Having your cake and eating it too

There is no better explanation of the phrase “Having your cake and eating it too” than to observe the Obama administration as it appoints one ethically challenged lobbyist and tax cheat after another to positions in the administration as it loudly proclaims that it has the highest ethical standards and is lobbyist free.

And the MSM runs interference for it by repeating the nonsense word “waivers.”. In the NY Times "The Conversation" we have David Brooks and Gail Collins lament the fact that Obama

"created a climate of Puritanism in which any error is grounds for disqualification."

Note the euphemism "any error." This is the 2009 version of the excuse "everyone lies about sex."

I love the way Obama gives “waivers” to people he wants to appoint but don’t meet the standards it has announced.

Who could imagine any other person getting away with this? Would you be credited with having the highest ethical and moral standards, and while maintaining those standards, give yourself waivers to lie, cheat, steal or commit crimes?

So the new rule is: you can maintain the highest moral standards as long as when you don’t meet those standards you give yourself a waiver.

As JohnHuang2 says at FreeRepublic: President Screw Up: Leave no tax cheat behind

Obama ran around the country during the campaign insisting that his administration would bring on a tidal wave of ethical progress -- the most ever in history. Democrats were already wrestling with those 'little' ethics problems called Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank, William Jefferson and Christopher Dodd, but in two short weeks Obama has made significant progress assembling a Cabinet filled with Al Capones. ..

Obama vowed never to name 'lobbyists' to his administration, so he names lobbyist William Lynn as deputy Pentagon honcho, lobbyist Tom Vilsack as Agriculture sec., lobbyist William Corr as HHS deputy, lobbyist Mark Gitenstein as DOJ honcho, lobbyist George Mitchell as 'Middle East envoy' -- or, more precisely, envoy to push the Jews into the sea -- and Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson for a gig as chief of staff to that pillar of ethics, Timothy Geithner.

As the Washington Times reports, around two dozen registered ex-lobbyists are working in Obama's lobbyist-free administration -- from yawneroo "executive-branch hires, all the way to Cabinet level." Not to worry, all this frantic lobbyist hiring falls within the new ethics guidelines simply by waiving the new ethics guidelines.

Read the whole thing.

OK. I vowed that I would refrain from partisanship beginning in 2009, and I will maintain that standard, except when it becomes necessary for the good of the country and to advance my noble agenda. On those occasions, I will give myself a waiver.