time for a top human rights job at the State Department , he was turned away . Why ? `` Because he lobbied against torture , '' says one incredulous administration official . `` It 's crazy . '' But the rules are the rules : The ethics code requires that no lobbyist can be hired to work for an agency he may have lobbied . So , just to clarify : Someone like Malinowski who lobbied against torture and is a widely acknowledged expert on international human rights law is , er , blackballed . More to the point , he was shown the door precisely because he tried to influence Congress on an issue that both he and the administration agree , and care deeply about . -LRB- Malinowski wo n't comment . -RRB- Only in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Washington would this make any sense . And it still does n't . It 's just a prime instance of the problems that can arise when great-sounding -LRB- theoretical -RRB- campaign one-liners rub up against the -LRB- real -RRB- difficulties of trying to staff a government . In other words , the short-term interest in demonizing all lobbyists
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Tim Geithner may be the latest political piñata in Washington these days , but -- policy aside -- there may be another reason he is the one fellow everyone is picking on at Treasury : He 's there alone . President Obama 's ethics code requires that no lobbyist can work for an agency he may have lobbied . Believe it or not , Geithner is the only confirmed official at his department . Some top nominees , even those who have served in government before , have decided to withdraw . Others are still pending as they go through arduous background checks that one pro-Obama Democrat calls `` maddening vetting hell . '' Sure , this is about extensive scrutiny to make sure no one has a tax problem after Geithner 's own embarrassing unpaid tax bill . But the staffing problem is not just at Treasury , and it goes way beyond the time-consuming nature of extensive background checks . It 's also about overreaching anti-lobbyist rules . Consider Tom Malinowski . He 's the advocacy director for Human Rights Watch , an expert on genocide and torture . But when it came