President-elect Obama has selected former Patton Boggs lobbyist Emmett Beliveau to head the Presidential Inaugural Committee, according to reports.

Obama’s choice, Emmett Beliveau, is a former attorney at Patton Boggs and the son of prominent Maine attorney and Democrat Severin Beliveau. The younger Beliveau, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, also worked on the campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry.

The Post also reports that ex-lobbyists have a number of other roles in the transition.

Obama’s formal policy during the campaign indicated that there may be some role for lobbyists in his administration, though his rhetoric did not always convey that. In a 2007 speech, he said he was “running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won’t work in my White House.”

A few days later, he changed the phrasing to say that lobbyists “are not going to dominate my White House.”

The Times also notices a “tangle of ties” between lobbyists and the incoming administration.