The day before Thanksgiving, when most people were celebrating with their families, or traveling to go celebrate with their families, the Obama administration dumped its White House visitor logs - 1600 names of visitors to the White House.
Sharon Thiemer of AP went through the names and identified many of them as lobbyists for the health care industry. AP published her story the same day and it has been circulating since.
Top aides to President Barack Obama met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show.
This is seen as somewhat damaging to the White House since Obama ran on a theme of "overcoming special interests and lobbyists". And despite the holiday distraction, the AP piece has been circulated far and wide.
Huffington Post had their take on the story, White House Visitor Logs Show Obama Turned to Business Leaders, in their #1 slot for much of the day Wednesday.
So today we have a new White House lobbyist story, from the Huffington Post no less: "Obama Pushes Lobbyists Off of Federal Advisory Boards":
In a little-noticed blog post published on the White House website in September, President Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform Norm Eisen announced that the administration no longer wanted federally-registered lobbyists appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions.
The release of this story is obviously a PR countermeasure to offset the AP story of the last few days. But here in Orange Country, it's the only White House lobbyist story that matters.
A quick search of the other story, about how Obama's White House has been in close consultation for the last 9 months on health care reform was never mentioned here. As far as I can tell, not one diary was posted covering this fairly big story.
But the story of Obama's shunning of the lobbyists a few days later? Recommended List!!!
It is not surprising that the White House's courting of lobbyists throughout the health care reform process has been suppressed in Democratic circles. It is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to Obama's campaign message of taking on special interests.
OBAMA: The problem we have is that Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die. They go to die because the lobbyists...
(APPLAUSE)
They go to die because lobbyists and special interests have a strangle-hold on the agenda in Washington. They go to die in Washington because too many politicians are interested in scoring political points rather than bridging differences in order to get things done.
And so the central premise of this campaign is that we can bring this country together, that we can push against the special interests that have come to dominate the agenda in Washington, that we can be straight with the American people about how we're going to solve these problems and enlist them in taking back their government. - Democratic Debate: February 21, 2008 at the University of Texas in Austin
MmmmHmmm.
It was easy for many Republicans and even Democrats to support "president" Bush in his warmongering and criminal activities because they were so fucking ignorant about what was really happening in and to their country. They still are, many of them.
Likewise, and this is not to compare Obama to Bush (for God's sake), it is easier to ignore Obama's shortcoming when you cover you eyes and ears all the time.