By Philip Rucker
The White House announced this afternoon it is bolstering its restriction on lobbying for stimulus funds by expanding the ban on communications with administration officials to include not only federally registered lobbyists but also consultants and other individuals who seek to exert influence over the spending process.

link:[voices.washingtonpost.com]

Posted May 29, 2009

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Gitmo: Obama said "closed by Jan 2010.  Can't say he reneged on that yet

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The media has stopped reporting on combat deaths?  Gee, everyday I see the combat deaths in the AZ Republic.  Every Sunday AM, This Week tells us how many died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  HuffPo and Drudge report on American combat deaths. 

Please outline who has quit reporting this news.

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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?

link:[www.thenextright.com]

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?

Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius' Forum. It's what's happening NOW!

Uh, Potsie, can you read? They didn't lift the ban, Obama expanded it to include "not only federally registered lobbyists but also consultants and other individuals who seek to exert influence over the spending process."

Only with rightwingers is making the rules tougher a flip flop. So sad. Now, if the new rules got rid of Obama's lobbyist ban, then that'd be a flipflop.