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OTTAWA Senate Liberals are trying to close a loophole that allows cabinet ministers, their staff and deputy ministers to accept gifts and cash from friends without declaring them even if it could be construed as a way of trying to influence their votes.

It is unclear if the Conservatives will back the rule change, one they first rejected nearly eight years ago when it was proposed as an amendment in the Senate.

The Conflict of Interest Act currently states that public office holders and their family members a label that does not apply to backbench MPs or senators but does apply to cabinet ministers and about 3,000 other people appointed by the cabinet cannot accept gifts or other advantages that could be seen as a possible attempt to influence them in the exercise of their powers, duties or functions.

There are exceptions:

Gifts or advantages can be accepted as long as they are given by a relative or friend. The word friend is not defined in the legislation.

Top public officials do not have to disclose to the ethics commissioner gifts worth more than $200 if they are from a relative or friend;

They are also excused from publicly disclosing the donor, a description of the $200 or more gift or advantage, and the circumstances in which it was accepted, if it was given by a relative or friend.

Liberal senator Joseph Day told The Huffington Post Canada on Tuesday that the loophole is so huge the government cannot possibly believe this is accountability.

[It]s a mistake, because anybody can be a friend. Just look at Facebook? How many friends do you have?

When the word friend is undefined, he said, everything can be described as coming from a friend. Sure, sure, hes my friend, he said, a large smile on his lips.

The rest is here:
Liberals In Senate Aim To Close Loophole Allowing Undeclared Gifts

White House domestic policy director Cecilia Muoz jokes that she isnt tempted to check her BlackBerry on her morning drive down 16th Street for this simple reason: She worries about taking out the presidents chief of staff or his labor secretary as they bike in from the same little corner of Maryland.

I passed Denis one morning riding into work and I thought, Oh my God, I dont want to be the person who wipes out Denis McDonough or Tom Perez, Muoz said in an interview. I think about this every day, actually.

Call them the Takoma Park posse; small in number, huge in influence. Three of Obamas top advisers McDonough, Muoz and Perez are all longtime residents of one of the most liberal and politically active communities in the nation, and maybe one of the best illustrations of the administrations ideological moorings.

Nicknamed the Peoples Republic of Takoma, the Maryland city has, by local statute, declared itself a nuclear-free zone. Some residents raise pigs and chickens in their back yards even as others see a moral conundrum in slaughtering them. And non-citizens can vote in local elections if they have a green card.

If Glover Park represented the Clinton administrations studied New Democrat cool and McLean, Va., symbolized the George W. Bush administrations comfort with wealth and power, Takoma Park embodies the current White Houses ethos of political activism and social inclusivity. A community organizer would live here. It is enough to make right-wing conspiracy theorists cringe.

Takoma Park reflects the America that I would like to see everywhere. Theres a lot of diversity, broadly defined, Perez said in a phone interview, adding of his neighbors, They believe we all succeed when we all succeed, but only when we all succeed.

The city prides itself on being a bastion of multiculturalism and economic diversity; there are significant Latino and Ethiopian populations, along with rent control and a history of being a welcoming home for same-sex couples. The current mayor is gay, the city has a corn silo to provide alternative heating fuel and the Takoma Wellness Center just across the D.C-Maryland line is the Districts only medical marijuana dispensary north of downtown.

Going into next weeks midterm elections, it is clear that many Democrats think President Obama has not lived up to the expectations they had when he first took office nearly six years ago. But when it comes to some of the men and women surrounding the president, many of them share the deeply progressive outlook and ambitions of their partys base.

Its the bluest city in one of the bluest states in the country, said Maryland state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D), who represents the area. People here are proud of our public servants and political activists.

Raskin is married to Sarah Bloom Raskin, deputy secretary in Obama Treasury Department. Other administration officials who come from Takoma Park include Roy Austin, who directs urban affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Jesse Lee, the White House director of progressive media. Van Jones lived there while serving as a White House environmental adviser at the start of Obamas first term, while Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson lived in nearby Silver Spring, Md., before leaving the administration.

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Takoma Park liberals at the core of the White House

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