Quotes of the day

... 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.--Chris Frates

... if we are serious about having real change in this country, then we have to start putting America’s interests ahead of the special interests. We have to break the stranglehold that the lobbyists and special interests have on our democracy. That’s why I have offered the most far-reaching ethics and lobbying reform plan of any candidate in this race. It’s a set of proposals that I will begin enacting on my very first day as President – a plan to make the White House the people’s house and send the Washington lobbyists back to K Street. Now I know you’ve heard politicians make these promises before. And then they get to Washington and nothing happens. So it’s easy to be cynical. But this isn’t just the rhetoric of a campaign for me, this has been the cause of my life. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.--Barack Obama, in 2007