The Ethics of Change

It's amazing to me how many of Obama's appointees have tax problems. Ok, let me rephrase that--amazing how many STILL have tax problems after they've been contacted about being one of his appointees and how they try to hide them, as if no one is going to find out.

Worse is Obama's teetering on his promise of not having lobbyists in his government. First he hires William Lynn for whom he had to explicitly grant a waiver from his brand new ethics policy. Then Daschle's ties to the health care industry became apparent. Obama could only know about the tax problems had Daschle mentioned them. However, taking tons of green from health care "stakeholders" does not make one an honest broker when setting health policy. The funny thing is that he didn't need the money, but was (willfully?) blind to the potential conflict of interest. With those kinds of ethical blinders makes you wonder if anyone with Washington experience should be asked to be in the cabinet.

So, Daschle (and others) lied to Obama about his taxes, Obama didn't think his paid speeches were a conflict of interest, one of his first appointees needed an ethics waiver . One more time, how is this going to clean up Washington? To his credit, Obama did sign an executive order about people working in his administration coming back and lobbying while was president. But this idea that only people who are living in the swamp can clean it up is ridiculous. He needs to look outside of DC to staff the government.