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Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images
Denis McDonough, speaks to the press after meeting Honduran President Porfirio Lobo at the Government Palace in Tegucigalpa in this November 28, 2012 photo.
The president will make the widely expected announcement at 12:10 a.m. ET from the White House East Room as part of a slew of promotions for administration staffers.
McDonough will become Obama’s fifth chief of staff, replacing Jack Lew, who was nominated by the president to become Treasury Secretary. Lew took over the post from Bill Daley, who was inserted in the post after Rahm Emanuel left the White House to run for mayor of Chicago. Longtime Obama adviser Pete Rouse briefly served as acting chief of staff between Emanuel’s exit and Daley’s entrance.
Five chiefs of staff is the most for a president in the modern era, since at least Harry Truman.
President Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan also had four chiefs of staff. President George H.W. Bush had three, including James Baker, who also served in the position for Reagan, the only person to serve in the post for two different presidents in at least the last 50 years. President George W. Bush had two.
Rob Nabors -- the president’s current director of legislative affairs, who was involved in the fiscal cliff negotiations -- will be named assistant to the president and Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy.
Tony Blinken will replace McDonough as assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.
Dan Pfeiffer, a 2008 Obama campaign veteran, who was White House communications director, will be named assistant to the president and senior adviser, a role held currently by David Plouffe. Jennifer Palmieri, who was the deputy communications director, will become director.
Other staff announcements: Danielle Gray will be named assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Katy Kale assumes the title of assistant to the President for Management and Administration; Lisa Monaco will be named assistant to the president and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (assuming John Brennan is confirmed as head of the CIA); Miguel Rodriguez will be named assistant to the president and director of legislative affairs, replacing Nabors; David Simas will become assistant to the president and deputy senior advisor for communications and strategy.
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I wonder, since McDonough is a white guy, if he'll care enough about the hurricane Sandy vicitims to get Obama to do something for those poor souls who are still suffering because of Obama's indifference to their plight.
B.O. did nothing in the Senate......so what did this cat "help" with?
Didn't you read the article - he was "reaching across the aisle" - perhaps trying to see what his candidate was SUPPOSED to be doing?!?!?!
Well I guess that might be helpfull.........LOL!
There is no aisle-reaching to be had with the GOP, who'd cut your arm off if you tried. What the other side of the aisle wants is capitulation to hostage-taking. Glad Obama has grown a pair, and is giving these miscreants a taste of their own medicine.
I'm no press secretary, but I'm guessing this announcement might not make the splash they're hoping for if the president makes it at 10 minutes after midnight.
If this guy can "Reach Across the Aisle" PERHAPS he can show Obama exactly HOW THAT IS DONE!!! It appears Obama can't keep people in their jobs very long - no wonder he hasn't tackled the unemployment issue - Is it that he doesn't understand anyone in a job for longer than 18 months?? - or is it that Obama has never held a REAL job that wasn't government-funded?!?!?!
J, did you miss 09-10? Democrats refused to pass bills onto the next chamber without respectable republican minority votes. THAT is reaching across the aisle and that is all the democrats have done every step of the way until the ACA, after which point congress became permanently toxified. Yet even so democrats bend more to republican demands on every issue than republicans bend to the democrats. I'm a green and think both are full of crap, but that is the existing pattern.
That's some picture of him. was he on the Walking Dead last season?
President Obama, like all his predecessors, selects the right person at the time. Not everyone wants these positions and those who have them are so much under pressure and work long hard hours they just can't stand it any longer. For all any of us know he could well have considered a woman or two possibly one of color but at this point in time none was available for a number of reasons. We don't really know and can only speculate.
Those who carp about those jobs and who is in them need walk a mile in the shoes of those folks before they render any opinion. I'll bet their opinion would be different.
Sooo..you"RENDER" the Lard...?
Why doesn't he just hire the Big Ugly Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosechelle. He could pay her so they could double dip the taxpayers and call her an advisor so all her vacations could be billed to the taxpayer officially. While this communist fraud is at it, he could name his 2 spawn advisors on spawn issues and they could fly for free as well not that Mr & Mrs Frugal ever reimburse the taxpayers for all their trips. Has anyone seen former secretary of labor Robert Reich lately? I think Moooooooooooooooosechelle ate him!
All of Washington blows chunks. We are about three courtesy flushes away from going down the tank. After awhile, it just doesn't matter how many turds are in the punch bowl. It's pretty ugly and very depressing.
HIDEOUS PICTURE! If he really does look like this, he has a future in Hollywood - zombie movies are popular now!!! Also, anyone else notice that all Barry's recent pics are older white men again? Maybe he REALLY DOES think he's going to get something accomplished this time around! He would almost have to, or else he'll just end up a footnot in the history books - as the worst do-nothing president of the decade, if not the millenium! Even the bad presidents we've had in the past actually accomplished SOMETHING - maybe good or bad - BUT SOMETHING!!!
Yeah, post # 80....
J, you need to realize the executive office has very little power to actually achieve anything without congress falling in line. If you want someone to blame, blame congress.
I love how NBC doesn't report on one of the biggest news stories of the day - A DC circuit court today ruled that Obama's making appointments last year by declaring the senate was in recess - including the appointment of the head of the labor relations board - was illegal as it was UnConstitional - this will now go to the Supreme Court. I doubt any of the major news outlets will report this as it is bad for their man. A pathetic liberal press protecting a pathetic excuse of a president of 'all the people'. He will be brought down if he continues to flout the Constitution.
Another well "qualified" long term associate appointed to a Cabinet post. This guy is no more qualified than the waitress at our restaurant last night. There is no long term government or even public service, just service to Obama as a PAL (Personal A** Licker).
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday invalidated President Barack Obama's "recess" appointments to a labor board last year, ruling that the move was unconstitutional and dealing a blow to Obama's strategy of bypassing Senate Republicans.
The three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012 were made while the Senate was out of town but potentially available to act on them.
"Considering the text, history, and structure of the Constitution, these appointments were invalid from their inception," the panel said.
Obama also used such a "recess" appointment last January to install Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, although his appointment was not part of the lawsuit.
The case was seen as a test of the limits of the president's ability to make appointments during a Senate recess, a power that bypasses the Senate's usual ability to block nominees and that dates to the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
When can we get the Supremes to take a look at Obama's election? In Fairfield County in Ohio more people voted for Obama than there were eligible voters in that county!!! I believe this wasn't an isolated incident, but no one seems to be looking into anything even close to election fraud - probably thinking what's the use! If CLinton got impeached for fraternizing with an intern & lying - what's UN-impeachable around doing an end-run around the Constitution???
Abuse of Power!
j, talking point disproven by an inquiry performed by politico. It was a scare tactic gingrich helped drum up to try to force a stall on obama's actual reelection and allow for a republican power grab. It failed.
OLD MacDonough Joined a Collective Farm...eeyi...eeeyi..O
and On that Farm..they Had a Tax...eeeyi....eeeyi......O
With a TAX...TAX..Here..and a TAX...TAX There......Here a Tax.....There a Tax.....Everywhere..Tax..tax..
'Ole MacDonough joined a Collective farm..eeeyi...eeeyi.......O
That's a whole lot better than that crazy no talent nicky manaje' (however it's spelled) chick on American Idol can do.
If his arrogant disregard for the Constitution continues he will be taken down - and none too soon. Ship his arse to Kenya and let him live in a hut with his half brother George (who he has supposedly never offered to give a dime) and then, and only then might he have an appreciation for this great country that he despises.
Put his toothy wide mouthed grin on food stamps where his admin has been adding 11,350 new dependants a day. They go so far as to solicit for new participants on radio ads directed at people who may not know that they too may qualify for freebies from the government.
It's interesting that "The One" can't seem to retain his staff. He's got the highest turnover rate I've ever seen. Or, might it be that he has so much political "debt" to repay that he has to keep the jobs rotating?
Another White Male, that Makes 5....Obama, how could you?
I see why Charlie Rangel was "embarrassed as hell" by Obama's lack of diversity in these 2nd term picks.
Kerry, Hagel, Lew, Brennan, McDonough
It's because he's half White, 42% Arab and 8% Kenyan African. Baraka Hussein Obama is the name, deception is the game and he plays it well.
Where's Al and Jesse?! The injustice of it all....
In homage to the great Cleavon Little!!
WHERE DA WHITE WOMEN AT!!!!!!!!
hm, where are the qualified members of those groups mentioned? Also, were possible candidates simply not available and/or called beforehand and probed to see if available/willing to take the position?
Joined The Cabinet..?
Looks like He Crawled ..out of the Cabinet...
The Curse of the Mummy...?
Boris Karloff..waiting ...in the Wings...?
It's good to see a fellow Minnesotan get the job! He's perfect for the job.
That guy needs some sun. He's probably been holed up for years.
In his mothers basement with his Star wars toys, and Obama bobble head.
Creepy looking dude.
Looks like a skinny Uncle Fester of the Adams Family or a morbid Mortician.
Five chiefs of staff in four years, like Whack a Moles, get rid of one and another pops up. Should do the same with the Prez, bye bye Barack.
I don't blame Obama for wanting an "old hand" around, but picking one of your "oldest trusted advisors" doesn't do much for bringing new blood (and new thinking) into the White House. By his credentials, McDonough appears to be a completely competent chief of staff. Hopefully he will be an improvement over the succession of chiefs from the Chicago Outfit that have riddled Obama's administration. At least McDonough is more of a Minnesota democrat than a Chicago democrat. I expect him to be slightly more even-keeled than his predecessors.
Mc D. helping Ob, reach across the Isle? Really? When has Oboy reached across the isle on anything? Health care, rammed through, dept ceiling rammed through. I mean you progressives must be ecstatic that you have a no compromise type of guy in there. But reaching across the Isle? Really?
Reaching across the aisle is easier than reaching across the isle. ;)
Imagine that, a court found Oblamo bypassing Congress was unconstitutional. Oblamo and his kool aid drinking bots wouldn't know the constitution if it fell on them.