Lobbyists in the Obama Administration
Campaigning in 2007, Barack Obama declared that “when I am president, [lobbyists] won’t find a job in my White House. Easier said than done. National Journal Magazine checked the names of 267 Obama senior appointees and nominees against the list of registered lobbyists kept by the Senate Office of Public Records. Thirty individuals—11%—were registered to lobby within the last five years. Among the more high-profile lobbyists are Attorney General Eric Holder (key client: Global Crossing), Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (National Education Association) and Defense Deputy Secretary William Lynn (Raytheon). The National Journal list doesn’t even include Ron Kirk, President Obama’s United States Trade Representative, who, in 2007, collected $745,765 from Energy Future Holdings. Also avoiding the list are other Obama appointees who technically were not lobbyists, even though they performed functions similar to lobbyists. For example, CIA chief Leon Panetta earned more than $1 million in 2008 as a “corporate consultant” and guest speaker for public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard.
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