So much for those high standards on lobbyists....

Once is happenstance. [Deputy SecDef in charge of the Pentagon; Raytheon lobbyist]

Twice is coincidence. [Undersecretary at HHS; non-profit lobbyist]

Third time is rank hypocrisy.

Oh, sorry: the number is now thirteen lobbyists nominated or appointed by the Obama administration [see below]

From HuffPo [and, strangely, not being picked up by liberal/progressive blogs around the country]:

Daschle Chief of Staff violates new lobbyist rule

The new chief of staff to health reform czar Tom Daschle was a lobbyist through late last year and will have to recuse himself from issues he worked to influence, an administration aide said Thursday.

Daschle adviser Mark B. Childress is the second lobbyist to land in the top ranks of the Health and Human Services Department and joins at least 12 others who have found jobs in the administration -- despite the president's repeated pledges during the campaign to stamp out their influence in Washington.

I can't wait for the rationalizations.

Comments

Waldo Lydecker's Journal said…

Politics is principle honored in the breach, as we saw with the Barr-Root ticket.

January 30, 2009 at 11:38 PM

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

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More of This, Please

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Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point: Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo: Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1. Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

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