Clinton once praised Obama lobbying bill
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:40 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
On Meet the Press this past Sunday, Clinton was critical of Obama's record and when moderator Tim Russert asked, “But is Barack Obama ready to be president?” she teed off.
“When Senator Obama was asked, what is your major accomplishment in the Senate," Clinton said, "he said it was passing ethics reform and getting legislators to be prohibited from having lunch with lobbyists. And then, you know, Charlie Gibson said, 'Well, wait a minute. You can have lunch if you're standing up, not if you're sitting down.' So if that's his main claim for legislative accomplishment, people deserve to know that.”
But Clinton didn't always speak so negatively of the lobbying legislation. In fact, according to Clinton’s Jan. 18 speech from the Senate floor on the bill, she lauded it as "much needed and long-awaited." She even said it bans meals.
“The American public deserves to be certain that their elected officials are not being swayed by lavish gifts offered as quid pro quo for promoting special agendas,” Clinton said, per a search of the Library of Congress database. “To that end, gifts from registered lobbyists have no place in our legislative process. For that reason, I support the sweeping ban on lobbyist-paid gifts in the Senate bill. This ban includes not just meals but also gifts of travel and lodging, areas that have been the subject of notorious abuse."
She closed her speech this way: “The reforms contained in both the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 and the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 enact much-needed and long-awaited reforms that move us toward those goals.”
