Posted on 05/30/2009 7:55:19 AM PDT by Reaganesque
Roll Call is reporting that during the typical Friday afternoon document dump — a practice used to hide actions that might prove somewhat embarrassing to the White House — the administration quietly announced that some of the former restrictions on lobbying ballyhooed about during the late campaign have been lifted.
Let special interests ring!
Roll Call (see here, but subscription is required) says that the administration lifted bans on lobbyists that have some part of spending “stimulus” funds. So now getting hooks into bloated federal spending is open season for the very lobbyists that Obama pretended to disdain only months ago.
So much for hopinchange.
The ban on oral communication now applies only to competitively bid applications on the stimulus package and it applies equally to lobbyists as well as non-lobbyists, according to a White House blog post written by ethics official Norm Eisen.
Additionally, the administration is still also pretending at “transparency” because one of the new rules is that there be “immediate internet disclosure” of this renewed contact that lobbyists are to have with federal agencies. Not that such a thing is anywhere near de rigueur at this point… but, um, you know how hard The One is working, right?
So why the reverse? According to Roll Call:
The decision to change the policy follows the 60-day review period that the Obama administration set for the Office of Management and Budget to review the new lobbying rules. Several watchdog groups and lobbying entities, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American League of Lobbyists and the AFL-CIO, raised concern over the recently imposed rules.
So, I guess the hopinchangieness wasn’t as hopey and changie as it was once imagined?
It should be fun to hear the excuses that MSNBC/PRAVDA will be making for this major flip-flop.
How conveeeeenient.
It will get zero coverage.
Makes one kind of want to hurl, don't it?
Ahh 60 days of distraction and now the access is back and so are the DONATIONS>
Just another Obama turn-a-round that the MSM will not cover.
“Impeachment is in the offing if only we can find one honest man in Washington.”...Sorry, my ludes have worn off again.
Change? {snort} The only change has been a decidedly corrupt shift to the left.
“Obama Lifts Ban on Lobbyists!”
Why lift it? Why not just continue to ignore it? The ‘Bama, after all, can do no wrong.
Lol! Everything was a lie.
Ran out of waivers.
You have to hand it to him. He's managed his "image" better than any President that I can remember, especially considering how early it is in his administration. Of course, it makes things much easier when you have a sycophantic news media to help do your laundry and to bury your skeletons.
Except for the "redistribute wealth" part.
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