The White House announced today that President Obama has chosen Derek Douglas to serve as special assistant to the president for urban affairs. Douglas also happens to be the most recent former lobbyist Obama has welcomed into his administration despite his hard stance against influence peddlers during the campaign.

According to Senate records, Douglas lobbied for O'Melveny & Myers and for the Center for American Progress.

Douglas previously served as counsel to New York Governor David Paterson and was director of Paterson's Washington, D.C., office. He was also associate director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress where he founded and ran the the Economic Mobility Program. Earlier in his career, Douglas was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

                                                                                                      -- Winter Casey