Nov 26, 2009 4:55pm

Oprah, Health Care Lobbyists, Among Recent Visitors to White House

ABC's Rachel Martin reports: Oprah Winfrey, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Texas oilman turned wind energy guru, T. Boone Pickens -  those are just some of the hundreds of names included on a new batch of White House visitor logs made public yesterday.  The White House says releasing the visitors’ lists is in keeping with the Obama administration’s promise for transparency and accountability and its pledge to be the first administration to start posting all White House visitor records.  They are releasing the information in batches. Last month, nearly 500 records were made public. Yesterday they posted more than 1,600 records of visits to the White House, covering the period from January 20, 2009 (President Obama’s first day in office) to August 31st, 2009.  The records reveal a large number of visits by people involved at the highest levels of the debate over health care reform, including top industry lobbyists, lawmakers and key stakeholders. Among the most notable guests – the president of the AMA, Dr. James Rohack, chief executive of AARP, Barry Rand and Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel’s brother and a medical ethicist and special advisor to the White House on health care. According to the Associated Press’ count, the most frequent visitor was Lee Sachs, the man at the Treasury Department tapped to grapple with the financial crisis. You can check out the records yourself HERE.

User Comments

Were there any terrorists, acorn members,soros or seiu members on the list? this president is a disgrace and dangerous for this country

Posted by: jake | November 26, 2009, 9:07 pm 9:07 pm

You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

Posted by: Fascist Hyena | November 26, 2009, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm

Agreed. Obama is very bad for this country———–Lobbyist, communists, terrorists, crooks, racists…etc. His choice of buds is very disturbing.

Posted by: VeryPainfulTruth | November 26, 2009, 10:21 pm 10:21 pm

Agreed. Obama is very bad for this country———–Lobbyist, communists, terrorists, crooks, racists…etc. His choice of buds is very disturbing.
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More of the fear mongering exactly as described in the recent Anti-Defamation League report.
The right wing has gone paranoid and conspiratiorial – tinged with hate mongering.

Posted by: tierra | November 26, 2009, 11:27 pm 11:27 pm

Remember, Obama said no more Lobbyists, then none in his administration building and now he’s entertaining them, oh yeah, this is a guy you can trust….NOT.

Posted by: CC | November 27, 2009, 12:58 am 12:58 am

There is wholesale sell-out, you see it on K Street (hookers wearing 1000 dollar suites writing the requirements for u name it) and now this. There isn’t much difference between the two parties, and we are at a crossroads. What will it take to overthrough the establishment?

Posted by: tom welsh | November 27, 2009, 1:11 am 1:11 am

Don’t take all the crazy postings seriously… It’s not too difficult to differentiate between the insightful, sometimes funny banter/opinion postings and the nutjobs on BOTH sides of the issues. Then there are the posts that are pure fiction… too much!

Posted by: blownaway | November 27, 2009, 1:51 am 1:51 am

Come on, seriously? People not spending money in shops really mostly hurts the shop owners/working americans. Explain how putting more Americans out of work is a positive thing…

Posted by: blownaway | November 27, 2009, 2:07 am 2:07 am

Once upon a time, I supported and voted for Obama – but no more. The last person I would want to see replace him is Palin, however.
I sincerely hope that the Democrats put a seasoned politician against Obama in the primaries. It has been done before. Given how Obama has laid waste to this country in the last year, I suspect that there will be lots of takers in 2 more.
The only hope we have of putting back this country is for the Democrats to find a better candidate. Palin will be a slam-dunk loser = as will be most Republicans. But a good Democrat could really out talk the big talker with some real experience.

Posted by: JonF | November 27, 2009, 3:45 am 3:45 am

Obviously no ‘change’ here. Obama is doing what President’s have done for sometime – giving access to power, influence and specific policy making to those who pay into his coffers. Why else would this administration and it’s complicit Congress be so hell bent on passing legislation that is increasingly suspect and unpopular with voters? There is a deep fundamental disconnect between Washington decision makers and the people they supposedly serve. Not that I really believed him when he campaigned as the candidate who would change all that but I didn’t expect it to get so much worse.

Posted by: bct | November 27, 2009, 8:16 am 8:16 am

Agreed. Obama is very bad for this country———–Lobbyist, communists, terrorists, crooks, racists…etc. His choice of buds is very disturbing.
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More of the fear mongering exactly as described in the recent Anti-Defamation League report.
The right wing has gone paranoid and conspiratiorial – tinged with hate mongering.
Posted by: tierra | Nov 26, 2009 11:27:04 PM
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Well let’s just look at the facts then, tierra because you don’t want to:
Lobbyists: Yes – see above article by Rachel Martin
Communists: Why yes – Van Jones, former Green Jobs czar and Anita Dunn
Terrorists: Bill Ayers who wrote obama’s book
Crooks: Timmy the Tax Cheat Treasury Secretary, Charlie Rangel tax cheat, Chris Dodd and so many more
Racists: read obama’s books.

Posted by: Jenny | November 27, 2009, 8:36 am 8:36 am

The White House says releasing the visitors’ lists is in keeping with the Obama administration’s promise for transparency and accountability and its pledge to be the first administration to start posting all White House visitor records.
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It’s certainly a move in the right direction. Baby step by baby step. I think people are too tough on President Obama on many scores, including transparency, czars and civil liberties. I agree that we have a long way to go till we’re where many of us would like us to be but the President has taken on many difficult things– stimulating an economy in a country with a strong conservative base that seems to view everything from free market-oriented prism religiously, regardless of the situation, pushing health care reform in the same country, taking the time to deliberate on war strategy in a country with a rather impatient culture and that same conservative base that prizes quick, decisive action and cowboy resoluteness even if the strategy is wrong-headed.
As Matthew Yglesias said yesterday, obviously reducing the power of the executive branch is going to be dead last on the list of the things an incumbent President is going to change in a sweeping fashion when so much is going on and everything appears to be a political risk. If you want to see civil liberties and transparency championed, that’s going to have to come from and be pressed by congress. Makes sense. I’m glad in this environment the president is taking baby steps in the right direction.

Posted by: Cara | November 27, 2009, 10:33 am 10:33 am

Re: “I sincerely hope that the Democrats put a seasoned politician against Obama in the primaries.”
I agree with you 100%. I want a Democratic President in office, just not Obama. He’s not doing anything about the economy, and I am afraid his inaction will cause high unemployment to last for years. The liberal wing of our party put him in office, and the working class, who wanted Hillary, was pushed aside.

Posted by: Bubbles | November 27, 2009, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm

VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board censured Iran on Friday, with 25 nations backing a resolution demanding that Tehran immediately freeze construction of its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed Security Council resolutions to stop uranium enrichment.
The resolution was endorsed by six world powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – reflecting a rare measure of unity on Iran.
Previously, Moscow and Beijing have acted as a traditional drag on efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear defiance, either preventing new U.N. Security Council sanctions or watering down their potency.
Source: AP
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Obama’s diplomacy has brought Moscow and Beijing further on side against Iran than ever before.

Posted by: tierra | November 27, 2009, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm

Octavia–
I read your stats with interest and then came to the word “funnily.” Can funny be an adverb? Maybe, as in “Obama’s ears funnily stick out.” Hmmmm…what does Gallup say?

Posted by: kelli | November 27, 2009, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm

As a totally independent, unbiased, non-partisan voter, I see things from a completely impartial point of view, and from a strictly objective perspective, the Obamacrat for Palin is absolutely correct, and everyone who disagrees with him/her is wrong. Barack Obama’s economic policies are driving America off a cliff. And we can prevent that by starving Big Government of its tax revenues, starting with retailers this holiday season. We know the retailers are already on precarious financial health, and if we execute Operation Big Government Tax Revenue Yank (Operation BiGoTRY) in the least, that is, we boycott shopping this holiday season, we can close their doors for good, like Circuit City last year. People will lose their jobs (X tax revenues), they will file Chapter 7 like Circuit City last year (X tax revenues), and their suppliers will have huge losses to write off (X tax revenues) and might go under themselves (lay off more workers, X tax revenues again), land-lords will lose paying tenants (X tax revenues) and might go under themselves, and banks will have huge losses to write off again (X tax revenues). If banks hemorrhage more bad loans, they even more so can’t make any more loans to small businesses to create jobs, and no new jobs, no new tax revenue streams! I ask you, Barack Obama, you want to raise taxes by raising the tax rate? Well tell me this: what good is an elevated tax rate, if there is nothing to tax? But that is only from a strictly independent, unbiased, non-partisan, impartial, objective point of view.

Posted by: IndePalin voter | November 27, 2009, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm

Re: “Barack Obama’s economic policies are driving America off a cliff.”
It was Bush/Republican policies that wrecked the economy, specifically, supply side economics and deregulation.
Obama did not create this mess, but he hasn’t done anything to fix it. He needs to re-regulate Wall St., and come up with a plan to reduce unemployment. Nobody expects him to fix the economy overnight, but he has to take action and move in the right direction. So far, I don’t see him doing that. I see individual states being blamed for having debts/deficts, when the problem is the federal government’s inability to stop wall St/NYC crooks from looting the Treasury.

Posted by: Bubbles | November 27, 2009, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm

people are not paranoid,they just know we have an incompetent in the white house.if dopra and the others want to push for health reform then by all means let them pay for it out of their own pockets and leave ours alone.

Posted by: your mama | November 27, 2009, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm

May if we knew or cared about a White House visitor’s list the last 8 years, we could have SCREAMED about those NO-BID contractors such as Hallerburton and Blackwater! Weren’t these the Riches that overbilled the U.S. governmetn by BILLIONS? Matter of fact ABC, since they’ve been busted, when will the taxpayers get their money back? Now that would be interesting> Don’t you think?

Posted by: sara | November 27, 2009, 5:40 pm 5:40 pm

Okay, good: funnily enough, the Obama White House cannot even host a state dinner without a security breach. That works for me. Yeah, it does. Have a funnily weekend, everyone.

Posted by: kelli | November 27, 2009, 5:58 pm 5:58 pm

Obama is not trying to “cover anything up”. The reason they aren’t releasing the visitation records is pretty obvious from the “party crashers” recently. It wouldn’t surprise me if the SS and staff have been overloaded by all the parties, the questionable backgrounds of many Obama’s associates&guests, and simply haven’t had the time to release records or do proper vetting of all visitors! Think of how it would be for them to do a background check on Obama or his relatives, for example. And imagine all those friends, mentors, fundraisers, and associates who might have attended one of the frequent recent White House parties! That is a lot of work to background check all that!

Posted by: Ed | November 27, 2009, 10:32 pm 10:32 pm

Must be some mistake here. Obama would never allow lobbyists into the White House.

Posted by: Fascist Hyena | November 27, 2009, 10:46 pm 10:46 pm

This administration is the furthest from transparency. If you speak out against the Obama plan you are neuterized like Humana and the Chamber of Commerce. Days and Days of closed door healthcare meetings not open to the other parties. We are losing all our freedoms as we know them. Get ready for huge government, big brother and share the wealth. Scary as hell.

Posted by: Nuno | November 27, 2009, 11:38 pm 11:38 pm

We are losing all our freedoms as we know them. Get ready for huge government, big brother and share the wealth.
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Exactly the fear mongering and conspiratorial nuttiness the Anti-Defamation League described in their recent report.

Posted by: tierra | November 28, 2009, 2:33 am 2:33 am

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