Reply #6: That ethics reform bill is flawed and Obama needs to come clean on this point [View All]

[BootinUp]

Obama is pretty slick, I just discovered this yesterday:



Fact Check: Sen. Obama's Bill Allows Lobbyists To Wine and Dine Members of Congress, As Long As They Are Standing Up
1/6/2008 2:11:40 PM

Last night, Sen. Barack Obama bragged that he passed lobbying reform that prohibited lobbyists from buying meals for members of Congress:

OBAMA: I just want to add, I agree with John, which is why I prohibited lobbyists from buying meals for members of Congress...
Sen. Obama forgot to mention that the bill still allowed lobbyists to wine and dine members of congress, as long as they were standing up. ABC News reports:

ABC News found caterers working overtime as once again lobbyists spared no expense to entertain members of Congress and their staffs. Under new congressional ethics laws, lobbyists can spend all they want on holiday parties as long as everyone is standing up.

"You can no longer eat sitting down," Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to making government more accessible on the Internet, said. "There really has to be finger food. I think you can eat food that's on a toothpick, but if it requires a fork or knife, forget it."

And ABC News found plentiful spreads of catered food and well-stocked bars at elegant locations all over the capital -- the kind of expense only the well-funded can afford.

"There is no way we can compete with that kind of money and that kind of influence-peddling," Wiles said.

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=5060