Obama Draws the Curtain of Secrecy and Skulduggery

We are, what, five minutes into the coup on the White House? It didn't take long to set up a clandestine op to shroud the nefarious shadowy figures behind the stealth candidate. Imagine if Bush tried to pull this dark dealing.

WASTING NO TIME The Spectator (hat tip Tom)

Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer. Called the "Obama/Biden Transition Project," it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money.

Traditionally, the victorious campaign has set up inaugural funds, as well as funds to deal with legal costs and other expenses to close down the campaign. Others have set up quasi-corporate offices to deal with transition issues, such as in 2000, when, with the election in doubt, the Bush-Cheney team set up a private transition office in McLean, Virginia, covering the costs from campaign contributions and other fundraising. Ultimately, the federal government, headed by the Government Services Administration, covers the cost of the transition staff, providing it with office space and all equipment.

No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when the Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.

"To my knowledge, it's never been done, and people should be asking why the Obama people chose to do it this way," says a longtime Washington Republican, who has been involved in transitions for the Reagan and Bush campaign teams.

According to an Obama campaign staffer who is being retained for the transition and inauguration planning, the "project" is intended not only to identify personnel for the Obama Administration, but to then send those project employees who know all of the senior staff in the various Cabinet departments and federal agencies out into the corporate and lobbying community to leverage those contacts.

"It's taking the old 'K Street Project' that Republicans had and doing it twice as fast and on steroids," explains the aide. "So, if you have a Project aide working on Commerce Department transition, that Project aide will be more likely to get a senior lobbying job because of all those connections at Commerce. That former Project aide will also be able raise more money for Democrats in this town and help others with jobs and such."

As well, the nonprofit may also serve as a haven for Obama supporters and campaign loyalists who for one reason or another can't be employed by the Administration or in the federal government. "There are some people who have been with us from the beginning who are clearly political liabilities or who won't be able to qualify for a job, say, because they can't get a security clearance," says another aide, who was unaware of the unique Obama transition project's tax status.

Regardless of the purpose, Obama campaign officials say there is no intention of shutting down the 501(c) 4 Project after the transition is over.

Comments

[SlimGuy]

Combine that with all the crud going on over at their change.gov site and this bunch is going to have a lot of people getting buyers remorse real quick.

[SlimGuy]

Oh and to add more to the mix Gore came out today and in so many words wants to nationalize the power grid to move 'green power' around.

[scrapiron]

For the first time in 8 years the GWB administration is in open violation of national security laws. They are providing top secret breifings to the big 'zero', aka the 'chosen one', and he couldn't pass a true/legal background check to become a security guard at WalMart. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Zero]

It looks as if big O will have a tidy little group for employing his terrorist friends who, say, can't get a security clearance.
Scrapiron: please don't call him zero. I'm the man's absolute antithesis ;)

FountainheadZero
Join the irate minority.

[pythagoras]

Newly-elected POTUS Obama is on record as having transferred US 1 million dollars to Kenya dictator Raila Odinga whose goon squads are known to have massacred AT LEAST 1200 innocent Kenyan people. It would appear that Obama has verifiably committed crimes of treason against the people of the United States of America (Odinga is an alleged member of al-Qaeda, of course an official enemy of the United States) and accessory to murders of people in Kenya. Add your own offenses to this incomplete list.

Obama is on record to have committed at least 25 counts of campaign fraud during 2008 (and Pamela has probably at least a couple of hundred others to add). Such campaign lawlessness is a direct threat to our nation's democracy.

The people of the United States should beat Obamas to the punch and begin legal proceedings against him IMMEDIATELY. The International Criminal Court could (and should)easily handle multiple-plaintiff prosecutions against Obama for his crimes against the Kenyan people. As for Obama's verified campaign crimes, the US Supreme Court should be able to hear a class action suit against him. In fact, as this case is such a terribly dangerous precedent with such dire consequences for our nation's future as a free country it is impossible to believe that the Supreme Court would NOT hear it.

Obama should be incarcerated for his crimes in America and Kenya. Americans should not be incarcerated for Obama's crimes in America (but that is what will likely happen if his authority as POTUS goes unchallenged).

[Timur]

"... some people who have been with us from the beginning who are clearly political liabilities or who won't be able to qualify for a job, say, because they can't get a security clearance..." - like WILLIAM AYERS maybe???

[Cindy]

They need some place to put all that stolen credit card money!

[Coldwarkid]

This kind of thing simply goes ignored by the mainstream media; if it was the other way around,there would be a national brouhaha.

It's disturbing that so many people have elected a celebrity, but immediately forget him (til they pick up People magazine) and allow his liberal illuminati cronies to wreak all kind of havoc.

The left has never been more left.