Saturday, January 24, 2009

Campbell Brown commentary: Obama breaks his own rule

President Obama wants to appoint William Lynn (a former lobbyist for Raytheon) as deputy defense secretary.

According to Wikipedia; Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in defense systems and defense and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007. Raytheon is the world's largest producer of guided missiles.

This is exactly 48 hours after President Obama proclaimed "The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. 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. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president."

Maybe William Lynn was a Raytheon lobbyist but has stopped being their lobbyist around 2 years + 1 day so that executive order does not apply? (me snickering in the background)

Maybe President Obama should discuss this with his White House Counsel if this is a good idea or not.

Oh wait; this is the same White House Counsel who convinced President Obama to retake the oath to prevent some "constitutionalist" to file suit because President Obama inadvertently re-arranged some words from the actual oath taking ceremony......but which the US Constitution considers anyone who was President-elect to be President automatically at January 20 at 12 noon even without formal swearing in ceremony for "continuity in government"

Ok....enough with the sighing.

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