Obama Deals A Serious Blow To Corrupt Lobbyists And Crooked Contractors

The Republicans seem to be trying to dominate the easily distracted media with the unending nonsense around the Rush Lambaugh-Michael Steele cage match-- something of so little consequence to anyone with two brain cells firing that all the GOP could find today are retreads like Jim Cramer (I hope you didn't miss him on The Daily Show last night) and Rudy Giuliani to try keeping the story going for yet another day.

And why do they want to keep it going? Easy; because they are trying to draw the public's attention away from the tremendous strides forward President Obama is making on a host of items. One that really excited me yesterday-- but which makes Republicans cringe-- is the seemingly dull executive order he made about federal contracting reform. But if you keep in mind that Bush, Cheney and the Republicans used federal contracting to transfer billions of taxpayer dollars to favored Republican contractors/donors you might agree how much more important this is than the he said/she said Limbaugh/Steele dustup.

Even die-hard slimeballs from the Grand Obstructionist Party like McCain acknowledged how crucial this move is for the country's well being.

The review, which Obama ordered through a memo to agency heads, would clarify the rules for awarding contracts without competitive bidding. It also would set criteria for when private companies should be hired to perform public services and assess agencies' ability to manage contracts after years in which the federal workforce responsible for such oversight has been shrinking.

"We'll have to break bad habits that have built up over many years," Obama said at a news conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "But we can't keep spending good money after bad. All across America, families are making hard choices, and now we're going to have to do the same thing."

In another of a series of breaks with Bush Regime practices, the White House released a straight forward report explaining that government contracting's top priority would no longer be "lining the pockets of contractors." This was one of the keystones of the Bush Family's plot to subvert democracy itself and to perpetuate Rove's "Permanent Republic Majority." Obama is charging Peter Orszag his OMB chief to make sure the federal government stops outsourcing "inherently governmental activities" to private sector money grubbers and political bribers. He'll save the government billions but something tells me the corrupt Blue Dogs-- who are nearly as bad as Republicans when it comes to taking bribes from Big Business-- won't be wagging their tails too strenuously over this one.

Orszag-- and the Pentagon-- have been ordered by Obama to literally start canceling contracts that feature the kinds of huge, unconscionable cost overruns that have greased the wheels of Republican rule (and Blue Dog prosperity). I can imagine that K Street must be getting ready for a fight to the death with the new administration. This corruption is their entire livelihood. They and their political allies will do whatever is necessary-- even if it means further wrecking the economy-- to hold onto their sources of ill-gotten gains. Watch notoriously crooked political hacks like John Boehner lead the charge against Obama's reforms on behalf of the special interests which has kept his corrupt party in business.

But Obama has now placed defense-contracting reform at the center of his efforts at cutting wasteful spending, and he’s put cutting wasteful spending at the core of his deficit-reduction approach; and both the press and the Republican Party will watch that deficit-reduction approach as a test of his presidency. That line from his YouTube address on Saturday about being ready for a fight with lobbyists over his budget? He might mean it.