While Obama bashes lobbyists, Geithner’s Treasury organizes secret briefings for them

These briefings were available to lobbyists, and not the general
public. They were secret, and not open to the media, and not to be reported publicly.
The president attacks lobbyists while his Treasury secretary gives first-class tickets
to insider special interests, while the rest of the American people fly standby.

Wall Street lobbyists pushing for huge bonuses get the first-class
ticket; taxpayers who paid for the bailout weren’t invited. Banking lobbyists whose
companies received more than $20 billion of help through various government agencies
get to sing, “Fly me to moon” in private briefings, while jobless workers
have to sing, “Brother, can you spare a dime?” in the cold outside.

Insurers who raise premiums get the inside poop from the Treasury,
but customers being ripped off with high premiums or foreclosed on their homes aren’t
invited to the insider festivities and can’t even read about it in newspapers that
are not allowed to report it.

If the president wants to fight the “fat cats” and
be the populist of the month, he should order these closed meetings ended, and when
any insider meetings occur, they should be open to everyone and, even better, televised
on C-SPAN.

Otherwise, the administration will not be praised for change
or populism or reform, but will create even more cynicism against business as usual,
which this latest Treasury Department venture represents, big time.