New Obama staff appointments:

[cali]

senior adviser Pete Rouse. He was Obama's Senate chief of staff, a post he also held while working for former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

_Mona Sutphen, deputy chief of staff. A member of Obama's transition team staff, she has been managing director of Stonebridge International, a strategic consulting firm based in Washington. The chief of staff is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. Sutphen also was a foreign service officer and worked on the National Security Council in the Clinton White House.

_Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff. He is now director of personnel for Obama's transition team and was national chief of staff during the presidential campaign.

On Saturday, Obama named longtime Capitol Hill aide Philip Schiliro as assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.

<snip>
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5isOFwdbq0tsqatW6vJpkDRTI1gMgD94G2BA00

[annabanana]

1. competent

perhaps

inspiring hope?
perhaps not

[cali]

2. why should mid-level staffers in the White House be inspirational?

To expect that seems ludicrous to me. Competence, not hope, is what is needed when it comes to White House staff.

[tigereye]

3. I think he wants to avoid the mistakes previous Dem admins made

it makes perfect sense to me to pick sensible people, and people whom he trusts, as well as people who know how DC works.


However, there's no reason he can't pick some folks who are forward- thinking/progressive, too, who want to do things a little differently.

[cali]

4. sure, but I want to see those people in policy positions not in administrative ones

and he has appointed Valerie Jarrett as Senior Advisor.

[tigereye]

6. I think there is lots of room in a large admin. for both

:hi:


always nice to see your voice of reason out here!

[babylonsister]

7. Would Mike Lux work?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/obama-hires-progressive-l_n_142648.html?page=3

Obama Hires Progressive Liaison For Transition Team

November 10, 2008 10:29 AM


Veteran Democratic official Mike Lux has been tapped by Barack Obama to serve as an adviser and progressive liaison during the transition period, the Huffington Post has learned.

Lux, who worked on the Clinton administration transition efforts in 1992, confirmed the hiring but, citing a need for clearance, declined to offer further information.

The staffing move provides the Obama team with an important outlet to the progressive community -- a constituency from which the president-elect currently enjoys great support but one that has a wide range of priorities and will be holding Obama most firmly to his campaign promises once he takes office.

After working in the Clinton White House on issues ranging from health care and the budget to school lunch policy, he founded Progressive Strategies LLC and began writing for the site OpenLeft.com in July 2007. He also helped co-found a number of progressive institutions including: Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Majority, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Women's Voices/Women Vote. He writes for the Huffington Post.

[tigereye]

10. interesting!

I think there are a lot of folks in the "big tent"


thanks for the article!

[annabanana]

11. (an encouraging choice). . . . . .n/t

[jefferson_dem]

5. inspiring hope?

Who would we rather he appoint as "senior advisor" and "deputy chief of staff" in order to do the hope thingy?

[AllentownJake]

8. Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor

They did vote for change concerts. He owes them

:sarcasm:

[1corona4u]

9. You sound like Rachel Maddow...

[annabanana]

12. (I've been called worse). . . n/t

[KittyWampus]

13. Is Schiliro the long time Waxman staffer?

[KittyWampus]

14. Didn't he name some for FCC or something to do with Net Neutrality? Ummm

[Occam Bandage]

15. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

I'm not sure why, but it must be.