An alarming story in the New York Times this week that White House staff are meeting with lobbyists at coffee shops near the White House to talk over issues like regulating Wall Street, health care, federal stimulus money, energy policy and climate control.
There's a reason for having these meetings in coffee shops: because these discussions are not taking place in the White House, they are not subject to disclosure on the visitors' log that the Obama administration releases as part of its pledge to be the "most transparent presidential administration in history."
This tells us the Obama government can be as secretive as the Bush regime.
Now the US public interest group CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) have written a letter to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the US Congress calling for an investigation into the "apparent willful violations of Federal law".
As the letter says, the Obama administration claims to be committed to open and transparent government. At the same time, it is doing exactly what the Bush government did in developing secret and cozy relationships with lobbyists who make no secret of their intention to have the government in their pocket.
no comment untill now