Politico reports that President Obama, who has quietly waivered several major lobbyists into influential posts in his, for want of an even less appropriate word,"Administration," has signed an order that will ostensibly ban "lobbyists" from being involved in any discussions of the dispensation of stimulus monies.
Which leaves who, exactly, to discuss it? The Obama White House,with its built-in lobbyists? Our pay-for-play Democratic Congress? After all, they have such a documented track record of nonpartisan public service. We're already seeing calls from within the government for white contractors to be excluded from stimulus construction work, the so-called "shovel-ready" projects. Now, good luck seeing a stimulus buck in, for example, Republican Orange County, California; there's zip chance Feinstein, Pelosi, Boxer and Waxman will send a dollar south of LA. I would imagine anyplace in Texas outside of Austin is in the same fix, not to mention states with GOP governors.
This is, discreetly, the financial disenfranchisement of 48% of the American population. It doesn't even work on its own terms, since all a lobbyist has to do to get around it IS let his enrollment as a 'registered' lobbyist lapse. After all, not being registered never seemed to do George Soros any harm.
