Obama transition team will face ethics rules (click here)
By Mike Dorning Washington Bureau
November 12, 2008
WASHINGTON—After Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to fight lobbyist influence in Washington, aides announced Tuesday that his transition team will include Washington lobbyists but ban them from working on policy areas on which they have lobbied for the past year.
The ethics rules for the transition offer the first public test of how Obama as president will balance the populist goal of curtailing a Washington influence industry that helps well-heeled special interests against the practical need to staff a White House with experienced Washington hands. Experienced players in the capital often are drawn to the rich rewards of lobbying.
The oft-criticized "revolving door" between government service and lobbying has proved a durable feature of the capital's culture....
