Lobbying For Lobbyists

Yesterday, we posted on President Obama’s rather toothless new rules that purport to prevent ex-lobbyists from working in his administration. The rules don’t cover people like new secretary of health and human services Tom Daschle. Daschle did just about everything a lobbyist does, but he called himself “an adviser” to the firm he worked for, so he’s in the clear.

But the rules do, apparently, apply to another Obama appointee we’ve written about several times now, William Lynn. As recently as last year, Lynn lobbied for the giant defense contractor Raytheon. Now Obama wants him to become the number two man at the Pentagon. But because Lynn called himself a lobbyist while he was, you now, lobbying instead of some euphemistic title like “adviser” or “consultant,” he would now seem to be ineligible to join Team Obama. Right? Wrong. From CQ Politics:

So, the new rules against ex-lobbyists in the administration are not only porous and inadequate, they’re also optional.

And what about Senator Claire McCaskill? As we wrote about last week, she raised questions about Lynn’s ties to Raytheon in hearings, prompting us to feel a small smidge of hope that she might actually stand up to her party and vote against Lynn’s confirmation. You’d think these new rules barring people like Lynn from serving would give her some cover for such a bold move.

Alas, no. Party still comes first:

So she’s going to push this ex-Pentagon comptroller and defense contractor lobbyist to be a “reformer” of the very system he’s spent his career in and out of government not only perpetuating but profiting from? Right! You might as well hire, say, the former chief of Goldman Sachs to come in and “rescue” the very financial markets he helped ruin. Oh wait … Never mind. Lynn will fit right in.