The Obama Cabinet

[QueEx]

<font size="3">Chief of Staff

</font size>
<font size="5"><center>Obama picks his enforcer</font size><font size="4">
RAHM EMANUEL As 'bad cop' chief of staff,
longtime political insider knows how to get tough jobs done </font size></center>

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel talks on his cell phone as he leaves his
congressional office in Chicago on Thursday night with a staff
member. (AP)


Chicago Sun Times
By Lynn Sweet
November 7, 2008

When William Daley was looking for someone to manage his brother's 1989 race for mayor of Chicago, a brash Rahm Emanuel pitched himself for the job.

"I said no," Daley said, going on to select David Wilhelm as campaign manager, who went on to manage Bill Clinton's 1992 White House bid. Instead, Daley offered Emanuel a post as finance chairman for the mayoral campaign, and Emanuel turned him down.

"I said, 'OK, thanks,'" Daley recalled. But Emanuel changed his mind, joined the Daley team and started down a road that Thursday led to President-elect Barack Obama tapping him to be his White House chief of staff, Obama's first appointment.

With Emanuel, Obama gets an enforcer, a bad cop who loves the f-word, with a unique resume no one else in the United States can match: the No. 4 leader in the House; veteran of seven years in the White House during the Clinton administration; a supreme media and political strategist who knows process and policy. He's also a close friend of Obama and David Axelrod, the mastermind who helped propel Obama from a state Senate seat in Chicago to the White House in four years.

"No one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel," Obama said in a statement.

"He's unbelievably loyal and tough," said Daley, who is part of Obama's transition team and close to Emanuel and Axelrod.

If Obama is reserved Mr. Cool, Emanuel is emotive Mr. Hot.

On this point, Emanuel, who accidentally lost the tip of a finger as a 17-year-old working at an Arby's, made this joke on himself at the April 2007 Gridiron dinner. "Of all the fingers to lose! I could not express myself for months. I had to learn to talk with my left hand."

The decision by Emanuel, re-elected Tuesday to his fourth House term, to step down to become chief of staff came with some agony: He was on a path in the House that could have made him speaker someday.

He also relishes the lifestyle he has carved out for himself. He commutes to Washington, leaving his wife, Amy, and three young children at their Ravenswood home.

In a statement, Emanuel said he was leaving a job "I love" because "I want to do everything I can to help deliver the change America needs."


Israeli Background

Rahm Israel Emanuel, who turns 49 on Nov. 29, was born on Chicago's Far North Side, with his family moving to Wilmette when he was a youngster. He is a graduate of New Trier West High School, with an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence and a master's in communication from Northwestern University. He is a ballet dancer and a swimmer.

Emanuel's Israeli father, Benjamin, is a pediatrician, and his mother, Marsha is a social worker. Emanuel is an observant Jew who did not, contrary to some of the mythology that has grown around him, serve in the Israeli army. Rather, Emanuel in 1991 volunteered for a few weeks in a program run by the Israeli army where civilians could help the Israel Defense Force with support work on an army base.

He is one in a trio of superachieving brothers: Ari is a Hollywood superagent, the chief at Endeavor, and Ezekiel, a breast oncologist, is the chairman of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. An adopted sister, Shoshana is rarely mentioned.

Through his Wilhelm connection, in 1991, Emanuel joined the Clinton campaign as a fund-raiser, rewarded with the White House political director post. He flamed out in a few months, to be resurrected and end up as a senior adviser to Clinton.

After seven years in Washington, Emanuel moved to Ravenswood, making millions of dollars as an investment banker in a few deals, and making more money when tapped by Clinton for a plum spot on the Freddie Mac board.

With Mayor Daley's backing, Emanuel won a House seat in 2002, quickly rising -- he has a seat on the Ways and Means Committee -- in no small part because of his ability to raise political money. In 2004, Emanuel was tapped by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to chair the Democratic House political operation, where he was the architect of the plan that resulted in the Democrats taking back the House in 2006.

Supposedly Emanuel was the model for Josh Lyman on the "The West Wing." Now he'll be Leo McGarry, Lyman's boss.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/1266275,CST-NWS-sweet07.article

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Rahm Emanuel brings tough tactics, saucy tongue to Obama White House

Obama's new chief of staff a skilled tactician

Obama's choice for chief of staff rankles Republicans

Rush Limbaugh

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[QueEx]

<font size="5"><Center>
Obama picks another Chicagoan for
senior post, sets meeting with McCain</font size><font size="4">

Obama names Valerie Jarret as Senior Adviser and Assistant
to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison</font size></center>

Valerie Jarret


McClatchy Newspapers
By Margaret Talev
Friday, November 14, 2008



WASHINGTON — Barack Obama on Friday named longtime friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett to a senior post in his White House, a move that makes clear the importance of his Chicago political connections as he moves to take the reins of power in Washington.

Jarrett, who as an aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley once hired Michelle Obama for a city job, will be Obama's go-between with state governments and public advocacy groups and will have daily contact with the president. Her title will be senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison.

Last week, Obama named Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel to be his White House chief of staff.

The announcement of Jarrett's White House posting — the first senior spot to go to an African-American — came on a day in which the Obama transition team stepped up its preparations to take office on Jan. 20.

Dozens of experts assigned to Obama's transition team fanned out into federal departments, agencies and commissions to gather information that will help the incoming administration get a jump on policymaking, budgeting and personnel decisions.

These included areas where President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's policies have been under intense scrutiny by Democrats, including the Executive Office of the President, national security programs, the Justice Department and energy programs.

The list of agency-review team leaders released Friday included names such as Rand Beers, a former counterterrorism adviser to Bush who resigned from the National Security Council in protest of the invasion of Iraq.

Obama also reached out to his former rivals, setting up a meeting for Monday with Sen. John McCain, the vanquished Republican presidential candidate, after apparently meeting Thursday in Chicago with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Obama said the private meeting with McCain in Chicago was intended to discuss areas of common ground.

The president-elect and his staff weren't talking about the meeting in Chicago with Clinton. Clinton's name has surfaced as a potential pick for secretary of state, and some Obama advisers, who were former advisers to Clinton and former President Clinton, want to promote her as a candidate.

Obama also may consider the New York senator an essential ally in the Senate as he pursues a major expansion of health-care coverage for Americans, which she's championed for decades. Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines declined comment Friday, saying it was up to Obama's team to address "any speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments.";

Meanwhile, two of Obama's surrogates were meeting with representatives of at least 15 major world powers and key U.S. allies in Washington for the global economic summit.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Rep. Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican who backed Obama, are to meet Saturday with representatives of China, Japan, Turkey, the European Commission, the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

Since Thursday, the Obama transition team said, they've met with representatives of Russia, India, Australia, Germany, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Argentina and with the secretary general of the United Nations.

Obama's meeting Monday with McCain also will be attended by Emanuel and by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of McCain's closest friends and allies.

In an interview Friday, Graham said Emanuel asked for the meeting about a week ago.

"We were talking about some things that we could work together on," Graham said. Graham mentioned immigration policy and a long-term strategy for Social Security solvency as areas where bipartisan solutions are needed. McCain also has supported lifting restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research and has championed campaign-finance and anti-corruption efforts, stances that appeal to Obama.

While McCain was at times hostile or dismissive toward Obama during the campaign, Graham said Friday that McCain was "very duty-oriented" and that "the election's over. It's time to move on."

Jarrett's appointment came after speculation that she might be named to replace Obama in the Senate. But Jarrett had said in recent days that she was not interested in the job.

Jarrett, a lawyer, is the president and CEO of The Habitat Co., a real estate developer, and was a frequent presence on the campaign trail. She's one of three co-chairs of the Obama transition team.

(James Rosen contributed to this report.)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/55956.html

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><Center>
Obama picks another Chicagoan for
senior post, sets meeting with McCain</font size><font size="4">

Obama names Valerie Jarret as Senior Adviser and Assistant
to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison</font size></center>

Valerie Jarret

<font size="4">
Related thread:

</font size><font size="3">
For Obama, Advice Straight Up; Obama's Right Hand Woman
Valerie Jarrett Is Essential Member of Inner Set</font size>
http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?t=266292&highlight=valerie+jarrett


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[nittie]

Does Barry even know any Black people? Is he just another token about to chewed up and spit out by the system like Colin, Condi, Andy and too many other house negroes to mention.

 

[QueEx]

You really should put that cheap wine, down.

 

[nittie]

You really should put that cheap wine, down.

I don't drink wine but if you quit hero worshipping I might consider it.

 

[ronmch20]

Does Barry even know any Black people? Is he just another token about to chewed up and spit out by the system like Colin, Condi, Andy and too many other house negroes to mention.

After 20 years as a member of Rev. Wright's church and a southside Chicago community organizer, what do you think? And my understanding of a "token" is one who allowed to associate with, or be a member of, a group for appearance sake. Since there is only one POTUS how can he possibly be a token?

 

[toyracer]

Don't forget Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan. She's now on the Obama transition economic advisory board. The idea of her giving financial advice is frightening. Then again, she does what Democrats know how to do best: tax.

Michigan has been known for the past few years as the "single state recession". There was a voters initiative to repeal the Single Business Tax, which was approved by the state legislature. Eleven months later came the Michigan Business tax, which imposed two taxes for all business other than financial institutions and insurance companies.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/04/press_photorex_larsen_ron_koro.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS232012+29-Apr-2008+PRN20080429

http://www.therealestatebloggers.co...x-levies-greater-impact-on-real-estate-firms/

Anyone here from Michigan that an give us a first-hand point of view?

 

[Cruise]

Don't forget Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan. She's now on the Obama transition economic advisory board. The idea of her giving financial advice is frightening. Then again, she does what Democrats know how to do best: tax.

Michigan has been known for the past few years as the "single state recession". There was a voters initiative to repeal the Single Business Tax, which was approved by the state legislature. Eleven months later came the Michigan Business tax, which imposed two taxes for all business other than financial institutions and insurance companies.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/04/press_photorex_larsen_ron_koro.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS232012+29-Apr-2008+PRN20080429

http://www.therealestatebloggers.co...x-levies-greater-impact-on-real-estate-firms/

Anyone here from Michigan that an give us a first-hand point of view?

Yeah, it's really ridiculous. Putting her in charge of any economic issues is like putting a Wall Street Banker in charge of the U. S. Treasury.

You're asking for trouble.

Not a good sign of sound decision making.

After 20 years as a member of Rev. Wright's church and a southside Chicago community organizer, what do you think? And my understanding of a "token" is one who allowed to associate with, or be a member of, a group for appearance sake. Since there is only one POTUS how can he possibly be a token?

I equate Obama working in Chicago for 20 years the same as I equate the so-called "nice" whiteboy working in Ethiopia helping the poor and starving. It doesn't mean these people should be leading or setting policy for that country/community/society.

Obama certainly got paid for his 20 years by getting the Presidency, so it's not like he did it out of the goodness of his heart.

Plus, Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza spent massive amounts of time as children living in a Jim Crow world.

We all see what that result was.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Holder Top Prospect for Attorney General</font size><font size="4">

If he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Holder will be
the first African American attorney general</font size></center>

By Carrie Johnson and Chris Cillizza

Eric H. Holder Jr., a former second in command at the Justice Department who served as President-elect Barack Obama's campaign co-chairman, is almost certain to be selected as U.S. attorney general, according to knowledgeable Democratic sources.

Holder, 57, has a rich background within the criminal justice system as a former judge and top federal prosecutor in Washington. He is widely known within the city's legal community and for his philanthropic work on behalf of troubled juveniles detained at Washington's Oak Hill facility. If he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Holder will be the first African American attorney general.

For the past several years, Holder has defended private corporations as a partner at the law firm Covington and Burling. But he took on an active role in the Obama campaign as a friend and adviser to the senator from Illinois after meeting him at a Washington dinner party, and over the summer served on his vice presidential vetting team.

Holder has won praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, although his selection is likely to revive questions about his failure to act forcefully to prevent a last-minute pardon of fugitive Marc Rich, who won clemency from President Bill Clinton during his last days in office in early 2001.

Holder would join several other veterans of the Clinton administration who already have signed on to the Obama team, including White House counsel Greg Craig, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Ronald Klain, chief of staff to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Holder has yet to complete an energetic vetting process by the Obama-Biden transition team, and his position as attorney general would have to be be confirmed by the Senate. A formal announcement of the choice might not come for a few days, a source familiar with the choice said.

The Obama transition office said no final decision has been reached. "No one has been offered the job as attorney general," said Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.

As a surrogate for the Obama campaign, Holder appeared at a meeting of more than 100 police chiefs before the election, promising more federal resources to combat violent crime.

Early in his career, Holder worked as a public corruption prosecutor in the years following the Watergate scandal.

Jamie S. Gorelick, who served as the department's second in command during the Clinton administration, this afternoon offered praise for the choice.

"He will be excellent: Eric has the perfect background for the job -- having grown up as a lawyer at DoJ and having served as a judge -- as well as an excellent and long-standing relationship with the president-elect," Gorelick said. "He will be able to restore the values and morale of the department at this critical juncture."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/th...der_top_prospect_for_attorn.html?hpid=topnews

 

[Cruise]

Does Obama have any of his "own" people?

Why is everyone in his inner circle a recycled Clinton drone?

 

[toyracer]

Does Obama have any of his "own" people?

Why is everyone in his inner circle a recycled Clinton drone?

Good questions Cruise. It is (very) early days yet, but many are asking "where is the change?" To counter that, others can ask "just how many people are there available to serve any given position, based on experience etc. ?" The talent pool for some positions cannot be very deep.

 

[keysersoze]

Holder Seen as Justice Choice as Obama Forms Team

Eric H. Holder Jr., a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, was a legal adviser to the Obama campaign.​

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has signaled to Eric H. Holder Jr., a senior official in the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, that he will be chosen as attorney general, but no final decision has been made, people involved in the process said Tuesday.

Mr. Holder would be the first African-American to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

As a top adviser to Mr. Obama, he has long been considered the front-runner for the job of attorney general because of his extensive record as a prosecutor and a judge and a well-honed reputation inside Washington. Mr. Obama’s advisers appear to have overcome concerns that Mr. Holder’s involvement in a presidential pardon scandal as President Bill Clinton left office in 2001 might cloud his nomination for the job.

Word that Mr. Holder was likely to be nominated as attorney general leaked out as Mr. Obama also began settling on other members of his team and signaling his policy priorities upon taking office.

Mr. Obama is set to hire Peter R. Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, as the White House budget director, people involved in the transition said. They said the leading candidate at this point for another top post on the economic team, director of the National Economic Council, is Jacob Lew, who was Mr. Clinton’s budget director.

While Mr. Obama has yet to name any of his cabinet secretaries, his early choices for White House staff positions and the names currently at the top of the list for staff and cabinet jobs suggest that his administration could be heavily stocked with Democrats who served under Mr. Clinton. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, under consideration to be secretary of state, was said by an adviser to be torn about giving up her Senate seat.

In his only public appearance on Tuesday, Mr. Obama indicated that he intended to move rapidly on one of the most ambitious items on his agenda, tackling climate change. Speaking to a bipartisan group of governors by video, the president-elect said that despite the weakening economy, he had no intention of softening or delaying his ambitious goals for reducing emissions that cause the warming of the planet.

“Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” Mr. Obama said. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”

He repeated his campaign promise to reduce climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and invest $150 billion in new energy-saving technologies.

Some industry leaders and members of Congress have suggested that Mr. Obama’s climate proposal would impose too great a cost on an already-stressed economy — having the same effects as a tax on coal, oil and natural gas — and should await the end of the current downturn. A bill similar to Mr. Obama’s plan failed to clear the Senate this year, largely because of concerns about its impact on the economy.

Mr. Obama rejected that view, saying that his plan would reduce oil imports, create jobs in energy conservation and renewable sources of energy, and reverse the warming of the atmosphere.

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process,” he said.

Mr. Obama said that although he would not attend a meeting on climate change sponsored next month by the United Nations, he had asked members of Congress who would be attending to report back to him on what the United States could do to reassert leadership on global climate policy.

Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who has been a consistent skeptic on global warming science and legislation, said Tuesday that Mr. Obama might be getting out ahead of his own party on climate change. Mr. Inhofe noted that nearly a third of Senate Democrats had opposed the similar climate change bill that came to a vote this year.

“President-elect Obama will face an even tougher sell in the years ahead, with economic concerns remaining front and center,” Mr. Inhofe said.

In Washington, Michelle Obama and her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, visited the White House on Tuesday, the final day of a two-day trip devoted to scouting out private schools for the young girls. Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama, said Laura Bush had invited Mrs. Obama for her second visit to the White House — she and Mr. Obama visited last week — so the girls could get a feel for their new home-to-be.

During their trip to Washington, Mrs. Obama and her daughters also toured Sidwell Friends School and Georgetown Day School, two private schools they are considering.

Members of Mr. Obama’s transition team said Tuesday that no decision had been made on the attorney general spot and denied reports that Mr. Holder, 57, had already been selected.

People involved in the transition process said, however, that the decision appeared all but certain once the process of vetting of Mr. Holder was completed. If Mr. Holder is selected as attorney general and confirmed by the Senate, his biggest challenge, legal observers agree, will be to restore the credibility of a department that was badly battered by political scandal during the Bush administration. The dismissal of eight United States attorneys in 2007 and other controversies opened up the Justice Department to accusations that it had routinely let politics trump legal considerations.

Mr. Holder first met Mr. Obama at a small dinner party in 2004 welcoming him to Washington. The two lawyers, each the son of immigrant fathers, were seated next to each other at the dinner, and Mr. Holder said he was immediately impressed by the new senator.

Mr. Holder went on to serve as an adviser to Mr. Obama’s campaign on legal issues and served on the two-member vice-presidential selection team that led to the choice of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. as Mr. Obama’s running mate.

Now in private practice as a partner at the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling, Mr. Holder served as a federal prosecutor, a trial court judge, and United States attorney for the District of Columbia before becoming the top-ranking aide to Attorney General Janet Reno in 1997. He was regarded as a strong ally for federal prosecutors and helped shape Mr. Clinton’s program to put 100,000 police officers on the street.

His last days at the Justice Department in 2001 were marred by his peripheral involvement in Mr. Clinton’s pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich, as Republicans sharply criticized Mr. Holder as failing to oppose the pardon and allowing the White House to bypass the normal pardon review process at the Justice Department.

Mr. Holder told the Clinton White House at the time that he was “neutral, leaning toward favorable” on the idea of pardoning Mr. Rich, whose former wife, Denise Rich, had contributed heavily to Mr. Clinton’s presidential library.

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which reviews nominees for attorney general, told reporters on Tuesday that while he had not taken any position on the prospect of Mr. Holder as attorney general, his role in the pardon of Mr. Rich should be “a factor to consider” in any confirmation.

With the battered economy the most immediate problem facing him when he takes office in January, Mr. Obama interviewed Mr. Orszag in Chicago last week for the cabinet-level job of director of the Office of Management and Budget, people familiar with the transition said.

Mr. Obama’s budget director will have to scramble to draft a proposed budget to be ready soon after the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, and to help with the economic stimulus proposals that Mr. Obama has said he will offer after taking office.

Like several other candidates for top posts, Mr. Orszag is a protégé of Robert E. Rubin, former Treasury secretary to Mr. Clinton, and shares Mr. Rubin’s centrist approach to fiscal policies and concern about big deficits.

Mr. Orszag was also considered for the job of director of the White House National Economic Council, which coordinates the work of the president’s principal economic and fiscal advisers. That post is expected to go to Mr. Lew, another Clinton White House veteran who is now chief operating officer of Citi Alternative Investments, a unit of Citigroup, where Mr. Rubin is a director.

While the economic crisis has forced Mr. Orszag to focus on the $700 billion bailout program and various stimulus proposals before Congress, his emphasis has otherwise been on health policies. He has sought to draw attention to the growing costs for Medicare and other federal programs that are driving the projections of unsustainable budget deficits. Recently, for example, he gave a speech highlighting studies on potential cost savings from preventive medicine and more cost-efficient treatments.

 

[deputy dawg]

Does Obama have any of his "own" people?

Why is everyone in his inner circle a recycled Clinton drone?

Some people say (to borrow a phrase) that Clinton when he first took office valuable time was wasted because he staffed his cabinet with people who didn't know how to get things done in D.C. He brought in people who he knew and trusted but they didn't know the players or the ways of Washington.

There is too much at stake now to just bring in new faces for the simple sake of "change". Even B.O.'s decision not to push to punish "Trader (Traitor?) Joe" for his campaign shenanigans. LIEberman had B.O. come here to CT 2 years ago to speak at his Democratic primary fund raiser; only to get defeated by Ned Lamont in the primary which led him to run as an Independent and win with his Senate seat back (with the help of GOP votes).

Believe B.O. will save this card to play at some future date. The real rebuke for "Trader Joe" will come from the constituents here in CT.

Giving Hilary a cabinet post is also a smart move: he takes away his strongest rival in his re-election bid in 4 years from now. He's playing this game 5 moves ahead of everybody.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><Center>
Obama Names Economic Team;
Warns Economy Likely to Get Worse</font size><font size="4">

President-elect unveils economic team with
Geithner as treasury secretary</font size></center>

msnbc.com news services
November 24, 2008


CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his economic team and warned that "the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better."

"I've sought leaders who could offer both sound judgment and fresh thinking, both a depth of experience and a wealth of bold new ideas — and most of all, who share my fundamental belief that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers," Obama told reporters.

Obama said that recent news "has made it even more clear that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions." Offering a grim prediction, he added, that "most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year."

He declined to say how big a spending package he wants to revive the economy, adding that he was awaiting a recommendation from his economic team. Some Democratic lawmakers are speculating about a two-year measure as large as $700 billion. Obama would only say that "it's going to be costly."

The president-elect was mildly critical of the Big Three automakers, saying he was surprised they did not have "a better thought out proposal" for their future before asking Congress to approve $25 billion in emergency loans.

He added that once he sees a plan, he expects "we're going to be able to shape a rescue."


Five team members named

As expected, the president-elect named Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve president, as his treasury secretary. Wall Street stocks jumped on Friday when word of Geithner's appointment began to leak.

Geithner, 47, will team with Lawrence Summers, a treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, who will take over the National Economic Council.

Obama also named three others on his economic team:

• Christina Romer as director of the Council of Economic Advisers. Romer is a U.C. Berkeley professor of economics, and co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• Melody Barnes as director of the Domestic Policy Council. Co-director of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama transition team, she also served as the senior domestic policy advisor to Obama during the campaign. Barnes previously worked at the Center for American Progress and as chief counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy.

• Heather Higginbottom as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. She was Obama's policy director during the campaign and earlier served as Sen. John Kerry's legislative director.

Democratic officials also said Obama plans to name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic presidential rival to his Cabinet. Richardson served as U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.

Obama spoke against a backdrop of increasing calls for him to assert himself well before he takes office Jan. 20 in the midst of the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades.

In the latest bailout, the U.S. government announced late Sunday it had agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions of dollars in possible losses at the banking giant Citigroup, and to put a fresh $20 billion into the stricken company.


What's ahead?

Obama's team will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.

"The stakes are high," said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "This is a really dangerous moment ... for the economy. It’s almost as if no one’s in control. Now people are looking to (Obama) to find out at least what’s going to happen in the next few months, if not the next few weeks."

Other members of Obama’s broader economic team are likely to include:

• Peter Orszag, a former Clinton administration economic aide, as the White House budget director. Orszag has been director of the Congressional Budget Office since January 2007.

• Jason Furman, Obama’s top economic policy coordinator during the presidential campaign, is likely to get a senior role, probably as the No. 2 official at the National Economic Council

.


Tax cut/stimulus package

Top aides said Sunday that Obama wants Congress to use its large Democratic majority when it convenes Jan. 6 to prepare tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners as part of the massive government intervention designed to pull the country out of its frightening economic nosedive.

Some economists have endorsed spending up to $600 billion to revive the economy. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a member of Obama's economic advisory board, both suggested $500 billion to $700 billion.

Before winning the presidency Nov. 4, Obama had said he looked to create a $175 billion stimulus package. While the new plan will be significantly larger, it was expected to incorporate his campaign ideas for tax cuts and new jobs in energy technologies to lessen dependence on foreign oil and to reduce carbon emissions.

"I don't know what the number is going to be, but it's going to be a big number," Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on Sunday. "It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission."

Over the weekend, Obama directed his team to construct a plan to create 2.5 million new jobs by the end of 2010, and aides said his broader economic program was designed to quickly offer tax relief to lower- and middle-income earners.


No tax hike on wealthiest for now

Significantly the plan would not offer an immediate tax increase on wealthy taxpayers. During the campaign, Obama said he would raise taxes on people making more than $250,000.

"There won’t be any tax increases in the January package," said one Obama aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the Obama package have not been fleshed out.

Obama could delay any tax increase to 2011, when current Bush administration tax cuts expire.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio urged Obama to make that explicit. "Why wouldn’t we have the president-elect say, 'I am not going to raise taxes on any American in my first two years in office?'"


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27885917?GT1=43001

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>
A Market-Oriented Economic Team</font size><font size="4">
Advisers Will Be Expected to Guide Implementation
of Stimulus and Tightened Regulation</font size></center>

President-elect Barack Obama introduces his administration's economic team in
Chicago yesterday. The team will include, from left, Timothy Geithner as Treasury
secretary and Christina Romer as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; and
second from right, Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council
and Melody Barnes as director of the Domestic Policy Council. Photo Credit: Pool
Photo By Brian Kersey Via Getty Images Photo


By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 25, 2008; Page A03

President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a deeply experienced team of top economic advisers whose key members firmly believe that limited government spending combined with free markets can create lasting prosperity.

But those advisers will take over at a moment that Obama says requires just the opposite: New financial regulations and generally unthinkable levels of deficit spending are in the offing as the new administration prepares to battle the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.

"Right now, our economy is trapped in a vicious cycle. The turmoil on Wall Street means a new round of belt-tightening for families and businesses on Main Street, and as folks produce less and consume less, that just deepens the problems in our financial markets," Obama said in introducing his economic team at a news conference yesterday. "These extraordinary stresses on our financial system require extraordinary policy responses."

To fashion the government's response, Obama has turned to people who have been associated with more market-oriented approaches. Timothy F. Geithner, 47, Obama's choice for Treasury secretary, is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has been a key player in negotiations aimed at saving some of the nation's largest financial institutions.

Lawrence H. Summers, whom Obama tapped to direct his National Economic Council, served eight years in the Clinton administration, including a year and a half as Treasury secretary. He has argued that the economic boom enjoyed during much of Clinton's presidency was largely a consequence of shrinking federal deficits.

Both Summers and Geithner are proteges of Robert E. Rubin, Summers's predecessor as Treasury secretary and current Citigroup director and counselor, whose views in favor of free trade, deregulation and reduced deficits have come to define the economic approach of the Clinton years.

Christina D. Romer, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who is an expert on tax policy and the nation's recovery from the Depression, has been selected to lead Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. "She has the principal required characteristic of a CEA chair: the ability to clearly explain unpleasant and somewhat complex truths about the world to powerful people without making them mad," said Bradford DeLong, another Berkeley economist.

"These are great choices," said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for ChannelCapitalResearch.com, an investment research firm. "Right now, economics is the key thing. He is looking for experienced technocrats, despite the fact that some come from the right or the left."

Obama plans to ask his team to implement a huge stimulus plan -- estimates run as high as $700 billion over the next two years -- that would include money to rebuild crumbling bridges, roads and mass transit systems and jump-start a "green" economy by investing in alternative energy. Obama has said those initiatives are intended not just to carry the nation through the economic downturn but also to lay the foundation for a period of growth.

Obama says the infusion is needed to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs in an economy that this year shed about half that number, causing the nation's unemployment rate to spike to its highest level in 14 years. In the past, such heavy government spending on top of already-record budget deficits would raise strong objections, probably from the key members of Obama's economic team. But in the current climate, Obama's approach has been widely embraced.

"The world has evolved, and so has this group of folks," said Larry Mishel, president of the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "Issues of where people were eight to 10 years ago, that is just history. I'll tell you why: Right now, no one is talking about accelerating globalization. Everybody is talking about national health care. Nobody is talking about balancing the budget. Everybody is talking about rebuilding the labor movement. A higher minimum wage, all sorts of things that were problematic from an earlier period, are just not there anymore."

Some liberal economists wonder privately whether the past policy preferences of Obama's top economic advisers could prove problematic. But others say Obama's choices reflect his confidence in his ability to set the direction he wants them to pursue.

"The top member of the team is Barack Obama," said Harley Shaiken, a California labor economist. "And he has made it clear that the vision for the administration comes from the very top."

Some have already shown a willingness to adjust their approaches. Summers, 54, a Harvard University professor who advised Obama through the general-election campaign, was one of the early influential voices in favor of the stimulus package President Bush signed into law earlier this year. As the economy has continued to deteriorate, he has advocated a second package, which Obama hopes to implement soon after taking office.

After leaving the Clinton administration, Summers served five years as Harvard president, resigning after igniting a national controversy by raising the possibility that innate differences accounted for why fewer women succeed in math and science careers than men. As Obama's chief of the National Economic Council, he will coordinate much of the nation's economic policy.

Obama also named Melody C. Barnes, his campaign's senior domestic policy adviser, to be director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes is currently a top official in the Obama transition team. Previously, she was an executive vice president at the liberal Center for American Progress and, before that, a counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Her deputy will be Heather A. Higginbottom, who worked on Obama's campaign, and is a former legislative director for Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).

Today, Obama is expected to name Peter R. Orszag, current head of the Congressional Budget Office, to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget. The selection of Orszag, 39, who has become an outspoken opponent of how medical services are allocated, is also evidence of the importance Obama intends to place on rethinking how Americans receive medical care.

"Substantial evidence exists that more expensive care does not always mean higher-quality care," he wrote in a director's note on the CBO Web site.

Staff writer Ceci Connolly contributed to this report.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112402620.html?hpid=topnews

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><Center>
Gates agrees to stay on under Obama</font size></center>

P O L I T I C O
By MIKE ALLEN
November 25, 2008


Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the officials said.

The national security adviser heads the National Security Council, which is the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy, and varies in influence from presidency to presidency. Jones insisted on – and got – a commanding role, the sources said.

Democrats familiar with the national-security event early next week said they also expect James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, to be named deputy secretary of State; Susan Rice, Obama’s senior foreign policy adviser on the campaign, to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and retired Adm. Dennis Blair, the former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command and a veteran of the NSC, Central Intelligence Agency and Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be named the director of national intelligence.

Tom Donilon, an assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of staff at the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton administration, is a leading candidate to be Jones’ deputy at the NSC, officials said.

The team gives Obama experience in the bureaucracy and credibility with the military, although it could lead to criticism from his party’s left wing that the lineup is more hawkish and less revolutionary than his supporters expected.

David Axelrod, the incoming White House senior adviser, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”: “The president-elect was clear throughout the campaign that when he became president, that he was going to give the secretary of defense a new mission, and that mission was going to be to wind down our involvement. Nothing has changed.”

Axelrod said Obama enjoys and invites strong opinions and there will be no “potted plants” in his Cabinet.

Gates has been negotiating with Obama emissaries over his deputies — some will be retained, and some new — and how the Pentagon will be run.

The selection of a member of President George W. Bush’s inner circle allows Obama to deliver on his promise of a bipartisan Cabinet, even though Gates has an intelligence background and has not been an active Republican.

The appointment has substantial advantages for Obama, who now can keep his pledge of drawing down troops in Iraq with the aid of an architect of the Bush administration’s successful troop "surge" strategy.

The presence of Gates also will help finesse Obama’s relationship with Gen. David Petraeus, the former U.S. commander in Iraq and now the head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Gates nomination was first reported as a “done deal” by ABC News.

Gates will not have to be reconfirmed, ofificials said.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15986.html

 

[QueEx]

President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a deeply experienced team of top economic advisers whose key members firmly believe that limited government spending combined with free markets can create lasting prosperity.

Hmmm, no comment on this from those who yelled "Socialist" before ???

QueEx

 

[kuzdeen]

Shinseki for Cabinet [Video]

Video - http://tube.thayard.net/media/1094/Obama_takes_Shinseki_for_Cabinet/

Obama will announce the selection of Shinseki, the first Army four-star general of Japanese-American ancestry, at a news conference Sunday in Chicago. He will be the first Asian-American to hold the post of Veterans Affairs secretary, adding to the growing diversity of Obama's Cabinet.

 

[QueEx]

<IFRAME SRC="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/static/images/graphics/obamacab/cabinent.swf" WIDTH=780 HEIGHT=1500>
<A HREF="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/static/images/graphics/obamacab/cabinent.swf">link</A>

</IFRAME>

 

[Partial_Mathers]

A good book to look up is 'Secret FBI Documents link Bill and Hillary Clinton to marxist-terrorist network'

Obama is the biggest fool in the world to have chosen her...but he's not the one in control anyhow, so I can't blame him...

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><Center>
Obama Names Economic Team;
Warns Economy Likely to Get Worse</font size><font size="4">

President-elect unveils economic team with
Geithner as treasury secretary</font size></center>


msnbc.com news services
November 24, 2008


CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his economic team and warned that "the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better."

<font size="6"><center> . . . </font size></center>

Democratic officials also said Obama plans to name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic presidential rival to his Cabinet. Richardson served as U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.

<font size="5"><center>Richardson Withdraws Name
as Commerce Secretary-Designee</font size><font size="4">
Cites Ongoing Pay for Play Investigation</font size></center>


Washington Post
By Michael D. Shear
January 4, 2009


New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name from consideration as commerce secretary for President-elect Barack Obama, citing an ongoing investigation about business dealings in his state.

Richardson, 61, who competed unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of energy and U.N. ambassador during Bill Clinton's presidency, and also the first high-profile Latino named to Obama's Cabinet.

But a grand jury in New Mexico is currently looking into charges of "pay-to-play" in the awarding of a state contract to a company that contributed to Richardson.

The importance of the inquiry was apparently dismissed when Richardson was first nominated. But it may have taken on more weight in light of the "pay-to-play" allegations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"It is with deep regret that I accept Governor Bill Richardson's decision to withdraw his name for nomination as the next Secretary of Commerce," the president-elect said in a statement released moments ago. "Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office.

"It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in order to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time."

Obama added that he would "move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson's decision."


Richardson's Statement

Richardson said in a statement that: "Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact. But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process. Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the President-elect and his Administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done."

In the statement, first obtained by MSNBC and later released by the presidential transition office, he added: "I appreciate the confidence President-elect Obama has shown in me, and value our friendship and working partnership. I told him that I am eager to serve in the future in any way he deems useful. And like all Americans, I pray for his success and the success of our beloved country."

The decision is the first serious political hit for one of Obama's Cabinet nominees and comes just as confirmation hearings begin next week.

Richardson said he would remain governor of New Mexico "for now."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/th...hardson_withdraws_as_commer.html?hpid=topnews

 

[QueEx]

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's political activities won a New Mexico state contract worth more than $1 billion. Richardson said in a statement issued by the Obama transition office that the investigation could take weeks or months but expressed confidence it will show he and his administration acted properly.

person familiar with the proceedings has told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through with the state of New Mexico.

State documents show CDR was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for its work on a transportation program.

CDR and its CEO, David Rubin, have contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson, according to an AP review of campaign finance records.

The largest donation, $75,000, was made by CDR in June 2004 — a couple of months after the transportation financing arrangement won state approval — to a political committee that Richardson established before the Democratic National Convention that year.​

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28493919

 

[Juboy76]

Ok can anybody truly say that the change you see inthis cabinet is good???...With a straight face.....

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Daschle withdraws as health secretary nominee</font size><font size="4">

Former senator Tom Daschle came under scrutiny
over failure to pay $140,000 in taxes</font size></center>

Former US senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Photograph:
Katie Falkenberg/EPA


guardian.co.uk
Daniel Nasaw in
Washington
Tuesday 3 February 2009

Senator Tom Daschle today withdrew from consideration as health and human services secretary, amid revelations that he had failed to pay more than $140,000 in taxes and interest on a car and driver provided by a wealthy Democratic fundraiser.

Daschle is the second of President Barack Obama's cabinet officials to withdraw in the wake of scandal. Obama yesterday said that he was "absolutely" behind Daschle, former Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota and a mentor to Obama.

Daschle last night faced a tough grilling from his former senate colleagues, but the senate finance committee seemed prepared to overcome reservations and recommend his confirmation.

Daschle is known as a health care expert and has co-authored a book on health care reform. He is also close to Obama and widely liked and respected in the senate, which would have made him an asset in Obama's upcoming effort broadly to revamp the US healthcare system.

Critics say the image of a former senator receiving such a benefit – estimated to be worth more than $255,000 over three years – from a wealthy businessman is at odds with Obama's push for stricter separation between government and industry.

In January, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration as commerce secretary amid an investigation into political contributions from a financial services firm that contracted with the state.

Daschle is the second Obama nominee to face confirmation trouble over non-payment of taxes. Obama's nominee for treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, admitted that he had failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in income taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund. Geithner ultimately won senate confirmation.

Daschle emerged from the closed-door session last night looking ashen, and hardly confident about his prospects.

"When I realised the mistake I notified officials and I paid the tax in full," he told reporters. "It was completely inadvertent, but that's no excuse and I deeply apologise to president Obama, my colleagues, and the American people."

Daschle said he hoped his "mistake" would be weighed against his 30 years of public service.

This morning, the New York Times called for Daschle to step aside, noting the tax issue and the fact that he drew a sizeable income from healthcare companies he will be expected to regulate as health and human services secretary.
"It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws," the paper wrote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/03/tom-daschle-taxes-health-secretary

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>
Performance Czar Killefer Withdraws Candidacy </font size><font size="4">

"I have also come to realize in the current environment
that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax
could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction
and delay those duties must avoid."

- Nancy Killefer</font size></center>

Barack Obama announces Chief Performance Officer Nancy Killefer on Jan. 7.



Wall Street Journal
By LAURA MECKLER
February 3, 2009


Nancy Killefer, nominated by President Barack Obama to be the federal government's first chief performance officer, is withdrawing from the post, the White House said Tuesday.

"I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your Chief Performance Officer are urgent," Killefer wrote in a letter to the president asking him to withdraw her name. "I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid."

A White House spokeswoman said more information would be released later in the day.

In making the appointment, Mr. Obama said the appointment of Ms. Killefer, an executive at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., was "among the most important that I will make."

Ms. Killefer, 55 years old, failed to pay employment taxes on household help for a year and a half, the Associated Press reported. In 2005, the AP said, the District of Columbia filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay the unemployment compensation tax. The error was resolved five months later.

Ms. Killefer is the third Obama nominee to confront tax problems. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was confirmed despite disclosure about his failure to pay certain taxes. Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for Health and Human Services, is under scrutiny for his delinquent payment of some $140,000 in taxes and interest.

An administration official confirmed that she is withdrawing over a tax problem. The official said that the matter surfacing during the vetting that took place before her nomination was announced and the Obama team decided to move forward anyway.

"But the environment changed," the official said. "On the heels of Geithner and Daschle, she just didn't want to go through with it."

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123367405418643627.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[clayizaiken]

Obama to tap Chinese Locke 4 Commerce Sec.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/23/obama.commerce/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama's pick for commerce secretary is likely to be former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, two administration sources told CNN Monday.
Locke served two terms as Washington's governor and five terms in the Washington Legislature.

Locke served two terms as Washington's governor and five terms in the Washington Legislature.

Locke, 57, was the country's first Chinese-American governor, elected to lead Washington in 1996 and re-elected in 2000.

Prior to becoming governor, the Democrat served five terms in the Washington Legislature and one term as executive of King County, Washington. He was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee from 1989 to 1994.

A lawyer, Locke is currently in private practice with Davis Wright Tremaine in the national firm's Seattle, Washington, office.

Locke would be Obama's third choice for the post. Obama's first pick, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, withdrew from consideration in early January, citing the distraction of a federal investigation into ties to a company that has done business with his state. Democratic officials told CNN the investigation involves a California company that won municipal bond business in New Mexico after contributing money to various Richardson causes.

Richardson denies any wrongdoing.

Obama went outside his party for his second pick, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire. But Gregg withdrew on February 12, citing "irresolvable conflicts" over the administration's economic stimulus bill.
Don't Miss

* Republican Gregg withdraws from commerce post consideration
* Bill Richardson bows out of commerce secretary job
* Interactive: Obama's senior White House, Cabinet positions

Richardson and Gregg have not been the only ones to withdraw their nominations to Obama's Cabinet. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was tapped for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, withdrew on February 3 after controversy erupted over his tax records and questions over his work in a field that some consider lobbying.

The former Senate majority leader apologized for a series of errors that included unreported car service and more than $80,000 in unreported income from consulting. He filed amended tax returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for 2005-2007.

 

[Greed]

Re: Obama to tap Chinese Locke 4 Commerce Sec.

He's American, not Chinese.