Word: lynn
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...surprisingly, Obama's good-government backers were less than pleased to see the President, only a few days after signing the blanket ban, issue a waiver permitting William Lynn to serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense. The lobbying loophole was allowed, Administration officials explain, because Lynn is "uniquely qualified" for the job. Realists at the Pentagon and elsewhere put it slightly differently, saying the President was simply acknowledging that people who know how to run the Pentagon generally have been involved in the process...
...with most Federal Government arcana, there are arguments on both sides of Obama's leaky lobbyist ban. Lynn, Obama's choice to serve as the Pentagon's No. 2 civilian, got high marks for struggling to bring some accountability to Pentagon spending when he served as its top money manager from 1997 to 2001. By one account, he reduced the amount of undocumented Pentagon spending from $2.3 trillion to $1.3 trillion (before the federal banking bailout, only at the Pentagon could $1.3 trillion in undocumented spending be deemed progress...
...idea that Lynn is "uniquely qualified" - the White House's language - for the post is simply bogus. The phrase doesn't mean merely good or talented; it means that Lynn, of all the possible candidates for the position, is the only person who could fill...
...While Lynn may be well qualified, it is absurd to argue that he is uniquely qualified," says Danielle Brian, head of the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group in Washington. "There are plenty of people with far greater business-management experience than that of a lobbyist." Nonetheless, Lynn, who during his confirmation hearing on Jan. 15 pledged to "maintain the highest ethical standards," appears headed for Senate confirmation. To ease some Senators' concerns, he has promised to sell all his Raytheon stock and have his dealings at the Pentagon for the first year subject to an ethics review...
...Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on Jan. 22 that he pushed for Lynn's hiring and the waiver it required. "I asked that an exception be made because I felt that he could play the role of the deputy in a better manner than anybody else that I saw," Gates said. The next day, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Lynn would be getting one of a "very limited number of waivers" so he could assume the Pentagon post despite being a registered lobbyist for Raytheon from...