ethics advisor profile in WaPo

[John Wonderlich]

Great WaPo profile of Obama's ethics advisor:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031203748.html?sid%3DST2009031204059&sub=AR

In an administration filled with nervous new employees who are still learning the rules, Eisen is yanked away from his desk in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for 15 or 20 emergencies each day. He usually arrives to deliver bad news to some of the most important people in the White House. While his official title is special counsel for ethics and government reform, Eisen is also known among colleagues by his nicknames: "Mr. No" and "The Fun Sponge."

...

Eisen almost never leaves his office without a binder of ethics statutes and a badly mangled copy of "5 CFR," the code of federal regulations. It's a dense collection of complicated rules. One chapter on gift bans is followed by a long addendum of exceptions, which are then followed by their own exceptions. Gifts from lobbyists are not allowed, unless they're worth less than $20, and only then if they result from a spouse's business or employment.

After he accepted the ethics job, Eisen "got comfortable" with his copy of the 5 CFR -- meaning he tore off the cover, ripped out pages that did not apply to the White House and annotated sections he liked. He crossed out rules in pencil that he planned to change. No longer, he decided, could White House employees receive small gifts, honorary degrees or awards from lobbyists.

"No way," he said. "Some of these things are just scams."