Richard Painter discusses the White House’s political operation and the law in this Times piece this morning. Congress should amend the Hatch Act, or the president should issue an executive order, to prohibit all White House staff members from participating in partisan political activity in any capacity during the relatively short time they serve in […]
Category: Executive Branch
White House lobbyist outreach
Politico reports on White House efforts to keep lobbyists plugged-in here. “We are pleased to invite you today to join senior White House officials for a conference call to discuss the historic financial Wall Street reform legislation passed in the Senate yesterday,” the invitation read, adding that the call was off-limits to the media. The […]
Federal job inducements to avoid contested primaries
The Post raises some questions about the Obama administration’s contact with Andrew Romanoff. If this is not a quid pro quo — a federal job in exchange for dropping the Senate bid — it is uncomfortably close. Substitute Karl Rove for Jim Messina and imagine the uproar if the Bush administration had engaged in such […]