Ex-Googler Obama Appointee Gets Buzz'ed 195
theodp writes "Hillicon Valley reports that Rep. Darrell Issa of the House Oversight Committee is pressing White House Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin to explain his relationship with Google, where McLaughlin was employed as Google's chief lobbyist. 'The American people have a right to expect that White House employees are working to advance the public interest and not the interests of the lobby shops who formerly employed them,' Issa noted in the letter. 'The use of a Gmail account to communicate with lobbyists and evade transparency laws is at odds with President Obama's promises to limit the influence of lobbyists.' Concerns emerged after screenshots of McLaughlin's Google Buzz account emerged showing that a number of the search giant's top employees subscribed to the deputy Web chief's updates."
Re:No lobbyists ...except mine. (Score:4, Interesting)
He didn't say he'd hire zero lobbyists. He said he wouldn't hire a lot of lobbyists. As in, of the field of lobbyists, most would not be getting a job offer in the Obama administration. Depending on how many positions there are to fill, he could hire 100% lobbyists and still fail to hire the vast majority of them.
What about all the Justice Department (Score:3, Interesting)
They're investigating this but not that pretty much every appointee to the Justice Department formerly worked for the entertainment industry in one form or another?
Re:Maybe Google Buzz automatic opt-in isn't evil! (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a difference between having a private email account and using it to avoid the scrutiny of the public eye when doing business as a representative of the people of the United States of America. If he has nothing to hide as a representative of the people, have a private audit conducted to determine if there is anything that would need to be entered into the public log on his private email. That way if he has nothing that needs to be documented, then his personal email isn't aired out like dirty laundry, and he's kept looking honorable.
And if he has emails that should be documented, then honestly, it shows he has something that he shouldn't be hiding. The whole point of making all email created while doing business under the hat of the US White House public knowledge is to keep the accountability ever present. You just assume that everything done on a private email is private business without at least doing due diligence and it creates a problem with the accountability, even if it's only the appearance of impropriety.
There are a lot of things about the Bush White House that are probably legitimately honorable but because of appearances, took away credibility. Not defending them, but just saying that a lot of things that the Bush White House got smeared about were probably not as big a deal as made out to be, but because of actions they did take that raised questions, a lot of things were looked at as improper. I'd be willing to bet that half of the crap the prior administration took would probably have been avoided if they had been more open with their communication and not all smoke and daggers. Or perhaps there would be indictments for crimes committed. Who knows? The point is, if the Obama White House really wants to be about change, they'll change the way that the White House shows itself to the American People. Because from where a lot of people stand, this WH is hiding itself from public scrutiny (or trying to anyway) just as much as the last one did. Having public staffers who are previous lobbyists, which is precisely what the President said wouldn't happen, already betrays a bit of the trust that voters put in him. But then finding out that this staffer has a lot of private communications with the people he previously lobbied for, whether honest private communication that in no way affects how he advises the President or dishonest private communication that helps to dictate policy advise, appears to be cloak and dagger stuff just like what was seen with Bush 43. And really, appearance is everything.
Re:I have a right to expect a pony for christmas (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, there are many people who think of them as an honest unbiased source of news. I think of them as a new age Benny Hill show. Funny to watch, grows old after a while, but added absolutely nothing of value to my life.
Promises kept (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's see...
Close Gitmo...chec...oh wait...
Health Care negotiations in public view..chec...oh wait...
No lobbyists...chec...oh wait...
Politics as usual...check.