Obama’s Coffee House Loophole
The Obama vampires strike again. My latest column focuses on the White House evasion of public disclosure rules through off-site lobbyist meetings at D.C. coffee houses. But first, here are some handy Team Obama transparency-sabotaging reminders for you drawing on Culture of Corruption and the mountain of previous blog posts here that have documented Team Obama’s allergic reaction to sunlight from Day One. Allow me again to say: See, I told you so):
• President Obama broke his transparency pledge with the very first bill he signed into law. On January 29, 2009, the White House announced that the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been posted online for review. One problem: Obama had already signed it—in violation of his “sunlight before signing” pledge to post legislation for public comment on the White House website five days before he sealed any deal. “[W]hen there is a bill that ends up on my desk as a president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it, so that you know what your government’s doing,” he had vowed. Obama broke the pledge again with the mad rush to pass his trillion-dollar, pork-stuffed stimulus package full of earmarks he denied existed. View his lousy track record here.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for years fought disclosure of massive donations from foreign governments and corporations who filled her husband’s library and foundation coffers.
• Top Obama advisor David Axelrod ran fear-mongering astro-turf campaigns in support of a huge utility rate hike – and failed to disclose that the ads were funded for Commonwealth Edison in Chicago.
• Labor Secretary Hilda Solis failed to disclose that she was director and treasurer of a union-promoting lobbying group pushing legislation that she was co-sponsoring.
• Attorney General Eric “The Silent” Holder overruled his own lawyers in the Justice Department over the issue of D.C. voting rights (which he and President Obama support) and refused to make public the staffers’ opinion that a House bill on the matter was unconstitutional. He’s gone on to stonewall on White House job-trading scandals, stonewall on national security questions, and stonewall on the politicized decision to drop a DOJ case against the New Black Panther Party thugs — all while touting a new “Open Plan for Government,” from which he has conveniently exempted himself.
•Obama’s nominee for the No. 2 official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, former King County, Wash. Executive Ron Sims, has the distinction of being the most fined government official in his state’s history for suppressing public records from taxpayers.
•Eco-czar Carol Browner warned auto industry execs to “put nothing in writing…ever.” Who knows how many coffee klatches with energy companies she has had — and who knows how many of them may have ties to her energy lobbyist husband and ethics scandal-tainted Beltway operator Tom Downey.
It’s all been downhill from there, of course. From Cash for Clunkers to the special interest-exempting health care law to the financial bailouts and everything in between, this administration has labored to keep the public in the dark. Good to see even the NYTimes beginning to see the light.
***
Obama’s Coffee House Loophole
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
President Obama is finally uniting the left and the right — in joint opposition to his administration’s chronic sabotage of transparency and public disclosure rules. It won’t be long before liberals disillusioned by Dear Leader’s reveal-as-we-say-not-as-we-conceal policies link arms with me and join in on my 2-year-old chant: Obama lied, transparency died.
Watchdog groups and Republicans on Capitol Hill want an investigation into hundreds of White House meetings with corporate lobbyists at D.C. coffee houses. K Street influence peddlers told The New York Times last week that they’ve met routinely with Team Obama officials over the past 18 months to discuss policy matters — at Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, even on a side lawn — with the express purpose of circumventing the public’s right to know.
Graphic via Libertymanics/Zazzle
The Coffee House Ruse comes on top of the latest confession of White House non-disclosure from ex-Big Labor heavy Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s chief domestic policy adviser, who failed to report a $40,000 pension payment from his old employer, the Service Employees International Union in New York. If they keep this up, sunlight-avoiding Obama officials will soon be cast as the next “Twilight” vampires.
“Lobbyists say some White House officials will agree to an initial meeting with a lobbyist and his client at the White House,” the Times’ once-zealous champions of Obama reported, “but then plan follow-up sessions at a site not subject to the visitors’ log.” Said one financial lobbyist who has met more than a half-dozen times off-campus with White House officials: “I’ll call and say, ‘I want to talk to you about X,’ and they’ll say, ‘Sure, let’s talk at Starbucks.’”
You see: When Obama promised to “change the way Washington works,” what he really meant was changing where the usual Beltway backroom wheelers and dealers do their business. And when he talked about changing the “culture” in the nation’s capitol, what he really meant was just changing titles.
In addition to carving out the Coffee House loophole and using personal e-mail accounts to communicate with the influence industry, White House officials have been advising lobbyists looking for administration jobs to de-register — shedding their K Street status — to get around Obama’s vaunted lobbyist hiring ban. With more than 40 ex-lobbyists working in the administration, Obama’s no-lobbyists executive order already has more holes in it than a moth-eaten crocheted sweater.
The self-puffery of the double-talker-in-chief on disclosure ethics is inversely proportional to the amount of real transparency he has delivered. In January, irked by criticism of private health care meetings with Big Labor cronies at the Oval Office, Obama lectured Americans that “it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency we’ve executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” His legal counsel trumpeted the release of more than 25,000 White House visitor logs (many incomplete, vague and useless) as “a milestone in the president’s commitment to change Washington. The president believes that this and our many other transparency initiatives promote accountability and keep American democracy vital.” While Obama’s cabinet engaged in the same old precedented meetings with lobbyists, his propagandists patted themselves on the back for providing unprecedented access to ordinary Americans:
“We are excited about the visitor records policy not only because we are breaking new ground for this administration but also because we are establishing a new standard for all future administrations. We know of no comparable initiative in the history of the White House.”
Puff, puff, puff. The Obama administration’s incomparable hype and hypocrisy have at last proved too much for good-government liberals. Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate and hold hearings on the Coffee House loophole. CREW head Melanie Sloan lambasted the Democratic White House: “This is what all the administration’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric gets you — less transparency. Rather than being open and clear about who is influencing White House policy, the White House is trying to hide who it’s really talking to. Even worse, the public is being suckered with lofty rhetoric about the evils of the same lobbyists White House officials are meeting with.”
Now that citizen activists are staking out D.C. caffeine hot spots, the White House/special-interest trysts may soon be headed to Washington street corner hot dog stands and taquerias. Keep your eyes and ears open. The next cap-and-tax exemption or stimulus slush fund may be hammered out in a public restroom stall or on a Metro subway seat next to you.
On the upside, coffee-gate is rousing slow-learning Americans from their Obama-as-Messiah stupor. The best part of waking up is reality in your cup.
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…with ret. Sen.Larry Craig in attendance, of course.
Nice play on the ad slogan. You earned your #6 (or higher) rating with this column.
In addition to the coffee houses, don’t forget about the mystery trip to the kids’ school, for a soccer game that didn’t take place; and there was another mystery trip to a resort (?in the Carolinas?). We could probably make a much longer list…
Street corner hustlers like to do their agitating on the street corner. What’s wrong with that? The gangsters don’t have to sign in.
More lies. “He lies” — never a truer statement from my congressman, Joe Wilson (SC-2).
Excellent column. The take away for me is the relatively good news that some of the duped democrats are finally waking up.
I guess those meetings at the coffee shops amount to about Fifty Thousand dollars per cup of coffee once you factor in the disruption to the community because of the increased security involved and all of the salaries of everyone planning and/or attending. My, My, what a waste of carbon credits driving all those Suburbans back and forth.
When Obama speaks, it is in his common language of lies. Anything he says has to be suspect. And when he accuses conservatives of something, you can bet he’s talking about his party’s actions instead. He loves the game of projection.
Actually, I’m glad my coffee house of choice is getting a free plug; perfer them much more over Starbucks.
Excellent sunshine on this subject, Michelle.
Our Dear Leader’s administration is like an onion…each day another moldy layer is revealed.
Poor Governor Blago–if only he had known of the Coffee House Exemption. I suppose it is too late to warn the lad. But the sap deserves what he gets-trying to steal mere thousands while his play mates go for millions, maybe billions.
===
Let your sidearm be like Master Card:
Don’t Leave home without it.
Who said that?
The Audacity of Hypocrisy.
I call it ‘Fugu FUBAR’
zero and all his lackey’s have many things in common, lying, cheating, cowardice, US hating, hypocrisy, unethical behavior and septic tank dwelling.
We are in the hands of the enemy.
I like my coffee like I like my women, hot and opacque!
opacque = opaque (slap!)
Queen Pelosi had better ramp up the Dem defense fund raising efforts but quick. It should be easy to find enough evidence to put a large number of major players on ice – should investigations actually take place. This is where courage and leadership come in…
Michelle is right. The “good government” Liberals are finally wising up to the fact that they have been played by some very bad, very ambitious people who do not have the best interests of America in mind. The silver lining in all this horror is that the masks have come off and the identities of the deep cover enemy is revealed.
are revealed…
Very nice! A little sunlight is good for the soul.
The trouble with shining a light on these cockroaches is that they run back into the shadows. They don’t die and go away. We need someone like Billy the Exterminator (www.aetv.com/billy-the-exterminator/index.jsp) to come in and clean house.
[Sorry, semi-blocked at work - so can't link effectively!]
I too like my coffee like I like my women, creamy and sweet with a hint of nuttiness!
I promise, no more. That was too much.
Michelle, I think this goes beyond just meeting with lobbyists.
Glenn Beck has it right. This administration is Crime, Inc. They have placed people in positions of authority who don’t have the capacity to be honest civil servants.
Previously secret meetings are no longer necessary for these people. Enboldened by the knowledge the (IN)Justice Secretary will turn a blind eye to their activities, they can hide in plain sight. Holder’s got their backs.
Of course, the administration will deny any wrong doing. I will remind you about determining the truth when dealing with liberals: The opposite of what they say is the truth.
If what they do and say is legal and above board, why do they have to lie, parse words, and re-define meanings of words, when questioned about it? Ockham’s Razor….
For TEH WON and his ilk, all the above is perfectly acceptable to achieve their goals for themselves, this nation and the world.
People wake up we’re in ALOT of TROUBLE! Even the repubs taking back power won’t change what he is doing….
There is no way to change this until we seize at least one house of Congress.
That is the Schwerpunkt.
There it is.
This is a communist cabal in the Russian mafia mold. Totalitarianism with a dose of old-fashioned graft and corruption. We’ll get ‘em though… They are careless and will leave a nice trail to follow.
OT but not quite, the house has released the defense budget bill which contains the 30b dollars of surge appropriations, but also 40b dollars of PORK for favored contributors and lobbying groups like 10b for teachers to keep them employed this next school year. GIVING TO DEMOCRATS PAYS!
I think Barry likes his coffee like he likes his women, black and bitter.
HAHAHAHAHA. Perfect. But from what I hear, I’m not sure she’s his cup of tea.
Especially if repubs like Grahmnesty, McLame and such are re-elected. I’ve been watching Jeff Sessions at the Kagan hearings. He asks great questions but in the end it won’t matter. We the People are going to have to put a stop to this nonsense and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty. I hope we survive.
Just an aside here…can anyone guess which countries have offered help that has been refused?? My guess…Great Britain and Israel. Any other guesses? We’ll see. Obama’s obvious hatred of these countries might become even more obvious here.
Depends on who you mean by “we”. If you mean THIS Republican party, we need to start talking 3rd party right now. THIS Republican party is just laying low until November when they expect to get back into power and we remember what THIS Republican party did to us the last time.
Our top priority is to vote out McCain on August 24. We then have to ride the consternation and panic that will cause among the establishment to clear the decks.
If after the November elections we don’t have a new GOP, our only hope will be 3rd party. The problem with voting “the lesser of two evils” is that both choices get worse and worse every election.
Well, they will get the opportunity now won’t they, if they seize one house.
My advice to them is “Don’t blow it.” If they do, a third party is what they will get.
Unfortunately McCain is going to win on August 24. After the revelations about the Hayworth infomercial, McCain leads Hayworth 53-29.
You keep looking at the Senate. You’re correct to look there. The Gang of Wimps are the Senate Republicans.
You may see a huge surprise in Iowa. The much disliked Democrat Governor will possibly get re-elected, because none of the conservatives in Iowa are going to vote for the hand picked, party funded, former four time former governor GOP candidate.
There is no real difference between the two and conservatives are not willing to hold their nose and vote GOP again, when the net affect is the same.
“B-bb-bbbuuut Bush did it, too!”
…in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Was ist das?
So explain to me again why America should surrender CA to Mexico and not AZ? You guys have the same exact problem that we have. Just like in CA, it doesn’t matter what the voter wants, the establishment will force themselves onto you.
So stop fighting us CA conservatives. We are fighting battles that we could be winning were it not for the RNC and out of state interests. Sarah Palin utterly torpedoed November for us CA conservatives by endorsing the witless Fiorina.
Obama speak with forked-tongue …
For some in this country, it’s going to take more than a cup of reality to wake them up. There is still about 45% of the country that think this corrupt SOB is doing a good job.
I do think it is going to get ugly sooner than later, as TEH WON continues to meet stronger resistance to the glorious changes he has in mind for the USA.
But Phil, Carly is so hot! And rich!
Yeah I hear you. It’s going to take a big clean up effort to straighten out that mess. I’m betting they secede from the Union and ask to join Red China. Think about it. At least you would get a guaranteed bowl of rice and a small anchovie every day. And what about the straw hat and mud hut – complete with solar panel? Huh? What about that? I suggest you give up on any conservative revolt there. They will squash you like a bug. Join the resistance in Pumpkintown, SC. If not there, I’ll see you in Vidalia, GA. I like their onions.
It’s a daily puke fest in our once great country with the Obamao Regime in control.
That’s being too kind. It’s actually a by-the-minute never ending puke fest…with more Obamao magic to come.
TEH WON is just getting warmed up.
Just another chapter out of the “Gaming the System Chicago playbook”. Honesty, values, morality and integrity are replaced with lying, deceit, distraction, bullying and thuggery. There in not one fiber devoted to the best interest of the country by preserving the Constitution. This administration is he!! bent on preserving their status quo at our expense.
Which is not dissimilar to the type of bending-the-truth advice ACORN employees were videotaped doling out.
Why even bother?
The last time I looked (and it’s been quite a while) hasn’t he issued close to 50 “waivers” of his own ban?
***
How can you tell if a communist is telling lies again?
***
His lips are moving.
***
Deja Vu all over again.
***
John Bibb
***
The critical spot. The point where maximum effort should be applied.
In what way am I fighting CA conservatives or any other conservatives?
I pointed out McCain’s lead to merely point out to you that unfortuantely we are not going to win that one. Our candidate turned out to be a sham.
My GOP Senator is another “reach across the aisle Republican” just like Juan. Looks like I get him for another six years also….
You said it earlier. If the GOP gets control and fails…… third party time.
Always keep in mind that for communists, the end justifies the means. Lies and communism go hand in hand. The only people who would actually want to be communists are those in leadership and the faithful, unthinking useful idiots who believe every lie they are told.
Aren’t the useful idiot RINOs in the Senate the ones that usually fail by sucking the air out of attempts in House GOP to reform government?
What I don’t get is why did the NYT have to be told this – why weren’t they out there digging for it themselves?
The extent to which the MSM will go to put forth their own liberal ideology under the guise of “journalism” is astounding – and a detriment to our republic, so long as they continue to command an audience that seldom seeks an opposing viewpoint or to read outside its mainstream media comfort zone.
What’s more, I still can’t get over how this same MSM, which recently attempted to demonize Rand Paul as a closeted racist for his daring to question the efficacy of government control of commerce under the Civil Rights Act, is now lionizing Senator Byrd – a former KKK member who filibustered the CRA!
Ha!
Bingo! Look no further than Trent Lott’s actions that stopped the Clinton impeachment cold after House members handed him a slam dunk case.
To be clear, I do not wish harm on US citizens. However, if we do get hit by ISLAMIC TERRORISTS (see Obamabots, that was not so hard to say) with a nuclear weapon, vaporizing Washington DC would actually assist our recovery (see: Gulf Oil Spill). Maybe we can go back to true citizen leadership.
Speaking of coffee, hurricane Alex may be blowing some “Texas Tea” all over the gulf.
So even if the GOP takes control of the House, we can probably look forward to kissup glad handing aisle crossing RINO weasels in the Senate to screw up as usual.
I don’t know if was better when it was state legislatures who were responsible for appointing senators, but it isn’t good the way it is now.
The only reason for conservatives to reach across the aisle is to slap some sense into a liberal, period. Stand your ground, be accoutable and do the right things.
When people shove back a bully the bullies usually cave. And, you have to get right back in their face or they know how to end the game. I’m not sure we have that many that are willing to shove back. I’m sick of being above doing so. That’s why our conservative women have done so well, especially MM. Doesn’t seem to be afraid to take on the pitbull.
Glenn Beck discussed that very thing this morning.
I support the repeal of both the 16th Amendment
and the 17th Amendment.
I second that….and precise clarification and proper application of the 14th Ammendment as well.
I don’t know if it is even possible to slap sense into a liberal politician, but just slapping one would be highly satisfying.
That explains the smell.
Let’s ask our resident lawyers – is it illegal to sniff comuter traffic on Starbuck’s wi-fi hot spots in DC?
computer not “comuter”
Another question for the lawyers, since Stabucks is a public place, and I often overhear the conversations of others, aren’t people giving up their expectation of pravacy in case my video camera happens to pick up their conversation?
I’ve gotta stop going to coffehouses. Bad people hang out there, like: Russian spies, Congressmen, lobbyists…
hahaha–from Ann Coulter:
On June 30th, 2010 at 4:20 pm, hawkeye54 said:
Speaking of clarification and proper application,
take a look at the 19th Amendment:
A strict interpretation of that amendment gives women the right to vote, but it does not modify the Constitution in any other way. It does not modify the Constitution to replace 33 instances of the gender-specific words “he” and “his”. For example, from Article II – The Executive Branch:
A strict interpretation of the 19th Amendment is that it amended our Constitution to give women the right to vote and nothing more.
I fully support an admendment to specifically state:
I’m not being sexist. Just strict constructionist.
I don’t like when people try to make the Constitution say things that it does not say. The Founders intended both voters and office holders to be men, and the 19th amendment technically only changed the voting part, not the office holding part. Now, I understand the difference between de facto and de jure. I understand, and fully support, the de facto truth that women hold elected office in our federal government. I just think that we should have an amendment to make the de jure truth of what the Constitution says line up with the current de facto truth.
There should be no difference between the two, but currently there is.
We should fix that.
They should just open a coffee house in a church, then they can deduct all their “poltitical” contributions, too. After all, the left holds their politics as dogmatically and sanctimoniously as some religions.