Cagel Post: It Pays to Be a F.O.B. – Friend of Barack

President Obama was swept in to office on promises of hope, change, and a new way of doing business in Washington. That new way of doing business is proving to be anything but. Rather than following through on pledges of reform and transparency the Obama Administration is going to great lengths to reward special interests, ingratiate itself to union bosses, all while evading the transparency that Obama had deemed so essential. The presidency is at its core a commitment to the American people – it is a promise to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, to do what is best for the nation, not what is best for one’s political supporters. This is a promise that the Obama Administration has tragically broken.

Want to Talk in Private? A Coffee Shop is Far More Discreet than the White House

The Obama administration boasts of its “unprecedented” transparency achieved by placing select records of White House visitor logs on its website. The visitor logs allegedly allow you to see who has got the ear of the President and his staff. You can view how often labor union bosses, lobbyists, and special interest group representatives stop by the White House to influence policy.

It sounds like a nice way to hold the administration accountable – until you learn how they circumvent this transparency measure. First, only visitors to the West Wing are logged. In other words, if you don’t meet with a lobbyist in a certain office, you won’t be on the official record. So where do Obama’s advisors choose to meet with lobbyists? There are many offices in the White House complex that are not logged and made publically available – one commonly used “off the grid” space is the White House Conference Center.

Read the full op-ed here