DebinPhoenix's Blog

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers.

 

Out of 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.

 

1.      Christopher Lu, Obama's transition executive director, an Obama Senate aide and law school classmate.  Even Mr. Lu, the transition’s executive director charged with policing potential conflicts of interests, may have his own appearance problems. His wife, Kathryn Thomson, is a lawyer who represents corporate clients dealing with federal environmental regulations, while his older brother, Curtis Lu, is a top lawyer for Fannie Mae. (Such family connections may not be disqualifying conflicts depending on the nature of the transition job, ethics lawyers said.)

 

2.      Henry Rivera, a former Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communication Commission who was involved in planning for the agency’s transition, has dropped out of that role because he had represented clients on communications policy in the last year.  Mr. Rivera will now be handling science, technology, space and the arts. The rules permit people who have lobbied in one area to join an Obama transition team in another.

 

3.      Stephanie Cutter, a transition spokeswoman, said in a written statement that the transition team reflected what she called Mr. Obama’s “commitment to change the way Washington does business and curb the influence of lobbyists on our government.”

 

4.      Keith Harper, handling Interior Department issues, lobbied earlier this year for Native American tribes.

 

5.      Pamela Gilbert, overseeing the Consumer Products Safety Commission is a former executive director of the agency who as recently as two years ago lobbied for a consumer advocacy group. Within the last year she has lobbied for the company Barr Laboratories, for an investor group, and for an antitrust enforcement group.

 

6.      Theodore Shaw, handling the Justice Department and civil rights areas of the transition is a litigator for an arm of the N.A.A.C.P. He has registered as a lobbyist for the group in the past, but N.A.A.C.P. officials say he has not lobbied in the past 12 months.

 

7.      David J. Hayes, overseeing the transition and co-head of the team handling the areas of energy and natural resources, is the chairman of the environmental practice at the law and lobbying firm Latham & Watkins. He was personally registered as a lobbyist as recently as 2006, for clients including San Diego Gas and Electric.

 

8.      Sally Katzen, handling the office of the president and government operations, was registered last year to lobby for the pharmaceutical company Amgen on Medicare reimbursements.

 

9.      Louisa Terrell, another member of the top working group, is on leave from the public policy office of the Internet company Yahoo!

 

10.  Tom Wheeler, another of the top 12, is on leave from a firm that invests in technology companies and before 2004 lobbied for the cable television and wireless industries.

 

11.  John L. White, a former Clinton official charged with overseeing the new Defense Department, is a partner in a firm that invests in defense contractors.

 

12.  Michael Warren, charged with overseeing Treasury, is chief operating officer of a firm that lobbies for clients including the U.S.-India Business Council.

 

Several of the officials have ties to the Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage firm whose implosion this fall contributed to the financial meltdown.

 

13.  Thomas Donilon, overseeing the State Department, is a partner in the law and lobbying firm O’Melveny and Myers who until three years ago lobbied for Fannie Mae.

 

14.  Wendy R. Sherman, the other official charged with reviewing the State Department, once headed Fannie Mae’s charitable foundation.

 

15.  James Johnson, a former top officer of Fannie Mae, is on the economics and international trade team, charged with reviewing the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

 

16.  Lori Garver, on the NASA review board, is now president of a strategic consulting company, Capital Space LLC, and previously worked for the aerospace company DFI International.

 

17.  Mozelle Thompson, among the transition officials charged with reviewing the Securities and Exchange Commission — likely to come under significant scrutiny amid the financial meltdown — runs a legal and policy consulting business for publicly traded companies including Facebook.com.

 

18.  Jami Miscik, leading a review of American intelligence agencies, was the head of intelligence analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency during its biggest embarrassment: the botched assessments about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Then she moved on to become a senior official managing risks in emerging markets for the investment bank Lehman Brothers, until its collapse this fall.

 

AND THERE ARE DOZENS MORE…AS THE NY TIMES SAID, "TOO MANY TO MENTION."

 

CHANGE…CHANGE…CHANGE…CHANGE…CHANGE…CHANGE…CHANGE…