Hope and Fail

Waiving ban on lobbyists for defense appointment

Days after issuing a blanket ban on lobbyists serving in adminstration posts, President Obama issued a waiver so he could appoint former Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn as deputy defense secretary.

President Barack Obama has waived enforcement of his own rules that disallow recent lobbyists to take jobs in the administration for his nominee for deputy secretary of defense.

From the LA Times:

A day after President Obama issued tough new ethics rules for administration employees, a key lawmaker raised questions about his nomination of a lobbyist to the No. 2 position at the Pentagon.

William Lynn III, the top lobbyist for Raytheon Co., was chosen by Obama and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for the position of deputy secretary of Defense.

The new ethics rules banned lobbyists from serving in the administration. But the executive order allowed waivers letting some former lobbyists to take government jobs if doing so is in the public interest.

And it’s not as if Raytheon is some small contractor. From Time:

Last year the Pentagon paid the Raytheon Corp., its fifth largest contractor, a cool $10 billion for its missiles, missile shields and a constellation of electronics. This year President Barack Obama is putting Raytheon’s recently departed top lobbyist in charge of the Pentagon’s day-to-day management.

In Washington that almost qualifies as business as usual, except for a small detail: on the campaign trail, Obama vowed to stop the revolving door that lets onetime lobbyists go to work for the Federal Government and oversee contracts that could harm — or help — their former employer. And one of the first things the new President did in office was seemingly make good on that promise, signing an Executive Order barring former lobbyists from joining his Administration to work at agencies they recently lobbied.

The more things “change” the more they stay the same.

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