Perhaps the title should be “ethics” rather than ethical behavior. For our new president it all started with his Inaugural address when he said, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” Wow, that was just one part of a speech that sounded the intent to live up to the goals set by our founding fathers.
Barack Obama established standards of conduct just yesterday. He banned any member of his administration from accepting any lobbying job while the administration is still in power. He banned any member of his administration from accepting any gifts at all from lobbyists. He banned all administration appointees from being able to work on policy issues that could affect their former bosses or clients for a minimum of two years. After issuing this very ambitious regulation Mr. Obama chose William J. Lynn III to be deputy secretary of defense. The problem is that Mr. Lynn’s was employed as a lobbyist for a defense contractor this past year. Boston Globe reporter Bryan Bender reported a waiver would be made for Lynn.
Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner said Wednesday he was careless in failing to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade but declared “I have paid what I owed” and apologized to Congress. The explanation was that it “was an honest mistake.” Mr. Geithner told a Senate hearing committee that he “takes full responsibility.”
After all the claims of transparency by the president and signing various executive orders in a public manner he quietly without press presence signed an order allowing federal money to go to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information.
There is no doubt that Mr. Obama seems to want to be an ethical person. The problem is he is also a political person. The result is he will not be the “mightier than thou” person that we dreamed about. He can still be successful but there will be many enemies.
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