Obama team defends lobbyist meetings -- and their location

The Obama administration is defending itself against talk that aides meet with lobbyists beyond the White House gates in order to avoid public disclosure.

"The suggestion that we're not being transparent is laughable," White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Politico reported that White House aides have been meeting with lobbyists at a government-owned townhouse on Jackson Place, visits that do not generate the entry logs that are kept at the White House complex.

One unnamed lobbyist told Politico about the Jackson Place get-togethers: "Without question, I think that there's a lot of concern about being seen meeting with the same lobbyists or particular lobbyists over and over again."

Carney noted that the West Wing is "a very small space" and about a third of the next-door Eisenhower Executive Office Building is under renovation. He added that one of the Jackson Place townhouses actually houses a White House conference center, so "when we have large meetings, sometimes we use that space if there are no spaces here."

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/02/obama-team-defends-lobbyist-meetings-and-their-location/1

the lobbyists from Washington.

New day, same old same old ...

Bake

its UnDemocratic ya know

out of Washington to an undisclosed location that doesn't keep logs, and we all just misinterpreted what he was really saying by "drive them out of Washington".

Yeah, that's the ticket. ;)

The lobbyists tell them what to do.

They do it.

The lobbyists contribute to their campaigns and buy them ads through Citizens United funding.

What could be more transparent than that?

Or is it too many checks?

Which they employ for weighing the magnitude of political contributions before deciding on policy.