Dirty Fusion - Not Clean Break

Here's an extract from Wallace's interview today, 2/3/2009, with Obama:


"WALLACE: On your first day in office, you signed an executive order on lobbyists...

OBAMA: Right.

WALLACE: ... that you said marked a, quote, "clean break" with business as usual. And yet, in less than two weeks, you have signed waivers to allow the hiring of lobbyists to be deputy secretary at the Pentagon, deputy secretary at HHS, and chief of staff at the treasury.

Is that a clean break?

OBAMA: Well, that's three out of hundreds of appointments that we've made.

WALLACE: Three of the top jobs. Three really important jobs.

OBAMA: But let me say this, Chris. We disclosed these ahead of time. We set a very high bar. And everybody acknowledges that we have the toughest standards, not only of people who have lobbied previously, and the restrictions on them working in this White House, but also going forward.

And those rules will still apply, even for Mr. Lynn, who had some unique qualifications that I felt was important to America's national security. Even he is going to have to not be engaged in lobbying for two years -- or for the duration of my administration.

And so, look, is every approach that we're taking here going to be perfect? No.
Have we set a very high bar, higher than any president who's ever been in this office?

And are we generally meeting that very high standard? I think the answer is absolutely yes."


I think the answer is absolutely not! It's not a clean break. It's a dirty fusion!