Mr. “I won’t take money from lobbyists” and “special interests won’t run my administration” has opened the door for a dozen lobbyists to work on helping him move into the Oval Office.

Is this the hope ‘n change Americans thought they were getting on election day?

Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to change Washington, vowing to upend the K Street lobbying culture he encountered when he joined the U.S. Senate.

But more than a dozen members of President-elect Obama’s fast-growing transition team have worked as federally registered lobbyists within the past four years. They include former lobbyists for the nation’s trial lawyers association, mortgage giant Fannie Mae, drug companies such as Amgen, high-tech firms such as Microsoft, labor unions and the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress.

Mark Gitenstein, one of the 12 transition board members who will play a significant role in shaping the Obama administration, worked on million-dollar lobbying contracts with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and promoted legislation for giant defense contractors Boeing and General Dynamics. Until this fall, he was registered to petition Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of AT&T, Merrill Lynch, KPMG, Ernst & Young and others.

Gitenstein has blue-chip credentials for the volunteer role on the Obama team. He was chief Democratic counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings for controversial Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork; was a close adviser to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s White House bid; and served as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It’s worth noting that Obama’s pledge to decline money from lobbyists was a hollow one as well.  He may not have taken money from lobbyists directly, but he sure took money from the clients and spouses and children and siblings and business partners of lobbyists.  Meaning, essentially, that the lobbyists could still give him money.  They just had to filter it through an intermediary first.

Despite all the flashy campaign slogans and soaring speeches, Obama has never really been a “change” candidate.  He’s a politics as usual politician who is playing the part of a “change” leader.