I agree that its a bad idea. On the bright side, the guy won't be going back to defense lobbying for awhile due to the rules that Obama put in place.
I have mixed emotions on the political appointments process. You want to have people with experience and knowledge in those posts. If they have gained most of their experience in the corporate world you run the risk of conflict of interest issues due to money and influence. If they are mostly academics you run the risk of having them lack real-world experience. In the end I think that the best we can do is insist on a strong system of transparency and investigation and make sure that political appointees know they are being watched and held within a strict system of conflict of interest rules. Still would have preferred a less corporate connected pick though. Blech. Judah On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:12 PM, Bruce Sorge <[email protected]> wrote: > > And let's not forget the lobbyist who Obama chose to be the Deputy SecDef. > http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/08/defense.appointments/index.html?iref=newssearch > > Hmmm, I seem to recall that Mr. Obama said during his campaign that he > wanted to lessen lobbyist influence in government. So why is a senior > vice president and a lobbyist of one of the largest defense contractors > in the US being nominated for this position? > > > Robert Munn wrote: >> Tim Geithner, our new Treasury Secretary, already admitted to having cheated >> you and me out of $34,000 in taxes, half of which he only paid when he was >> nominated for the cabinet post. >> >> Now it turns out that Tom Daschle, the nominee for HHS Secretary, paid $140K >> in back taxes after being nominated himself: >> >> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123335984751235247.html >> >> So let me get this straight- a bunch of crooks got us into this mess, and we >> are trusting a bunch of crooks to get us out of it? >> >> I am not buying. >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:287127 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
