From jobseekers, Obama seeks to know all

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass Obama, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages. It also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet”.

The vetting process for executive branch jobs has been onerous for decades. But Obama has elevated the vetting even beyond what might have been expected, especially when it comes to applicants’ family members, in a reflection of his campaign rhetoric against lobbying and the back-scratching, self-serving ways of Washington.

“President-elect Obama made a commitment to change the way Washington does business, and the vetting process exemplifies that,” said Stephanie Cutter, chief spokeswoman for the Obama transition office.

Jobs with the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have served as lucrative incubators for Democratic and Republican administration officials. But those affiliations have become potentially toxic since the Government seized both companies after years of financial irregularities that have stoked the economic crisis.

Not surprisingly, then, question 18 of the Obama application asks whether “you, your spouse or any member of your immediate family” have been affiliated with Fannie, Freddie, American International Group, Washington Mutual and any other institution getting a Government bailout.

Under “Domestic Help”, the Obama questionnaire asks for the immigration status of applicants’ housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs and yard-workers, and whether applicants have paid the required taxes for household employees.

“Every transition is cumulative,” said Michael Berman, a lobbyist who worked in the transitions of both Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Just in case the previous 62 questions do not ferret out any potential controversy, the 63rd and final one is all-encompassing: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-elect.”

Some of the questions

• Please list any claims of sexual harassment of other workplace misconduct, made against you or any employee directly supervised by you, including the resolution of the matter.

• Please provide the URL of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

• With regard to each obligation of child support and/or alimony owed by you or your spouse, please state the following: Have any payments been made late or have there been any lapses in payment?… Have any actions or motions to compel payment or initiate collection of late payments and/or past due amounts been filed or threatened?… If yes, please provide details.

• If applicable, please list the names, addresses and phone number of cohabitants within the last ten years. A cohabitant is a person with whom you share bonds of affection, obligation, or other commitment, as opposed to a person with whom you live for reasons of convenience (a roommate).