Top Official At Nader's Old Group Sees Obama As Most Reliable Good-Government AllyBy Greg Sargent
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But one signature good government group he founded in the 1970s, Public Citizen, appears to disagree. A top official at PC just told me that he sees Barack Obama -- who, last time we checked, was a Democrat -- as a very reliable ally in trying to accomplish the group's goals.
Right now Obama's giving a big government reform speech in New Hampshire. The package he's unveiling includes a provision barring political appointees who leave their position from lobbying the executive branch for the remainder of the term -- thus more or less closing the so-called "revolving door" between government and the lobbying business.Craig Holman, the ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, tells us the group endorses all the principles in Obama's speech. "These are all things we've been advocating for several years now," he says. "Obama has been working on many of these reforms for the last year."
Asked if this meant Obama was really better than the other Dems on good-government issues, Holman said: "
Certainly in terms of his active roles. I would expect many of the Democratic candidates to endorse similar proposals. But Senator Obama has been actively working on these since even before he considered running for President."