Down from 68% previously. My rating for him has dropped to 50% down from 60% earlier. My rating is based on the following article. If he is going to set the rules and then make exceptions, his crediblity is going to suffer.
The White House on Wednesday defended Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's choice of Mark Patterson _ an ex-lobbyist from Goldman Sachs _ to be his chief of staff.
The selection is at least the third high-profile exception to a policy by President Barack Obama that says no one who has lobbied on a set of issues within the past two years can take a role in his administration that deals with the same subject matter.
His appointment follows two other prominent exceptions to Obama's rule covering former lobbyists.
William J. Lynn III, the president's choice to become the Defense Department's No. 2 official, was registered until July as a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon. Last week, the president granted a waiver to Lynn.
William Corr, tapped as deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate, according to public records. Corr has decided to take no part in tobacco matters in the new administration.
The appointment of a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist to be Treasury chief of staff flies in the face of Obama's guidelines on ethics, said Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who opposed Geithner's nomination.
