Shocker: Key White House Reelection Adviser, Anita Dunn, Just Happens To Be A Major Consultant to Lobbyists Lobbying The White House on Regulations and Policies

"'It smells,' said one Obama campaign official."

Apparently she calls herself a "consultant" not a lobbyist. See, she works with lobbying firms, but she herself is not a lobbyist, but just a "consultant" to the lobbying firms.

So there's nothing wrong here.

A White House aide conceded being “pissed off” by the story, expressing concern that Mitt Romney could use it to ridicule Obama’s pledges to change Washington’s political culture. He cited several other consultants working on the reelection campaign and said, “You don’t hear stories about them so obviously exploiting their access.”

A campaign aide said: “The timing is terrible. I bet it comes up in the debate [Monday] as a question of Obama ethics. I think she is well over the line.”

White House and campaign spokesmen defend Dunn’s dual roles, saying that all relevant ethics rules have been heeded. Dunn left a post as White House communications director in 2009 and, soon after, doubled to the size of her firm, SKDKnickerbocker, which now employs some 60 people.

I'm not sure how Mitt Romney brings this up elegantly during a debate on foreign policy, but if he's smart he'll bring up a lot of things not exactly germane to a foreign policy debate -- like the economy, jobs, taxes, energy and the deficit -- whether elegantly or not.

posted by Ace at 07:57 PM

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