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Politico...
White House meets
lobbyists off campus
By Chris Frates
2/24/11
AP Photo, John Shinkle
Caught between their boss’ anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the reality of
governing, President Barack Obama’s aides often steer meetings with
lobbyists to a complex just off the White House grounds — and several
of the lobbyists involved say they believe the choice of venue is no
accident.
It allows the Obama administration to keep these lobbyist meetings
shielded from public view — and out of Secret Service logs kept on
visitors to the White House and later released to the public.
“They’re doing it on the side. It’s better than nothing,” said
immigration reform lobbyist Tamar Jacoby, who has attended meetings at
the nearby Jackson Place complex and believes the undisclosed
gatherings are better than none.
The White House scoffs at the notion of an ulterior motive for
scheduling meetings in what are, after all, meeting rooms. But at least
four lobbyists who’ve been to the conference rooms just off Lafayette
Square tell POLITICO they had the distinct impression they were being
shunted off to Jackson Place — and off the books — so their visits
wouldn’t later be made public.
Obama’s administration has touted its release of White House visitors
logs as a breakthrough in transparency, as the first White House team
to reveal the comings and goings around the West Wing and the Old
Executive Office Building.
The Jackson Place townhouses are a different story.
There are no records of meetings at the row houses just off Lafayette
Square that house the White House Conference Center and the Council on
Environmental Quality, home to two of the busiest meeting spaces. The
White House can’t say who attended meetings there, or how often. The
Secret Service doesn’t log in visitors or require a background check
the way it does at the main gates of the White House.
Read the full story at Politico
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