The Obama White House has touted its lobbying ban as a major tool in fighting corruption. Obama golfs with Bain lobbyist

One of President Barack Obama’s golf partners this weekend was a lobbyist for the financial firm Bain Capital.

According to a White House pool report, Obama hit the links on Saturday at the exclusive Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., with Joe O’Neill, president and CEO of the lobbying and public affairs firm Public Strategies Washington.


Rounding out the foursome was U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk and Milton Carroll of CenterPoint Energy.

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O’Neill is a veteran Democratic lobbyist who represents clients like Bain Capital, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Edison Electric Institute, Lockheed Martin and many others.

The Obama White House has repeatedly touted its lobbying ban as a major tool in fighting corruption and influence peddling. The self-imposed ban largely keeps former registered lobbyists from working in the administration, though the administration has granted a number of waivers.

The president also made vilifying Mitt Romney’s work at the private equity firm Bain Capital a centerpiece of his 2012 campaign. In one campaign ad, a former mill worker called Bain “a vampire” that destroyed their livelihood.

O’Neill lobbies on tax reform issues for Bain. He’s a former National Retail Federation president and an ex-staffer to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas).

White House spokesman Jay Carney said during Monday’s White House daily briefing that the president’s promises regarding lobbying and influence peddling are still in place.

“I think he played a game of golf,” Carney told reporters about the game with O’Neill.