Because What Could Possibly Go Wrong With Having a Goldman Sachs Toady High up at the Treasury Department?

Seriously, is any company more consistently well-represented in leadership positions of a Cabinet-level department than GS is at TD?

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration, a recent lobbyist for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is in line to serve as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. […]

Patterson is one of over a dozen recent lobbyists in line for important posts in the Obama administration, despite a presidential order severely restricting the role of lobbyists in his administration, the [National Journal] reported.

Tim Cavanaugh on GS alum Henry Paulson here.

Comments

[Nigel Watt]

A politician being inconsistent? Somebody divided by zero.

[I-Voted-For-Change]

You mean Obama is a politician?!?

*head explodes*

[Other Matt]

That is, after all, the Chicago way.

[Nick]

I thought he meant they wouldn't really entertain the pressures and influence of lobbyists. I didn't really take that to mean they wouldn't hire them away from their lobbying firms to work for the government. Once you are working for the government you cease to be a lobbyist, as I understand it...assuming you are not still receiving a paycheck or benefits from the lobbying firm.

You can keep your ideals when you change jobs, right?

[DJF]

Goldman Sachs gave at least a million dollars to the Obama Campaign so why is it surprising that Obama has a affirmative action hiring plan for Goldman Sachs crime syndicate members

[SIV]

Hank Paulson is still going to be "in the loop" at the Ministry of Plenty.Geithner, as president of the NY Fed, was a defacto Treasury employee in the Bush administration.

[Nancy Pelosi]

You people just don't understand how government works.
As a mother and a grandmother, you're stupid poopy-pants.

[R C Dean]

Somewhere in the H&R archives is a dissection of the Parsin' President's "no lobbyists" campaign folderol.

More PR eyewash, which seems to be all it takes for the Obamabots to get their panties damp.

But, the markets up, so I'm in a good mood. Unloaded some sweet covered calls today.

[Other Matt]

You can keep your ideals when you change jobs, right?

Yes. I believe that is the very nature of the objection to begin with. If your ideals are to get Goldman Sachs as much money as possible, and you keep your ideals moving into a govt job that has control over it, it presents a problem.

Then again, this is Obama, so we're not supposed to actually pay attention to what he said, just how he said it so we can all feel good. My copy of the Pocket Obama is on the way.

[Silentz]

From the EO itself. All incoming lobbyist types must sign this.

""2. Revolving Door Ban All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts."

But of course you can get a waiver for that. That's two so far. Should we start a pool to see how many of these waivers O's gonna sign?

[J sub D]

This last weekend I posted this.

Not long at all.

Will you bring back the weekend political thread? Pretty please? With a cherry on top?

[Silentz]

Oops. Wrong item. This is the more relative one:

"3. Revolving Door Ban Lobbyists Entering Government. If I was a registered lobbyist within the 2 years before the date of my appointment, in addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraph 2, I will not for a period of 2 years after the date of my appointment:

(a) participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment;

(b) participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls; or

(c) seek or accept employment with any executive agency that I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment."

[R C Dean]

Gaping loopholes, which I'm sure our Parsin' President was well aware of:

(1) It applies only to registered lobbyists, meaning the guys who hired them to lobby are completely free of these restrictions.

(2) "any particular matter" and "specific issue area" are both pretty frickin' narrow. If I lobbied for, say, an amendment to the SEC rules on fraudulent misrepresentation, I am perfectly free to sit on the SEC committee writing rules for derivatives.

(3) "any executive agency" is also pretty narrow. If I lobbied the hell out of Congress on bailing out FNMA to save my bank, there is no bar at all on me working for the FDIC.

And that's before you get to the waivers.

If he was serious about all this, he would have just said "no registered lobbyists" full stop.

[jd]

Take it away Moe Tkacik!

[xray]

I think you all are right...O' wakes up every morning and just tries to p*ss you off and find ways to circumvent reality...

Is it possible that any of you can put forth any of your energy for a positive cause? you've got the bitch lobby covered pretty well so far, can you do anything else?

[Paul]

If he was serious about all this, he would have just said "no registered lobbyists" full stop.

RC Dean,

Politics doesn't run on full stops. It runs on semicolons, subscripts, superscripts, hypens, asides, postscripts, BTW's, a few ZOMG's, and at the end, a very big LOL.

[lukas]

xray: No. Go read the New York Times.