Posted on 02/03/2009 11:12:26 AM PST by COUNTrecount
During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.
The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not formally registered as lobbyists.
President Barack Obama said Monday that he was "absolutely" standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle, his nominee for health and human services secretary, and Daschle, who met late in the day with leading senators in an effort to keep his confirmation on track, said he had "no excuse" and wanted to "deeply apologize" for his failure to pay $128,000 in U.S. taxes.
But the episode has already shown how, when faced with the perennial clash between campaign rhetoric and Washington reality, Obama has proved willing to compromise.
Every four or eight years a new president arrives in town, declares his determination to cleanse a dirty process and invariably winds up trying to reconcile the clear ideals of electioneering with the muddy business of governing. Obama on his first day in office imposed perhaps the toughest ethics rules of any president in modern times, and since then he and his advisers have been trying to explain why they do not cover this case or that case.
"This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise,"
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Obama thinked, economy sinked.
Obama dozed, people frozed.
Obama smoked, wheezie choked.
Obama hoped, 1/2 brother doped.
Obama spins,nobody wins.
Obama’s promise of ethics reform fails early test.
There. Fixed it.
I heard Gibbs say that President Obama raised the bar on ethics, etc. Well, he’s right about that. Unfortunately, the “bar” that Obama chose to use is known as a “Limbo” stick and he placed it up as high as he could. The Limbo stick will only be lowered when Obama says so, so for now, the stick is high so anyone he wants to appoint can get under it without knocking it down.
Unethical people, like 0, always think they can sell us ethics reform, and get away with being unethical. The first problem for our Kenyan leader is finding ethical people in the Democratic Party. He would have had to start looking ten years ago in order to fill his cabinet before his term is up.
I’m willing to give any new president the benefit of the doubt. Whatever they’ve said or done before, let’s see how things happen when he’s actually president. Facing the realities, learning what only a president is allowed to know, can change the way people act. When Obama announced the new ethics rules I was happy, maybe he’ll actually walk the walk.
Then I saw the part about exceptions.
As soon as that happened I gave a 90% chance the exception clause would be invoked within a week, 100% within a month. I was right, and even more times than I thought I would be.
So many failures.
0’s favorite phrases:
Starting now....
Starting today...
Starting immediately...
Beginning now...
Beginning today...
Beginning immediately...
I can think of one realistic Democratic name that’s at least of average ethics for a politician, Zell Miller. But he’s pissed them off by virtue of having a brain.
The other is Kucinich. He is very ethical, but he is too far left, and far too whacked, for even the Democrats.
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