
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 28, 2009
/ 3 Shevat 5769
All of Obama's promises come with an expiration date
By
Jack Kelly
| >
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last year was a bad year for virtually every business in America,
including the lobbying business in Washington, D.C. According to a
report in The Hill newspaper, all but a handful of the top 20 lobbying
firms lost revenue.
There was one major exception. The Podesta Group saw a 40 percent rise
in its revenue, to $16 million from $11.4 million.
Throughout the election campaign, lobbyists were for Barack Obama what
"economic royalists" and "malefactors of great wealth" had been for FDR.
Lobbyists, to hear Mr. Obama tell it on the stump, were responsible for
all such evil in the world that couldn't be attributed to George W.
Bush. He pledged there would be no lobbyists in his administration.
The day after his inauguration, President Obama signed an executive
order which, among other things, said that any lobbyist appointed to a
post in his administration could not oversee policy areas in which he
had lobbied.
All of Barack Obama's promises come with an expiration date, as Jim
Geraghty of National Review Online never tires of reminding us. But
rarely has the half life of an Obama pledge been so short.
No sooner had President Obama issued his new rules on lobbyists than he
granted a waiver to William Lynn, his nominee for Deputy Secretary of
Defense, who had been a lobbyist for Raytheon, a major defense
contractor.
"While I applaud the president's decision to implement new, more
stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to
waive them so soon," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). Among others with
questions about the nomination were Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), the
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Claire
McCaskill (D-Mo), who said Mr. Lynn represents a "strong example" of
"the industry-government executive revolving door phenomenon."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the waiver was granted
because Mr. Lynn, who served in several posts in the Defense Department
during the Clinton administration, was so highly qualified.
I have no objection to the waiver, because I think the rule that was
waived is silly. Congress is for sale, but lobbyists are a symptom of
that problem, not its cause. Whether or not a lobbyist is a good
appointment depends on his or her intelligence and character, and to
some degree on what he or she was lobbying for. I'm all for prohibiting
senior government officials from taking lobbying jobs for a period of
years after their service, because too many have tilted policy to
benefit future employers. But to deny a former lobbyist the ability to
work in the area of his or her expertise is just plain stupid.
Still, there is something unseemly about issuing a rule, and then
immediately exempting yourself from it. Like the nomination of Timothy
Geithner for Treasury secretary despite his failure to pay Social
Security and Medicare taxes for four years, it gives the impression the
rules are only for suckers. There is no faster way to undermine respect
for the rule of law.
Mr. Obama has a tendency to make sweeping statements for appearances'
sake, and then to back away if implementing them is inconvenient.
"President-elect Obama has pledged to change the way Washington works
and curb the influence of lobbyists," said the co-chairman of his
transition team, John Podesta, in announcing what he said were "the
strictest and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in
history." But the sudden prosperity of the Podesta Group (headed by
John's brother Tony) suggests lobbyists will be more influential, not
less, during the Obama years.
A proof of this is the stimulus bill, which is stuffed with special
interest projects despite Mr. Obama's pledge to have no "earmarks" in
it. They're just called something else.
I haven't minded most of the president's trimming of his promises,
because he's been backing away from positions I consider foolish. But
it must trouble some of his supporters that his word has the value of a
Confederate dollar.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a
deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan
administration. Comment by clicking here.
Jack Kelly Archives
© 2008, Jack Kelly
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|