Transition,transition! Transition!

"Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home?"
-Fiddler On The Roof

Ok, admittedly it may be a bit too patriarchal for modern times, but as I was reading the story today about Obama firming up his transition budget on the HuffPo , for some reason the tune "Tradition" popped into my head.

Traditionally , the transition period between administrations can be one area where lobbyists can really insert themselves in the process and set the tone as to how much influence they will have going forward while the new president is distracted with finding his footing. Not this time. Obama brings with him the strictest ethics rules on transition in the history of the country:

• Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition
• Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
• If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
• If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
• A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. So are the changes we need .

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