ObamAdministration Watch: Treasury loses another one, watchdogs want Carrion investigated, Deputy A.G. confirmed

By GottaLaff

Good lord, enough already. Let's take them one at a time. First:

Another Treasury Department appointee has reportedly dropped out during the tough vetting process.

H. Rodgin Cohen, who was being vetted for Deputy Treasury Secretary, has pulled his name from the running, according to a report by ABC’s George Stephanopoulus. Citing Democratic sources, Stephanopoulus wrote on his blog that Cohen dropped out over an “issue” that came up in the final stages of the vetting process. [...]

The vacancies could complicate Treasury’s domestic efforts, and its work to get international cooperation on solving the global financial crisis.

Next:

A watchdog group called on Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation into pay-to-play allegations against the White House's Office of Urban Policy director, Adolfo Carrión Jr.

While serving as Bronx borough president, Carrión received a number of contributions from developers within a close time period of his approval of zoning changes benefiting those developers, according to reports in the New York Daily News.

“If the era of pay-to-play politics is over, Adolfo Carrión did not get the message,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said in a statement. “It appears Mr. Carrión routinely approved development projects in exchange for campaign contributions … This is exactly the kind of conduct that makes Americans skeptical of our politicians, and the Justice Department should immediately investigate.” [...]

CREW asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Mr. Carrión engaged in bribery and honest services fraud by accepting campaign contributions and free design work on his house in return for official actions.

And finally, some good news:

As expected, the U.S. Senate today confirmed David Ogden to be the deputy attorney general of the United States, the second highest-ranking position in the Department of Justice. After two days of debate that included serious objections by some Republicans, the Senate voted 65-28 to confirm Ogden.

As I noted earlier today, Ogden’s confirmation had been held up by some Senate Republicans, who threatened a filibuster, largely on concerns that as an attorney in private practice he had represented Playboy Enterprises, among others, in First Amendment cases that led critics to claim he protected pornographers at the expense of children. They also objected [...] because he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade and signed onto amicus briefs that sought to protect the right to an abortion...

Oh. Em. Gee! He represented... Playboy? No way! What kind of perverted legal mind does this guy have?

And he's... pro-choice? That's crazy! Crazy, I tell you! This country has officially just gone to hell. Everyone stop whatever it is you're doing (I assume none of you is employed), drop to your knees, and pray that all this crazy pinko Commie liberal socialist choicey stuff will fail! And that President Obama will fail.

Because, as the Rushpublicans keep reminding us, failure is the key to success.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. to lead the White House Office of Urban Policy

By GottaLaff

About a week ago, Carrion, Jr. was being considered for HUD Secretary (follow that link for more info about him from a previous post), but instead, he gets a brand spankin' new position:

[T]he Washington Post reports that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. is going to lead the White House Office of Urban Policy, a newly created position. Obama pledged to create the office during the campaign, saying it was needed "to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs."

I'm continually impressed by Obama's thinking.

Obama White House will have an Office of Urban Policy

By GottaLaff

Look what we've been missing for 8 years:

Valerie Jarrett, transition co-chair for President-elect Barack Obama, announced that the Obama administration would create a White House chief of urban policy. Since there are “so many different agencies that really can impact urban America,” Jarrett said, “to have one person whose job it is to really pull all of that together, is really a critical position.”

Liberating.