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Obama Already Breaking His Own Rules

11:32 AM, Jan 22, 2009 • By MICHAEL GOLDFARB
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Josh Rogin reports:

President Obama's new lobbying rules are fueling the concerns of senators from both parties regarding the nomination of William Lynn to become deputy defense secretary.

Obama signed an executive order Wednesday strengthening the restrictions on lobbyists and former lobbyists entering his administration.

"If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied, during the previous two years," Obama said in a press conference.

Lynn lobbied on behalf of defense contractor Raytheon Co. until last year and now stands to be in a position to make decisions on a plethora of the defense giant's programs as the new manager of the Pentagon.

After vilifying lobbyists during the campaign, Obama is finding out how difficult it is to manage the government without their help. The most absurd part of this is that Obama, a man who puts such great emphasis on expertise as to have no less than 300 foreign policy advisers, has created a system that allows lobbyists in his administration but only in those fields in which they have no experience and no expertise. As Harry Reid said this Tuesday, "People should understand that lobbyists, per se, are someone's father, mother, son, daughter." Or in this case, someone's nominee.

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