Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner picked a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as his chief of staff. White House photo, Pete Souza
Geithner taps Goldman Sachs lobbyist as his chief of staff
So the revolving door between lobbyists and government keeps swinging.
From USA Today:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner picked a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as a top aide Tuesday, the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in agency decisions.
Mark Patterson will serve as Geithner’s chief of staff at Treasury, which oversees the government’s $700 billion financial bailout program. Goldman Sachs received $10 billion of that money.
Of course, the ink wasn’t even dry on the administration’s new, “tough” rules on lobbyists when the president waived them.
But Geithner one-upped Obama by appointing a lobbyist the very day he announced rules to restrict lobbying at Treasury.
Geithner issued rules Tuesday to restrict lobbyists from contacting Treasury about bailout issues.
Sure doesn’t seem like a big change:
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said President Obama was retreating from his own ethics rules barring lobbyists from working on the issues they lobbied about during the previous two years. “It makes it appear that they are saying one thing and doing another,” she said.
… A USA TODAY review of Obama hires shows that 21 have registered as federal lobbyists, although most have not done so within the past two years. They include White House aide Cecilia Muñoz, who lobbied last year for the National Council of La Raza, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who lobbied in 2007 for a national teachers union.
