What is at issue here is Lynn's connection to the defense giant Raytheon as a lobbyist. Just days earlier Obama had said this about former political lobbyists acquiring jobs in his administration:
"The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president."
Mr. Obama has talked about making his administration transparent. Well, it is easy to see that hypocrisy is not something he is afraid of being accused of with such a blatant example so early on in his administration.
This type of behavior does not surprise those who pay attention to politics on a regular basis. Presidents do similiar stuff all the time. What this will do, however, is provide fodder for his political opponents to use down the line when he is not riding the wave of popularity that he currently is surfing. As the days tick by, President Obama will find it necessary to do certain things that will contradict what he said on the stump. Some will be significant, some not so much. But as these decisions accumulate, political rivals will collect them in a dossier to use later against Mr. Obama or the Democratic Party.
When or how the Republicans(or even rival democrats) will attack President Obama on these inconsistencies only they know.But I think it is a near certainty that it will be at least 3 months before we start to see more strenuous Republican criticism of the Obama Administration. Mr. Obama is too popular and the Bush Administration still too fresh in peoples' minds, for any attack to stick right now.
But they are coming--sooner rather than later if the Republicans can help it.
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