Given the White House's efforts to reduce the influence of lobbyists, I thought it interesting to pay attention to the ethics commitments of its staff.

ProPublica, an independent, non-profit investigative news organization, has copies of the ethics commitment letters written by some of President Obama's prominent political appointees. In the letters, officials promise to comply with government ethics rules and list their conflicts of interest, past and present. Take a look here.

They include letters by the Pentagon's number two, William Lynn, Attorney General Eric Holder and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

ProPublica also analyzed the financial disclosure filings of 179 appointees.

                                                                                                           --Bara Vaida