Big Boost for Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal: Brown Backs Senate Bill

A low-profile successor for White House chief of staff
Reporting from Washington — Many of the unpleasant little tasks that a White House confronts — nudging an aide out the door, perhaps, or helping a senator find someone a job — tend to wind up on Pete Rouse's desk. Rouse, 64, a low-key troubleshooter and consummate backroom player whose work is seldom publicized, is being elevated to a post in which he may lose some of his cherished anonymity: White House Chief of Staff. Rouse will succeed Rahm Emanuel, who is leaving to run...

Enjoying a Strong Brew of Tea
Conservatives WHO HAPPEN TO BE BLACK:   That’s how many African-American Candidates running on the Republican ticket for Congress this year often refer to themselves. With less than a month to go before November, signs are strong they will finally score some political success. Fourteen black Republicans won nominations for the U.S. House in primaries this year and if just three of them win it would be the first time since Reconstruction that more than two black Republicans will be...

Emanuel leaves: President Obama announces Rahm Emanuel's departure
Reporting from Washington — President Obama announced Friday that Rahm Emanuel, his Chief of Staff and a fearsome White House operative, is resigning his post and would be replaced with another senior advisor. Emanuel, who is planning to run for mayor of Chicago, departs 20 months into Obama's presidency and leaves as one part of a staff shuffle that will bring a significant turnover at the top levels of the White House policy and economic team. Senior presidential advisor David...

Obama aide Emanuel to run for Chicago mayor
Washington - White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, one of President Barack Obama’s most powerful aides, is planning to step down Friday to pursue a run for Chicago mayor, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday. Obama is to make an announcement at a White House East Room event Friday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not confirm Emanuel is the subject of the announcement but the sources said Emanuel’s announcement would come Friday. Pete Rouse, a senior adviser who...

More Staffing News
President Obama will tomorrow name White House senior adviser Pete Rouse as the new Chief of Staff, serving for now on an interim basis. What does that mean? It means Rouse will be the Chief of Staff and he may be replaced. Or, if its working out for everyone, he might not. Its still possible that another will end up serving in that role, such as Ron Klain, Vice President Bidens Chief of Staff. President Obama spoke with another possible Emanuel replacement, deputy National Security...

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 9/30/2010
1:05 P.M. EDT MR. Gibbs:  Good afternoon.  Any questions today?  (Laughter.)  Cool.  (Laughter.)  Mr. Feller, take us away. Q    Thank you, sir.  Can you talk about what kind of loss it will be for the White House when Rahm leaves and how you plan to deal with it? MR. Gibbs:  Resisting the temptation to comment on -- Q    I got a little caught in the rain. MR. Gibbs:  -- Jake’s wet T-shirt contest...

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 10/1/2010
12:45 P.M. EDT MR. Gibbs:  So let’s -- I don’t know, we’re missing a few folks, but they’ll be on their way.  Let me just do a quick week ahead and then I can answer your questions.  On Monday, the President will attend a meeting of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board here at the White House. On Tuesday, the President will join Dr. Jill Biden at the First ever White House Summit on Community Colleges.  This event will highlight the...

A Rocky Road for Treasury Secretary-Designee Geithner?
The Senate Finance Committee, which will oversee the Confirmation Hearings of Treasury Secretary designee Tim Geithner, has been meeting today to discuss some tax issues lurking in the past of the former New York Federal Reserve Bank president. In a statement from incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a statement of support and an acknowledgment of mistakes: "The President-Elect chose Tim Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary because he's the right person to help lead our...

Little Bobby Gibbs is sad and outraged with Landrieu's hold: Smirk
Posted by Clyde Middleton on Sep 30 2010 Filed under Newsstand , Politics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry It really must suck when the offending party in within your own group : White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday called Sen. Mary Landrieus (D-La.) procedural hold on President Obama’s nominee for Budget director sad and outrageous. Gibbs said it is a “sad day” when...

Kaine to cabinet?
Politico reports that there is a possibility that White House spokesman Robert Gibbs will be named as DNC chair. The move would have current chair, former Governor Tim Kaine, joining the administration, “perhaps in the Cabinet.” Funny - Kaine joining the administration is the exact thing I discussed with him back in July/August 2008. At that time - just after he had been passed over for VP - I urged him to do it, because it would have thrown a kink into the...

Boehner proposes 'cut-as-you-go' rule
In the Budget battle between the White House and Republicans, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, today proposed a rule in which lawmakers who propose a new Spending program must offset it with Spending Cuts. "If it is your intention to create a new government program, you must also terminate or reduce Spending on an existing government program of equal or greater size -- in the very same bill," Boehner said today during a Speech in Washington. Boehner -- who stands to become Speaker of...

AP sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday
People close to Emanuel said he will fly home over the weekend and hit the streets Monday to talk to voters, after announcing his Resignation Friday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says only that President Barack Obama will make a "personnel announcement" Friday morning, but even his vague comments made it eminently clear Emanuel is leaving. "He intends to run for mayor," one person close to Emanuel told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement. The...

AP sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday
People close to Emanuel said he will fly home over the weekend and hit the streets Monday to talk to voters, after announcing his Resignation Friday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says only that President Barack Obama will make a "personnel announcement" Friday morning, but even his vague comments made it eminently clear Emanuel is leaving. "He intends to run for mayor," one person close to Emanuel told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement. The...

Politico: Robert Gibbs May Be The Next DNC Chair
It appears that Rahm Emanuel ’s White House exit may be one of the first in a series for the Obama Administration. According to Politico , the Democratic Party is looking into leadership negotiations that could land current DNC chairman Tim Kaine in the White House and spokesman Robert Gibbs in the Party’s top post. According to Mike Allen ’s Saturday morning report, talks have begun within the party to gauge interest in Gibbs as the DNC head for President...

Buzz Grows That Gibbs Will Leave Press Post After Midterms
It’s hard to tell whether it’s just Twitter patter or blogosphere baloney, but the rumor that Robert Gibbs will leave his post as White House Press Secretary after the Midterms is getting legs as the job roulette wheel spins for President Barack Obama’s aides. Speculators include President Clinton’s former Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers, who just started twittering and joined those suggesting Gibbs’ departure Wednesday in one of her first tweets. Ironically, or,...

Guatemala calls US tests 'crime'
US testing that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with gonorrhoea and syphilis more than 60 years ago was a "crime against humanity", Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has said. President Barack Obama has apologised for the medical tests, in which mentally ill patients and Prisoners were infected without their consent. Mr Obama told Mr Colom the 1940s-era experiments ran contrary to American values, Guatemala said. The US has promised an investigation. Continue reading the main story...

Obama vs. The Left: A Battle of Ideologies, Not Cults of Personalities
In September of 2009, I wrote a piece on Obama's Speech to a joint session of Congress called Trapped In the Gap Between Action and Rhetoric : As long as the President keeps expressing his support for a Public Option, [we] can quite rightly say that we're only insisting on something Obama himself endorses, something he campaigned on. Of course, the actions of the White House betray quite a different intent. The deals they have negotiated with Health Care Industry stakeholders do not...

NEWSWEEK Poll: Democrats Trusted More Than Republicans On Key Issues
Current narratives to the contrary, anger won’t decide the upcoming Election , and the Candidates expressing anger (i.e. white Republicans) aren’t the majority of the vote, according to a Newsweek poll. …majorities of voters say they would not be more likely to vote for Candidates who express anger at Washington Incumbents (60 percent), Wall Street Bankers (52 percent), the Illegal-immigration problem (53 percent), the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (65 percent), or Health-care...

White House slashes bailout cost estimate (Reuters)
Washington (Reuters) – The U.S. Financial Bailout will cost less than $50 Billion, the Obama Administration said on Thursday, slashing a prior estimate by more than half on the back of a new plan to sell the Government's stake in insurer American International Group. Public anger that Wall Street was getting bailed out with a $700 Billion fund at a time the United States was experiencing its deepest Recession since the Great Depression has created a Toxic political mix for...

Obama’s Treasury Secretary: Tax rules for thee, but not for me; Update: Link to Senate Finance Cmte docs added
Scroll down for updates… Pssst…did you take care of that problem yet? They were just honest mistakes, really. And I’m sure the Obama IRS would be as charitable with you or me as Team Obama is being with Timothy Geithner if we used the same explanation for failing to pay self-employment taxes: President-Elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes...

With hopes of paying back feds, AIG agrees to huge stock swap
Washington — Insurance giant American International Group, which has been Taxpayer-owned since a $182 Billion Federal rescue two years ago, announced a deal Thursday allowing the firm to convert the Government's ownership to 1.6 Billion shares of common stock. The agreement, if consummated, would free AIG of a huge Debt burden and transfer a new form of risk to Taxpayers who currently hold preferred stock in the company and a 79.8 percent ownership stake. It remains to be seen...

Obama's new chief of staff is 'interim,' but will stay at least 'several months'
After a lot of discussion, President Obama and Pete Rouse decided he would be an "interim" Chief of Staff, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today he will keep the job for at least "several months." Rouse, previously a senior adviser, will also be a Candidate when Obama contemplates a full-time chief, Gibbs said. And he will move into Emanuel's (larger) office. "Pete enjoys the complete trust of the president," Gibbs said. Gibbs noted that Rouse was already working on an...

Chief of Staff Announcement Coming Friday with Pomp and Circumstance
Stopping just short of admitting Rahm Emanuel is leaving his post as White House Chief of Staff, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday there will be a personnel announcement. Thursday, September 30, 2010 By Fred Lucas In this April 27, 2010 file photo, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel laughs as he takes some good natured ribbing about his recent comment about someday wanting to be mayor of Chicago while participating in the sixth annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities...

Rahm Emanuel to quit White House on Friday, meet voters
Chicago — Rahm Emanuel will resign as White House Chief of Staff on Friday and will begin his campaign for Chicago mayor by meeting with voters in the city on Monday, two sources familiar with Emanuel's plans said. The two people, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt Emanuel's announcement, said he will return to Chicago over the weekend and begin touring neighborhoods Monday. "He intends to run for mayor," one of the people told The...