By Michelle Malkin
President Obama is finally uniting the left and the right -- in joint opposition to his administrations chronic sabotage of transparency and public disclosure rules.
It wont be long before liberals disillusioned by Dear Leaders reveal-as-we-say-not-as-we-conceal policies link arms with me and join in on my 2-year-old chant: Obama lied transparency died.
Watchdog groups and Republicans on Capitol Hill want an investigation into hundreds of White House meetings with corporate lobbyists at D.C. coffee houses.
K Street influence peddlers told The New York Times last week that theyve met routinely with Team Obama officials over the past 18 months to discuss policy matters -- at Starbucks Caribou Coffee even on a side lawn -- with the express purpose of circumventing the publics right to know.
The Coffee House Ruse comes on top of the latest confession of White House non-disclosure from ex-Big Labor heavy Patrick Gaspard Obamas chief domestic policy adviser who failed to report a $40000 pension payment from his old employer the Service Employees International Union in New York.
If they keep this up sunlight-avoiding Obama officials will soon be cast as the next Twilight vampires.
Lobbyists say some White House officials will agree to an initial meeting with a lobbyist and his client at the White House the Times once-zealous champions of Obama reported but then plan follow-up sessions at a site not subject to the visitors log.
Said one financial lobbyist who has met more than a half-dozen times off-campus with White House officials: Ill call and say I want to talk to you about X and theyll say Sure lets talk at Starbucks.
You see: When Obama promised to change the way Washington works what he really meant was changing where the usual Beltway backroom wheelers and dealers do their business. And when he talked about changing the culture in the nations capitol what he really meant was just changing titles.
In addition to carving out the Coffee House loophole and using personal e-mail accounts to communicate with the influence industry White House officials have been advising lobbyists looking for administration jobs to de-register -- shedding their K Street status -- to get around Obamas vaunted lobbyist hiring ban.
With more than 40 ex-lobbyists working in the administration Obamas no-lobbyists executive order already has more holes in it than a moth-eaten 
crocheted sweater.
The self-puffery of the double-talker-in-chief on disclosure ethics is inversely proportional to the amount of real transparency he has delivered. In January irked by criticism of private health care meetings with Big Labor cronies at the Oval Office Obama lectured Americans that it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency weve executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
His legal counsel trumpeted the release of more than 25000 White House visitor logs (many incomplete vague and useless) as a milestone in the presidents commitment to change Washington. The president believes that this and our many other transparency initiatives promote accountability and keep American democracy vital.
While Obamas cabinet engaged in the same old precedented meetings with lobbyists his propagandists patted themselves on the back for providing unprecedented access:
We are excited about the visitor records policy not only because we are breaking new ground for this administration but also because we are establishing a new standard for all future administrations. We know of no comparable initiative in the history of the White House.
Puff puff puff. The Obama administrations incomparable hype and hypocrisy have at last proved too much for good-government liberals. Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate and hold hearings on the Coffee House loophole.
CREW head Melanie Sloan lambasted the Democratic White House:
This is what all the administrations anti-lobbyist rhetoric gets you -- less transparency. Rather than being open and clear about who is influencing White House policy the White House is trying to hide who its really talking to. Even worse the public is being suckered with lofty rhetoric about the evils of the same lobbyists White House officials are meeting with.
Now that citizen activists are staking out D.C. caffeine hot spots the White House/special-interest trysts may soon be headed to Washington street corner hot dog stands and taquerias. Keep your eyes and ears open. The next cap-and-tax exemption or stimulus slush fund may be hammered out in a public restroom stall or on a Metro subway seat next to you. On the upside coffee-gate is rousing slow-learning Americans from their Obama-as-Messiah stupor. The best part of waking up is reality in your cup.
