Monday, December 8, 2008

Throughout his presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to “free the executive branch from special interest influence” and pledged that none of his appointees would be “permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” Obama’s own ethics rules, moreover, bar lobbyists from working on his transition team in areas in which they have exerted any influence during the previous year. But at least one nominee has managed to evade the president-elect’s promised scrutiny of lobbyists: Tom Daschle, Obama’s current health care policy adviser and his nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

A former Democratic Senator from South Dakota, Daschle was one of Obama’s first high-profile supporters, having joined his campaign back in February 2007 (bringing along his carefully cultivated mailing list of 85,000 donors). But in rewarding Daschle for his support, Obama has run afoul of the very conflict-of-interest rules whose enforcement he championed on the campaign trail.  Full Piece