President Barack Obama made a big promise in regards to ethics to the American people: Lobbyists won’t be working in areas of his administration of they formerly lobbied in that same industry. And he planned on sticking with that…until it got inconvenient. Then he decided to waive his ethics rule and promise.

The Obama administration has waived its ethics rules to allow William Lynn to serve as the deputy secretary of Defense…

However, Levin cautioned that his panel will insist and ensure that Lynn, a Raytheon executive and former lobbyist, will comply with a strict set of ethics rules. He said this would include a requirement to recuse himself for a year from any decisions involving Raytheon, a large defense contractor…

Several Washington watchdog groups have ratcheted up pressure on Levin and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the panel’s ranking Republican, to not confirm Lynn because of Obama’s ethics rules.

In a letter dated Friday to Levin and McCain the groups stressed that Lynn cannot serve “effectively” as the Pentagon’s No. 2 because he was a lobbyist for Raytheon in the last two years. They also said they would oppose a waiver, which they declared would violate Obama’s new “revolving door” rules.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Government Accountability Project (GAP) and Public Citizen signed the letter.

Lynn was a registered lobbyist until early 2008 and his nomination raised some eyebrows even before the executive order on ethics that Obama issued Wednesday, because it contradicted the new president’s pledge not to let lobbyists in his administration.

According to Raytheon’s lobbying disclosure forms, Lynn was part of a team that lobbied on a wide range of defense-related issues, including force protection, electronics, intelligence and missile defense.

The likelihood that Lynn would be able to stay away from these issues is pretty slim. Raytheon is a major defense contractor, working with the United States on many major weapons programs. That should worry Senators, but there’s apparently little chance that his nomination will be stopped.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he supports Lynn’s nomination and looks “forward to prompt consideration by the Senate.”…

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a defense authorizer and Obama surrogate during the presidential campaign, was the only one who raised the lobbying issue during Lynn’s confirmation hearing last week. McCaskill said she was concerned about revolving-door issues between the Pentagon and defense industry.

But McCaskill on Thursday said that she would support Lynn’s confirmation. The senator said she’d support waiving the new rules for Lynn, but added that she first wanted to make sure that Lynn will take on the role of a reformer of the Pentagon.

Oy vey.