Obama White House A Lobbyist Haven
President Barack Obama has repeatedly violated his innovative campaign promise to ban lobbyists from his administration by hiring at least a dozen to high-profile positions, including several to his cabinet.
Obama’s famously coined lobbyists “won’t find a job in my White House” rhetoric has turned out to be a bad a joke, proving that, mainstream media adulation aside, he’s no different than most politicians. Broken campaign promises have for decades been par for the course among the nation’s most famous elected figures and the 44th president evidently is no exception.
This week a nationally known political news publication confirms an analysis, conducted by Republican sources, of lobbyists in Obama’s White House. It reveals that at least 12 well-known and influential lobbyists have top jobs in the administration. This may seem bizarre since Obama recently formalized the lobbyist ban in an Executive Order, leading one Washington group to accuse the administration of waving the magic wand to make exceptions to its own rule.
Among the registered lobbyists working in Obama’s White House is an attorney general who lobbied on behalf of a bankrupt telecommunications firm, a deputy defense secretary who lobbied for a defense contractor, a domestic policy advisor who lobbied for liberal advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and a director of intergovernmental affairs who lobbied for an extremist Mexican “La Raza” group. The entire list includes several other cabinet members and is included in the news story linked above.
