Not Disheartened. Still Disappointed.

Commentor Invisible Man gently chided me for my previous post expressing my disappointment over the nomination of lobbyist Bill Lynn to the Pentagon. Alright, I'll calm down... just a little. I would have to say that I'm not seriously disheartened yet with Obama for doing this. I still have faith that his recent executive orders represent meaningful change. But, the degree of that change now has to come under some question. It is disappointing that a big show is made of enacting ethics and transparency rules and then just two days later those rules are waived. And not waived for someone in a small position, not waived for someone who really just has minor ties with lobbyists, but waived for someone about to enter a top position in the administration and who is intimately connected to a major defense contractor. From the Huffington Post:

[Raytheon] and its subsidiaries are a major force on Capitol Hill, having spent more than $14.5 million on federal lobbying activities during the six years Lynn was working there, according to a review of lobbying records. Raytheon worked to lobby the House, Senate, DARPA, Defense Department, Energy Department, Treasury Department, State Department, and others on issues ranging from long-range guided munitions, sea based missile defense and joint standoff weapon systems.

The government outreach efforts seemed to pay dividends. Raytheon Company received more than $54 billion in contracts from the federal government during that time period, according to fedspending.org, a project of OMB Watch. This doesn't include the potentially billions more that the company was awarded as a subcontractor or part of a group contract.

Isn't this exactly the kind of person that the rule was meant to cover? So far, I haven't read of any adequate explanation from the White House other than that Lynn is "uniquely qualified."

Only Two Days And He's Already Disappointing?

This is truly surprising, stupid, and deeply disheartening. There is no way that Bill Lynn, former lobbyist for huge defense corporation Raytheon, is the only person that is qualified to be Deputy Secretary of Defense.