The Obama Administration's Revolving Door

Despite White House claims that President Obama is "closing the revolving door between K Street and the executive branch," at least 45 former lobbyists serve in senior administration positions, and at least three Obama aides have now left the administration to become lobbyists, Timothy Carney reports in the Washington Examiner. The latest departure: a Treasury Department official, Damon Munchus, leaving to join a lobbying firm whose clients include Citigroup, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, and the Managed Funds Association. Mr. Carney and the Washington Examiner are conservatives, but liberal Democrat Robert Reich says "big business's and Wall Street's generous flows of campaign donations to Dems, coupled with their implicit promise of high-paying jobs once Democratic officials retire from government" are "the rot at the center of the system. And unless or until it's remedied, it will be difficult for the President to achieve any 'change you can believe in.'"