Obama picks Clinton alum Emanuel chief of WH staff
WASHINGTON President-elect Barack Obama pivoted quickly to begin filling used up his starting anew administration on Wednesday, selecting hard-charging Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff while aides stepped up the gait of transition work that had been cloaked in pre-election separation.
Several Democrats confirmed that Emanuel had been offered the work at jobs. While it was not clear he had accepted, a rejection would amount to an unlikely public rebuke of the new president-elect within hours of an electoral literary institution landslide.
With hundreds of jobs to glut and only 10 weeks to the time when Inauguration Day, Obama and his transition team confronted a formidable task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.
The by authority campaign Web Site said in no degree political appointees would be permitted to work on “regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for pair years. And nay political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service for the period of the remainder of the administration.”
But almost exactly one year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, solicitant Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. “I don’t consider a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House,” he said of lobbyists at the parturition.
Because they often have prior experience in administration or politics, lobbyists outline in the same proportion that in posse appointees for presidents of both parties.
On the morning after making history, the man elected the first black president had breakfast with his wife and two daughters at their Chicago home, went to a nearby gym and visited his downtown offices.
Aides said he planned no public appearances till later in the week, when he has promised to hold a tidings conference.
As president-elect, he begins receiving highly classified briefings from upper side intelligence officials Thursday.
In offering the post of White House chief of staff to Emanuel, Obama turned to a comrade Chicago politician with a far different style from his own, a human being known for his bluntness as favorably as his candid determination.
Emanuel was a political and policy aide in Bill Clinton’s White House. Leaving that, he turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the smaller number.
Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long original battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his long-standing ties to the forgoing first lady and his Illinois connections with Obama.
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