Transparent Failure: Obama aide sent lobbyists private email
- Post 01 August 2012
- By Copy Editor
(Susan Crabtree | The Washington Times) -- With three months to go before Election Day, President Obama's campaign manager faced a fusillade of questions Wednesday about whether he deliberately skirted disclosure rules during his time as deputy White House chief of staff, undermining the administration's claim to be "the most transparent administration in history."
A House Energy and Commerce Committee report released Tuesday revealed several emails from senior White House aides sent from private addresses, as well as email correspondence about meetings with lobbyists purposely scheduled off campus to avoid official records.
Jim Messina, then Mr. Obama's deputy chief of staff, sent one particularly embarrassing email to a pharmaceutical lobbyist from a personal email account, Politico reported Wednesday.
In it, Mr. Messina promises to "roll" Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was House speaker at the time, on an agreement between the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Senate Finance Committee on provisions in the president's health care law that Mrs. Pelosi was resisting.
When asked about the use of private emails by top White House staff Wednesday, presidential spokesman Jay Carney said that Republicans were leading a politically charged witch hunt against Mr. Messina just months before the election to try to tarnish the campaign's top aide and strategist. ...continues...
"Question all which is 'taught,' dig deeper, think clearly, respond profusely. Conformity is the antithesis of free thought and self-determination." -- Standard Pearls