the president signed Jan. 20. His "revolving door" ban, part of Obama's "ethics commitments," ordered officials who had been lobbyists for up to two years prior to their hiring to recuse themselves from decisions involving their former employers.
Under the ban, former lobbyists could not "participate in any particular matter" they had been involved in as a lobbyist or "participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls."
But Lynn avoided a total recusal under the decision announced by Pentagon officials Friday.
On Thursday, the administration delivered to the Senate Armed Services Committee a waiver to Obama's "ethics pledge" for federal employees, exempting Lynn from two specific sections: a two-year prohibition on employees from participating in decisions related to their former employers and a more specific section banning individuals from taking jobs in the agencies they recently lobbied.
"I understand that Mr. Lynn will otherwise comply with the remainder of the pledge and with all pre-existing government ethics rules," the waiver states.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
And, if you take a look at http://www.opensecrets.org, you will find that Raytheon is a very Democratic company. Just as a point of interest for those of you out in TV land...
“I robbed the bank, but it’s OK... I’ll take the money back...”
All of the crying the Democrats did about Cheney quitting Halliburtion to work for Buh and they turn around and do the same thing with this character.
Friggin Democrats. What a sorry lot.
Five days as President, three scandals:
1) Richardson drops out of consideration for Commerce Secretary, America suspects previous chicanery will surface
2) “Financial genius” makes “innocent mistakes” on his tax returns, repeatedly refuses to say whether he would have paid back taxes if he had not been nominated as Sec of Treasury
3) Ban on lobbyists serving in administration, unless Obama wants them to
oh good..as long as he gets to keep his Haliburton stock. The democrats love Haliburton. /sarcasm
Not sure if this is a plot or just incompetence about how government and law works.
Oh, I feel sooo much better now.
O will be monitoring the ex lobbyist for one year.
Kind of like they are monitoring Rangel and assorted other dem crooks.
Five days as President, three scandals:
1) Richardson drops out of consideration for Commerce Secretary, America suspects previous chicanery will surface
2) “Financial genius” makes “innocent mistakes” on his tax returns, repeatedly refuses to say whether he would have paid back taxes if he had not been nominated as Sec of Treasury
3) Ban on lobbyists serving in administration, unless Obama wants them to
not quite scandal level:
4) Rahm Emmanuel / Illinois governor questions
5) citizenship questions
Well, at least he will probably lose a bunch of money. That is until he gets his paybacks later.
At least Cheney donated his, what some 30 million worth...
No mention if he will hire a high end Financial Planning Firm and open a "Blind Trust" like GWB and Cheney and many others do...
Beam me up Scotty the duplicity and financial ignorance of the lame-stram-media is astounding...
Bush got accused of going to Iraq to help his oil company buddies get rich. Bush had no oil investments but just having friends in the oil companies was enough. In this case, we have a DOD contractor actually being allowed to favor his company. Man oh man.
Does he get the standard waiver on the Capital Gains tax that goes with this?
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