Reversing course, Obama inauguration will take corporate money

“What is Obama thinking?” he asked. “At a time when deficits, taxes and government programs are being negotiated in secretive two-person deal making, how can it possibly be a good idea to fund a huge party with huge corporate donations?”

In announcing the decision Friday, the committee pledged to post all the donors online and said the finance team would screen the corporate and individual contributions for potential conflict-of-interest issues for the White House and will bar funds from businesses with pending government contracts.

But there are no assurances that the donations will be disclosed reliably online and no way to prevent donors with potential conflicts from laundering them through another entity or donor.

Organizers will continue the 2009 ban on accepting donations from lobbyists and PACs, and will not accept corporate or individual sponsorship agreements, but Mr. Wonderlich said those limits are laughable because a lobbyist’s corporate client can donate directly.

“Obama said unlimited donations sully our democracy, threaten public service, and weaken representation — and now has chosen to embrace them,” he wrote. “Maybe Obama’s setting the tone for his second term: We’re not worried about whether we look like reformers at all.”

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