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June 19th 2009     

Obama Keeps His ‘No Lobbyist’ Promise – Sort Of

Posted by: Laer at 04:47 pm

Are you keeping a promise if it’s just a symbolic promise-keeping?  Of course not … unless you’re Barack Obama.  Then you can do stuff like this:

WASHINGTON (NYT) — When President Obama arrived at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for a fund-raising reception on Thursday night, the new White House rules of political purity were in order: no lobbyists allowed.

But at the same downtown hotel on Friday morning, registered lobbyists have not only been invited to attend an issues conference with Democratic leaders, but they have also been asked to come with a $5,000 check in hand if they want to stay in good favor with the party’s House and Senate re-election committees.

The practicality of Mr. Obama’s pledge to change the ways of Washington is colliding once more with the reality of how money, influence and governance interact here. He repeatedly declared while campaigning last year that he would “not take a dime” from lobbyists or political action committees.

So to follow through with that promise, Mr. Obama is simply leaving the room.

I just love all this “change you can believe in” hogwash! And so, apparently, does Robert “Gotta Get A Message To You” Gibbs:

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, dismissed a suggestion on Thursday that the rules were a sleight of hand. He said no lobbyists would be on hand when Mr. Obama addressed the donors, which is what he promised in the campaign.

“People know where the president stands,” Mr. Gibbs told reporters. Asked whether Mr. Obama would agree with critics who suggested it was hypocritical, he demurred and added, “We’re not taking their money.”

There. Now we know where the president stands. We just don’t know why he bothers standing there.

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