The Obama Administration Begins to Take Shape
Just a day after winning the presidency, Barack Obama has started hiring. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, one of the architects of the Democrats' congressional majority, is in line to be chief of staff. Sen. Chuck Hagel, the anti-war Republican, could be named to a Cabinet post, while Sen. John Kerry is said to be after the secretary of state job. Updated yet again.
Just a day after winning the presidency, Barack Obama has started hiring. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, one of the architects of the Democrats’ congressional majority, is in line to be chief of staff. Sen. Chuck Hagel, the anti-war Republican, could be named to a Cabinet post, while Sen. John Kerry is said to be after the secretary of state job.
According to news reports citing anonymous Democratic officials, Emanuel has accepted the job, but his office won’t confirm that. AP explains: “While it was not clear he had accepted, a rejection would amount to an unlikely public snub of the new president-elect within hours of an electoral college landslide.”
Update: Emanuel says he’s thinking about it, weighing his sense of duty against the demands of family. He has not, it now seems, accepted the position.
Other names mentioned for possible cabinet posts include Colin Powell (defense or education) and Robert Kennedy, Jr. (EPA).
It is said that Obama should pick a cabinet as quickly as possible, given America’s many crises, but that he should select his chief of staff first. With those two pressures in mind, Emanuel’s decision delay, while understandable under other circumstances, puts Obama in a difficult position. It is not a good sign that the man who would keep his White House running smoothly would begin his tenure with a few bumps.
Update 2: CNN has another source confirming Emanuel took the job and they quote him, crying, saying “I am happy that my parents are still alive to see their middle son become the chief of staff for a historic figure in the White House — the first African-American president. … It means a lot to me.”
Update 3: Obama is said to have chosen Emanuel because he “wants a bad cop so he can be good cop 90 percent of the time.”
Your support is crucial...AP via Google:
If Emanuel accepts, he would return to the White House where he served as a political and policy adviser to President Clinton.
Several Democrats also said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was actively seeking appointment as secretary of State in the new administration.
As we navigate an uncertain 2025, with a new administration questioning press freedoms, the risks are clear: our ability to report freely is under threat.
Your tax-deductible donation enables us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes the reality beneath the headlines — without compromise.
Now is the time to take action. Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and uncover the stories that need to be told.
Since April, at least 69 people have been appointed or transferred to political jobs within the administration with little or no fanfare. A ProPublica investigation reveals who some of them are.
The Obama administration has seen another key player out the door. This time, it's national security adviser James Jones, whom Obama thanked for his "sacrifices" in his announcement in the White House's Rose Garden on Friday. Who's next?
In alleged retaliation for Republican stonewalling, President Barack Obama will bypass the Senate and make recess appointments to 15 high-level administration jobs. For context, George W. Bush made more than 170 such appointments; Bill Clinton made nearly 140.
Could the current climate in Washington, D.C., be discouraging lobbyists from practicing their persuasive trade in and around the White House? Or does the downsizing of their ranks have more to do with the economy than the political zeitgeist on Capitol Hill?
The bad rap that "faith-based initiatives" got during the last administration hasn't kept the new management at the White House from treating its Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships seriously. It has fleshed out the lineup of advisers to a total of 25 with two new recruits.
Here are the five most-read stories of the last seven days, including Chris Hedges on America's moral meltdown and Robert Scheer on the economic incompetents who find easy employment in the Obama administration. Full list after the jump.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.