Lobbyists pushed off advisory panels

[Crabtownboy]

Good for Obama! Lobbyists have had too much power and it needs to be trimmed.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington, according to White House officials and lobbying experts.

The new policy -- issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel -- may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to get jobs in his administration and to negotiate over stimulus contracts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112602362.html?hpid=topnews

 

[preachinjesus]

Lobbyists are standing in the way of progress for all parties concerned.

This needed to be done sooner. Honestly, the sad thing is that this is going to be a constant battle. Vigilance is essential.

If we had a body that could help with oversight over these things we could realistically reduce the federal regulators and regulatory agencies. That would be a great thing imho.

 

[carpro]

Rank hypocrisy from a president who kisses the feet of labor unions, trial lawyers, and the abortion lobby.

 

[targus]

Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen.

Will the vacancies now be filled by ACORN members?

 

[just-want-peace]

----of a little-noticed initiative----

If this is legit, why is it not being promoted loud and long???

Hate to be skeptical, (well, not really) but based on past performance, I'm leery of ANYTHING this admin does; no matter how "good" it appears!

I see this relative secrecy as a covert way to get some other arrangement in place that would probably not be too well received by the public -- if they knew!!

 

[Revmitchell]

If this is legit, why is it not being promoted loud and long???

Hate to be skeptical, (well, not really) but based on past performance, I'm leery of ANYTHING this admin does; no matter how "good" it appears!

I see this relative secrecy as a covert way to get some other arrangement in place that would probably not be too well received by the public -- if they knew!!

Tadaaaa!........

 

[Robert Snow]

If we could get rid of lobbyist it might be a good start, but I don't think that is the crux of the problem. The problem, as I see it, it the politicians themselves. Just because someone is offered a bribe or shown how they will benefit personally if they favor a particular piece of legislation, doesn't mean they should sell out.

I fear if we did not have lobbyist, then the politicians would go door to door looking for them.

What we need is a new kind of politician who is a statesman rather than a charlatan. In this day in America, I doubt we find very many of them.

 

[billwald]

Until the time comes that legislators are required to personally read the legislation they vote on, lobbyists perform a useful function. Many legislators have people in the private sector whom they trust about specific technical matters. Even if this person was (only) a fellow church member, he would be classified as a lobbyist unless he was on the legislator's staff.