Before
Barack Obama was President-elect — from the very beginning of his
campaign — he pledged to change the way Washington works. That meant
not accepting any financial contributions from lobbyists or political
action committees.
Voters often said this was one of the major reasons they supported
Barack, and they’ve been writing to the Transition to tell us how
important they think it is that this commitment continues.
Lexington from San Diego, CA, wrote:
“When I first learned of Barack Obama, I was encouraged by
his thoughts [on] ending the power of lobbyists and the negative effect
of the revolving door on the White House. I’d like to see an agenda
that focuses on promoting transparency and getting people into
government who sincerely want to serve the interests of the nation over
their own careers.”
John from Seattle, WA wrote, “I am so tired of special interests
getting the best of us all. I support you and hope that you will allow
the common guy to have a say in how we are to be governed from now on.”
Now Barack has taken the first step, with new rules
that restrict how lobbyists can participate in the transition — just
as he restricted how they could participate in the campaign.
The new policy, which ethics experts have praised as a bold step
forward, was only announced yesterday — but already people have
written in to show their support.
Sarah from Brockport, NY, wrote, “Today I read about the tough new
rules for lobbyists and it just further solidified the faith I have in
this administration to bring about a real change….I am feeling real
patriotic and in tune with my government for the first time in my 46
years.”
Carmen from Olympia, WA wrote simply: “Thank you for the transition ethics. Thank you.”
During a briefing today at the Presidential Transition Team
headquarters, Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced the
strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in
history. The rules are:
Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the
Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12
months on matters on which they worked.
A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.
“I said before the election that if the Democrats win the House, the lion’s share of the credit should go to [Rahm Emanuel],” says Rep. Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. “He legitimately can be called the golden boy of the Democratic Party today. He recruited the right candidates, found the money and funded them, and provided issues for them. Rahm did what no one else could do in seven cycles.”
Alternately, Emanuel has been described as a shark, a pit bull, a barracuda and a host of unprintable names — by Democrats!
“Rahm Emanuel is a very ambitious person,” Rep. Charles Rangel (D- N.Y.) said yesterday, glowing in his own reelection and the possibility that he will be named chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “There’s no question that with the election, he’s picked up a lot of political clout. But he’s also lost some friends along the way. He curses a lot. He’s blunt.”
Rep. Rahm Emanuel considers Sen. Barack Obama a close friend. The Illinois Democrats had dinner just last week. They are both from Chicago and socialize together with their wives. But Emanuel got his big break in national politics from Bill Clinton and worked for him in the White House. And now his worst-case scenario has come true - - both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are running for president and want his support.
Emanuel declared on television early last year that he was supporting Clinton, but that was before Obama expressed interest in running. Now he is officially neutral. And both sides are lobbying him to take a top campaign post. “I’m going to call Rahm and talk the issue through with him and see what he thinks,” said Mickey Kantor, who chaired Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 and is now backing Hillary Clinton.
Obama has been calling, too. He had dinner with Emanuel on Thursday, which the congressman called a longstanding personal engagement. Asked where Emanuel will come down in the 2008 race, Obama recently told the Chicago Tribune: “Rahm knows the right thing to do.”
Nobody understands the new Washington power dynamic better than [Rahm Emanuel], who helped create it. As chief strategist and fundraiser for the Democrats’ recapture of the House, he understood before most others that the nation was angry with [Bush] and his party. Now, with Bush binding himself even more firmly to an unpopular war, Emanuel wants to use that rising anger to make the Democrats the nation’s true governing party.
With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Emanuel plans to use Bush’s Iraq speech to pose what amounts to a vote of “no confidence” in Bush’s leadership — framing the new strategy as a congressional motion and voting it up or down. Emanuel is certain that Bush’s strategy will be voted down and that a sizable number of Republicans will join the Democrats in rejecting the military escalation. Rather than try to restrict funds for the troops (which he sees as a political blunder that would delight Republicans), Emanuel instead favors a proposal by Rep. John Murtha to set strict standards for readiness - - which would make it hard to finance the troop surge in Iraq without beefing up the military as a whole. The idea is to position the Democrats as friends of the military, even as they denounce Bush’s Iraq policy.
The secret for the Democrats, says Emanuel, is to remain the party of reform and change. The country is angry, and it will only get more so as the problems in Iraq deepen. Don’t look to Emanuel’s Democrats for solutions on Iraq. It’s Bush’s war, and as it splinters the structure of GOP power, the Democrats are waiting to pick up the pieces.
Feed.TheHungryHead.com
