Treasury Aide exits for K-street

[Enrique]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_96/lobbying/43704-1.html

Barack Obama has made cracking down on K Street a signature cause of his presidency. But a year into his tenure, the executive branch’s revolving door has already started to turn with one senior official making the exodus from administration insider to hired gun.

Damon Munchus, the principal liaison between the Treasury Department and Congress regarding financial institutions and capital markets, signed on Monday as a managing director with financial services lobbying boutique the Cypress Group, whose clients include some of the nation’s biggest banks.

Munchus will be a test case for Obama’s tightened revolving-door policy, which prohibits former administration officials from lobbying the executive branch for the remainder of his administration. Munchus is the first example of an administration official leaving the Obama administration for a lobbying gig, according to several ethics lawyers, lobbyists and members of the government reform community.

While the former deputy assistant secretary for banking and finance under Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is barred from lobbying the Obama administration, he will register as a federal lobbyist, according to Cypress Group’s Ben Dupuy.

He faces no limits on immediately lobbying Congress.

(...)

[DJ13]

1. It made for great soundbites on TV during the campaign

And he probably will try to say the same things in 2012 too.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Can the President make rules about his former officials lobbying congress?

I would think that by separation of powers, that would be up to congress.

[Enrique]

3. he could hire people that won't do this

hire professionals interested in public service, not greedheads that are pals of his big donors.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. I hate to break this to you, but people like money

One can be an idealistic public servant one day and be a corporate lobbyist the next day. Or somebody can pretend to be an idealistic public servant one day so that they can be a corporate lobbyist the next day.

The only way to prevent this is if congress changes its rules.

[avaistheone1]

5. Good points.