Obama puts leash on lobbyists for transition

Difficult yes. Impossible? No. Their days are indeed numbered. Mark my words. Lobbyists are about to witness some "change" the likes of which have never been seen before in this country. The old ways of doing things inside the beltway are coming to and end.

"...analysts have said that despite Obama's protestations, it would be difficult to dramatically lessen their influence in Washington".

He is trying to redistribute the lobbying too?

Does this mean that Joe Biden's son, a Washington lobbyist, cannot be included in the transition?

I didn't vote for him but, I think it's great! Lobbiest are like the unions their ruining our country!

"Under the rules, federally registered lobbyists cannot contribute to the transition, are banned from any lobbying while working for the transition, and are prohibited from working in the fields in which they lobbied if they have done so in the past year. If a transition staffer becomes a lobbyist after the inauguration, they are banned from lobbying the administration for one year."

@3, read the rule. It is pretty clear.

Looks like Bush should extend unemployment benefits as the usual suspects of the last eight years won't have any work.

Expose obama:

Get your facts straight. Biden's son quit lobbying when his favor accepted the VP role.

Yipee!!

It's one (highly commendable) thing for Obama to limit lobbyists within his administration, but quite another to tie their slimy hands once inside the cloak rooms of Congress. Unfortunately, these parasites are here to stay because, after all, nothing speaks louder than piles of green, dead presidents. I see little hope for the future of genuine democracy as long as they are permitted to pedal their agendas and spread the real wealth around.

Unions aren't ruining america, it's bad and greedy management. Unionized labor made this country strong. Corruption in big business and treating their workers like dirt with low wages/scarce benefits is what has brought on the downfall. Big business isn't hurting, not with their multiple homes/cars/vacations/retreats and multi-million dollar bonuses they give themselves. Give me a break. Who's side are you on?

Melanie Mills: The unions had their days back when there was no OSHA, no govt oversight, no regulation. The union leaders benefit the most -- not the workers they pretend to protect. Why are GM, Ford, Chrysler all on the brink of collapse? Because, in spite of wringing literally tens of billions of dollars out of their operations in the last 5 years, the one expense line they can't control -- labor cost - is killing them: compared to foreign automakers that have plants in the United States, they (Big 3) pay over $24 more per hour ($7 in wages, $5 in health benefits and $12 for retirement).. THERE'S the problem.

Smoke & Mirrors. After Jan 20, it will be business as usual. Anyone notice the 2nd largest contributors to Barry's campaign? You guessed it! Lawyers. Same old same old. Hope doesn't pay the bills or put food on the table.

Another broken promise by Obama. He said no lobbyists, PERIOD, but in his world that means some lobbyists under certain conditions.

No matter, Obama knows who got him elected and he has already announced his intention to pay them back: unions, big auto for starters.

I don't believe a word Obama says. He also said that most of the contributions to his campaign were from individual donors. After looking at the chart the Globe posted the other day it showed that he recieved the least from individual donors and the majority from major corporations. He lied about his past associations and his political connections. Lie after lie whenever it's convenient for him.

Change we can believe in...............?? I almost dare not believe in case it jinxes things.

In reply to Melanie Mills, it depends on what unions you are talking about.
Unions in the private sector are very useful and necessary or we would be back in the sweatshop days (mostly because of competition in the market place) but when you are talking about teachers unions or municipal unions or police or fireman"s unions that's another matter entirely, again mostly because of the LACK of competion in the market place (if teachers go on strike do you go to another school?)

Now let me get this straight. An ex-lobbyist who helped the Obama Campaign, but did not get paid for the past 12 months, can be hired by Obama to work in the White House in the same field he used to lobby for? "Change We Can Believe In."

Lobbies in and of themselves are not evil. Often they are the only ones who know what is going on specfic to the group they lobby for, and make congress aware of this, as well as help congress craft the language of any bill in their favor. The problem is, they have in many instances become overweening, and can sway craven and corruptable members, to the overall detrement of the nation, i.e. the health care insurance industry for one.

More backtracking. Obama is a slow learner and a poor speaker. No form, no substance. Good for nothing.

Jake, the problem isn't the unions, it's the idiot upper management, who REFUSE to produce the kind of cars Americans are buying. Instead of producing fuel efficient vehicles, they just produce bigger and bigger monstrosities that only the car company CEOs want. Americans are mostly buying imports, because they foreign auto companies at least have enough brains to produce the kinds of cars people are actually buying.

mk:

You must have been watching Disney while Obama was running for President.

A "slow learner" and a "poor speaker."

Perhaps you need new hearing aids.

Great!!! Very conforting to learn that President-elect Barack Obama's promises and guidelines will automatically change human nature even before he is sworn into office!!! How wrong I have been believing that human nature remains the same, or even worsen, since the Garden of Eden.

Campaign promise number one.......broken

Sorry Thomas but your wrong. And your lost in the seventies. How's your Toyota?

Lets face facts folks, Obama is a politician.

It's not Labor costs, it's Health Care costs that are killing Detroit. Jobs are moving overseas because other countries take care of their citizens' health and don't pawn the job off on corporations.

Detroit cannot move fast enough because they don't have the cash to spend on R&D and they cannot borrow it. Other manufacturers did not put all their eggs in the SUV basket. They kept a diversified and flexible product line, and now they are in a position to take advantage of a shifting market.

This situation is a massive failure on the part of both Washington and Detroit. We need to keep the auto industry alive, it is not going to come back if we let it fail.

I am for teachers' unions and their lobbyists. Teachers help _your children_, and most teachers I know spend parts of their own salaries on helping students (for example by buying them supplies or lunch or even clothes) or on enriching the classroom.
Many years ago in another state, my courageous mom stood on a teacher's union picket line. The union forced the state to set aside and invest enough money to match the retirement obligations being incurred. As a direct result, my mom now has health insurance and a teacher retirement pension of about $1100/month, keyed to inflation, and taxable as regular income.
I support teachers unions. I'd rather give my taxes to teachers than to war, derivates traders, and CEO bonuses.

@4 Hmmm....

I'm going to let the misspelling slide....
Lobbiest are like the unions their ruining our country!

If it wasn't for those unions, we would not have a 40 hour work week, workplace safety, benefits, and a whole truckload of things you expect and take for granted as a worker.
The unions were the only people willing to lay their lives on the line for a better Piece of the pie for EVERYONE!

Viva la IWW!!

The problem with the auto industry in this country seem to be angry workers who sabotage the production lines.We have a 99 aurora made by Oldsmobile,they put alot of work into this model,and it's a nice car The bolts that hold the frame to the chassis were never torqued down so now they're rusty and can't be tightened.I think a non union line produces a much better product. Bad workmanship is not tolerated.

Why do they have to raise more contributions to pay for the transition? From what i read last week, Obama still had close to $100 million left over in his campaign fund.

Thomas Mc,

absolutely correct. I am old enough to remember the oil shocks of the 70s well. President Caretr had it right in the late 70s, (see his SOTU address 1978) , but at the time, no one in the USA wanted to take a close look at what had gone wrong over the past decade... so we voted for RR, who essentially said "Spend and consume, it's what we do best, and forget anything else...." The auto industry welcomed his union busting, and we slowly became a third-world country. That is essentially where Obama has to begin with his presidency...That is what makes his job so difficult. Not the nitty gritty, but getting Americans to start thinking ahead a little and rejecting this instant gratification philosophy to which the GOP and to an extent the Dems under Clinton, have pandered.

#20, Jake is right. The unions are killing the American auto companies. They have been at the heart of the problem for 20+ years. The only way out is to let those companies fail, and the unions die with them. New and competitive auto companies will be formed to take their place. The top management of these companies do not produce small cars because those cars produce small profit margins for foreign companies, and stuck with high labor costs, GM etc will not make any profit from producing small cars, or green cars. The only way for them to make a profit is to produce big cars that the foreign companies are not making. Essentially, they created a niche market and avoided foreign competition. This strategy has worked until gas prices hit the roof and Americans don't want big cars any more. Now that gas prices have come down, they hope to continue with business as usual, with the help of a government loan. Guess what, Obama and Nancy Pelosi are with them. So the campaign slogan for CHANGE is only a slogan. It's going to be business as usual. Obama will tell you that the money will be given to GM to produce green cars, but actually GM knows that green cars are not profitable for them, so they'll create a program for more R&D on green cars, but these cars will never go to market. However, if that same money were given to a new car venture, they will be able to produce and sell green cars at a profit. So we must let GM die. And for those who say that we must not cut jobs during a recession, I'll say we don't cut job during good times because there is no need to. The recession is the best time to cut jobs, and if we don't take advantage of this opportunity, we won't be able to maintain our competitiveness against the rest of the world.
Finally, I think the CHANGE that Obama brings will be back to business that way Democrats wanted it a decade ago. It's not something that I would look forward to.
And to the editor of this blog, you are such an idiot. Your blog reports petty news that nobody cares about. The GM bailout request is big political news - huge lobbying going on and Pelosi and Obama are twisting arms to help GM get their way. Readers have to discuss this big topic under a different news headline. You should be fired.

They

Lets see if you can not lobby while part of the Obama Administration does that mean you are still a lobbiest? I think not, promise one, kept

A lie means when a person knowingly make a false statement at the time of the statement is made. Looking back... I mean now look back two days after his executive order as new president, Does that mean president Obama lied?

Second thought, I am sure Lynn is well qualified individual and has strong knowledge of our defense system. According to President Obama's executive order, he can not work on the matters he is good at, or familiar with in last two years. Obama should make Lynn Sec of Agriculture. make a lot of sense to me.