Tag: Gregory craig

Gregory Craig arranged for lobbyist William Lynn pick?

And he’s the guy doing the vetting now?

Forward Observer is pretty blunt, here:

In 1988, Gregory Craig and William Lynn worked together as legislative assistants for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Back then, Craig earned $37,375 a year and Lynn $23,734.

This year, President Obama appointed Craig as his White House counsel, a job which paid $172,200 a year during the Bush administration.

One of Craig’s first official acts as White House counsel was to recommend that Obama waive his ballyhooed rules against employing lobbyists in his administration so that Lynn, Craig’s old Senate colleague and a former registered lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon, could become the deputy secretary of defense at $177,000 a year under inherited pay scales.

So much for Obama’s vows during his presidential campaign to break up the old boy network in Washington and not bring lobbyists into his administration.

Continue reading Gregory Craig arranged for lobbyist William Lynn pick?

Le Affaire Ron Kirk: ANDREW MALCOLM FTW!

Glenn Reynolds may love the title (“Another Obama pick owes back taxes, but it’s OK because, now caught, he’ll pay up”), but the first quoted line (“Oh, Sergei, you mean you’ve lost another submarine?“) is what won me over. References to The Hunt for Red October usually do.

But there was one line in there:

(BTW, has anyone checked the tax returns of the Obama vetters who are supposed to be checking the tax returns?)

Yeah. About that, Andrew…

Crossposted to RedState.

The truly amusing thing about the Obama vetting process.

It is not that, as Andrew Bolt notes, that the process has been so flawed to date that it’s fair to use the phrase “spivs and chiselers” without exaggerating. Very Commonwealth-y, but not exaggerating.

It is not that, as Gawker’s Owen Thomas notes, that it’s now come out that new chief vetter Gregory Craig’s wife herself apparently hasn’t been paying her business taxes, to the point where there’s now allegedly an investigation going on about that.

(Both links H/T Glenn Reynolds)

It is not even that the first reaction that everybody had – including you! Admit it – to hearing that Gov. Sebelius got the nod for HHS Secretary was “Hm. I wonder whether she’s paid her taxes.”

Nope. The funny part is that this process isn’t going to stop for months. Continue reading The truly amusing thing about the Obama vetting process.