Obama’s Five Worst Nominees

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Barack Obama’s first day in the White House, he introduced the toughest ethics rules of any recent president—rules he promised would “close the revolving door” between government and the corporate world. Maybe he should have invested in a really good dead bolt. One year into the administration, Obama’s picks for some key oversight posts are dogged by eerily familiar conflicts of interest.

Photos below, from left: US Dept. of Defense; Roy Kaltschmidt/Lawrence Berkeley Nat’l Lab; US Dept. of Agriculture; US Dept. of Energy; US Dept. of Interior; Office of Surface Mining

William Lynn

William Lynn
DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

When Obama nominated him to the No. 2 spot at the Pentagon, Lynn was the chief lobbyist for Raytheon, the nation’s fifth-largest defense contractor, so the president had to seek the very first waiver of his two-day-old lobbyist policy. As DOD’s comptroller during the Clinton administration, Lynn pushed to relax rules on contractor payments. Last year, when lawmakers proposed a “cost czar” to control Pentagon budget blowouts, Lynn first fought to kill the position, then pushed to ensure that the czar’s recommendations would not be mandatory—rendering the position virtually meaningless.

Scott O'Malia

Scott O’Malia
COMMISSIONER, COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

Scott O’Malia was a lobbyist for Mirant, an Enron-like energy-trading firm that was forced to pay California $500 million for bilking consumers in the 2001 energy crisis. He also pushed to weaken the CFTC—the energy-market regulator he’s now serving on. Obama didn’t seek out O’Malia—he was tapped by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, his one-time boss. Still, the president was entitled to ask for a more suitable nominee. Instead, O’Malia sailed to confirmation with barely a question about his background with Mirant.

Islam Siddiqui

Islam Siddiqui
NOMINEE, CHIEF AGRICULTURAL NEGOTIATOR, US TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

Siddiqui is just the type of revolving-door careerist Obama promised to shun. While at the Clinton USDA, he fought efforts to label genetically modified food. Currently, he’s VP of science and regulation for the pesticide trade group CropLife (best known for criticizing Michelle Obama for not using pesticides in her vegetable garden); his new job will put him in charge of international agricultural policy, an area of great interest to CropLife. In its 2008 annual report, the group bragged of its “relentless” efforts to battle regulations “discriminatory to pesticides.”

William Magwood

William Magwood
NOMINEE, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

The top federal nuclear official from 1998 to 2005, Magwood has been a cheerleader for nuclear power. He’s worked for reactor maker Westinghouse and has run two firms that advise companies on nuclear projects. Even before Obama took office, Magwood called on the incoming administration to spearhead a nuclear expansion—boosterism that critics say makes him ill-suited for an agency designed to determine the safety and viability of nuclear technology.

Joseph Pizarchik

Joseph Pizarchik
DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND ENFORCEMENT

As Pennsylvania’s top mining regulator, Pizarchik developed policies for the “beneficial use of coal ash,” allowing the toxic substance to be dumped in unlined pits. A citizens’ group is planning to sue the federal government for allowing Pizarchik to turn a blind eye to “chronic and deliberate violations” of mining regulations. Yet a spokesman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says Pizarchik will “help move the department forward with coal production in an environmentally responsible way.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate