Ethics in Transition

As Kramer intoned while eating a Thin Mint, "It's very refreshing!"

The Obama transition team has moved to put in place stringent ethics rules to be followed until the inauguration. Here's a sample:

• No lobbyist donations to support transition efforts. The Obama team will raise $7 million via their small donor network to supplement the $5 million government fund provided
• No one will be allowed to continue lobbying during the transition period. Further, anyone who does participate in the transition who later begins to lobby will be forbidden from lobbying the administration on related matters for 12 months.
• 450 people would be hired to assist in the transition work, and transition chair John Podesta promised a transition that 'is efficient, that is organized, that is bipartisan, and more open and transparent than others before.”

This sounds like a good first step toward a governing philosophy remarkably like the one promised during the campaign. Dare to dream.