President Obama's new ethics platform has already sprung some serious leaks. In spite of an executive order aimed to stem the influence of lobbyists in the Obama administration, former lobbyists are finding their way into top posts, according to the National Journal.

In his first executive order, signed Jan. 21, Obama requires former lobbyists seeking employment in the administration pledge not to "participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied" for two years.

But the executive order also includes an escape hatch. The Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget is permitted to grant a waiver to any appointee if "the literal application of the restriction is inconsistent with the purposes of the restriction" or if "it is in the public interest to grant the waiver."

That's some pretty vague criteria. The only additional information is the order's equally vague definition of public interest: "The public interest shall include, but not be limited to, exigent circumstances relating to national security or to the economy."

The administration is already using the executive order's escape hatch. Mark Patterson, a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, is under consideration for the post of Department of Treasury Chief of Staff. The Project on Government Oversight has more:

As recently as April 2008, Patterson was registered as a lobbyist at the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., working on issues such as foreclosure prevention, credit default swaps, and over-the-counter derivatives. It should also be noted that Goldman Sachs has received $10 billion in bailout funds under Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Considering how opaque TARP has been to this point, and considering that the extent of its effectiveness remains a mystery, oversight and impartiality in the Treasury Department is of the utmost importance. But the chief of staff can wield great power behind the scenes.

The waiver provision in the executive order could have been markedly improved if accompanied by transparency mandates. Obama could have tied a string to a waiver by urging conflicted appointees to conduct more of their business in the sunlight. A transparency mandate could have provided citizens with at least a modicum of confidence that their interests were not being compromised.

Patterson isn't the only example of a lobbyists finding his way into the administration's corridors of power.

William Lynn, a nominee for deputy secretary at the Department of Defense, has been under scrutiny for his ties to Raytheon, a major defense contractor.

Lynn spent "the better part of the past two years" lobbying for Raytheon, according to The Washington Post. Raytheon is on the winning end of about $10 billion in Defense Department contracts every year — making it the Pentagon's fifth largest contractor.

If confirmed, Lynn may have a difficult time steering clear of issues where a conflict would present itself. According to the Post, "Lynn, however, lobbied the Pentagon on so many Raytheon projects - acquisitions policy, space, intelligence and command and control, among others - that it might be hard to find an area within the department that was untouched by his previous work."

Granting high-profile exceptions to the new executive order — and granting them so early in the administration — is no way to signal a commitment to ending special interest influence in the Executive Branch.