Washington’s nefarious revolving door is spinning at full speed. And the consequences can be terrible for taxpayers.

Take a look at two recent cases and the potential for damage done by too-cozy relationships between government officials and private industry is clear.

The revolving door in Washington refers to the all-too-common practice of high-ranking government officials and high-ranking members of an industry swapping places.

Michael M. Sears and Darleen A. Druyun were fired last month from Boeing after their actions relating to a huge government contract came under scrutiny. According to Boeing, CFO Sears improperly hired Druyun as a senior vice president. Druyun, right before taking her new job, was the deputy chief of procurement for the Air Force. Sears approached Druyun while she was in charge of several Boeing contracts, including a gargantuan deal worth billions of dollars for the Pentagon to lease tanker airplanes from the company.

The conflict of interest in the relationship is apparent.

It took Sen. John McCain to blow the whistle, and shine the light on the fishy circumstances surrounding the scheme. The whole thing is now under investigation.

The second case doesn’t have the same sleaze factor, but it also raises serious questions.

Thomas Scully will leave his position with the Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 16. Scully, who joined the government after working as the president of the Federation of American Hospitals, has made his services available to the private sector.

Scully was responsible for running Medicare and was instrumental in drafting the legislation that will add, among other things, a prescription drug benefit to the program. We dislike the Medicare legislation because it provides more benefits to drug makers than it does to seniors. Scully is highly sought after. At least five firms are seeking his services, including the law firm of Ropes & Gray. According to the online magazine Slate, Ropes & Gray represents – guess who – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Scully received a waiver from the ethics department inside Health and Human Services before beginning his job search. He has broken no conflict of interest laws that we know of. And, according to the New York Times, Scully has been completely open about leaving the government and actually took several policy positions that were at odds with some of the firms seeking his expertise.

But it still feels ugly.

Scully came from the health care industry, helped craft a monumental change in the health coverage of 40 million seniors, and is now returning to the private sector to help companies profit from those changes.

The revolving door in Washington is nothing new and has kept spinning through Democratic and Republican administrations alike.

But that doesn’t make it right. It’s time to strengthen our conflict of interest laws and make sure they are thoroughly enforced.
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