Free Republic

September 28, 2008 TO: Senator Obama FROM: Mike Froman Federico Pena John Podesta CC: Pete Rouse RE: Personnel Discussion We are scheduled to see you tomorrow in Reno to discuss White House organization/structure, as well as candidates for senior White House, national security and economic policy positions. Our focus tomorrow will be the White House Chief of Staff, the national security team (NSC, State, Defense, USUN, DNI/CIA, Homeland Security) and the core economic policy team (Treasury, NEC, OMB). At the meeting, we will provide you with a list of names which includes:  Candidates for top positions;  Deputies, as...

WASHINGTON—William M. Daley was hired to help resuscitate Barack Obama's presidency after deep Democratic losses in 2010. Ten months into his tenure as chief of staff, Mr. Daley's core responsibilities are shifting, following White House missteps in the debt-ceiling fight and in its relations with Republicans and Democrats in Congress. On Monday, Mr. Daley turned over day-to-day management of the West Wing to Pete Rouse, a veteran aide to President Obama, according to several people familiar with the matter. It is unusual for a White House chief of staff to relinquish part of the job. A senior White House official...

"Pete has never seen a microphone or a TV camera that he likes."- President Obama describing his new Chief of Staff. Peter Mikami Rouse doesn’t like the spot-light. The fame is for the narcissist electable dummies – the politicians, not for Pete. The elections are just razzle-dazzle. The elected newbie will go to the Capitol to be greeted by the real people of power: the Petes of the Congress, the unelected bureaucrats that know the ways of the force that turn the public servants into Washington insiders. Here is how Mr. Rouse met Mr. Obama: "… When Daschle lost,...

He once helped run state government in Juneau, played shortstop in a local softball league, and voted as an Alaska resident until he moved to a job in the White House two doors down from his close friend, President Barack Obama. Now it's expected that Pete Rouse will move one office closer to the president when chief of staff Rahm Emanuel resigns to run for mayor of Chicago, and Rouse takes over Emanuel's responibilities. Before moving to the White House, Rouse had spent 25 years as the consummate Democratic insider in the U.S. Senate, where he played a quiet role...