I know I’m late to this, but I’m a big fan of this Norm Eisen character. From a profile in last Friday’s WaPo:
Eisen is the White House ethics adviser, the guardian of Obama’s integrity, and he is called for consultation every time the new administration has a question regarding more than 1,000 pages of government ethics rules and regulations….
Eisen almost never leaves his office without a binder of ethics statutes and a badly mangled copy of “5 CFR,” the code of federal regulations. It’s a dense collection of complicated rules. One chapter on gift bans is followed by a long addendum of exceptions, which are then followed by their own exceptions. Gifts from lobbyists are not allowed, unless they’re worth less than $20, and only then if they result from a spouse’s business or employment.
After he accepted the ethics job, Eisen “got comfortable” with his copy of the 5 CFR — meaning he tore off the cover, ripped out pages that did not apply to the White House and annotated sections he liked. He crossed out rules in pencil that he planned to change. No longer, he decided, could White House employees receive small gifts, honorary degrees or awards from lobbyists.
“No way,” he said. “Some of these things are just scams.”
Ultimately, it is Norm Eisen’s work that has the power to separate Obama’s administration from all the other administrations in recent history, including the Democratic ones. He is the Secretary for Ending Politics As Usual. And I wish him all the luck in the world.
