White House Takes Lobbyists Off the Record

President Obama’s anti-lobbyist stance has put his aides in a bind. Finding it hard to govern in Washington without them, White House aides take lobbyists off campus, to a nearby meeting complex or Caribou Coffee, where their meetings won’t go on the Secret Service logs that Obama has begun disclosing to the public in an effort to make government more transparent. “When they need us, they call us. When they don’t, we’re evil,” said one lobbyist who’d met with administration officials in the off-campus complex. The Obama White House has been particularly tightlipped about their dealings with lobbyists in other respects as well, such has having them sign confidentiality agreements barring them from disclosing what was discussed at meetings. The administration has “boxed themselves in” with their anti-lobbyist policies, said a lobbyist for ImmigrationWorks USA. But “they’re on a better track and they see that they need to get out of the box.”