In Washington, Public Policy and Private Wealth Are Hopelessly Tangled

Posted on Feb 5, 2009

By William Pfaff

Barack Obama in Washington reminds one of Diogenes in Athens, with his lantern in search of an honest man. They seem harder to find than the candidate Obama thought when he promised a Cabinet unsullied by business lobbyists and other peddlers of sectarian interests. Surely he can’t have thought the lobbyists all Republicans—he’s been around Washington long enough to know better.

Among Democrats, he stumbles on liberals who don’t pay Social Security on their immigrant household help. What a surprise. Then on former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, who proved to have a rather bigger problem.