With Rahm Out, Another Test of Savvy for Obama
Quick: whose appointment to Chief of Staff would hand Obama's critics the knobbiest possible stick to clobber him with?
White House senior adviser and longtime Obama family friend Valerie Jarrett laughed off the possibility of a promotion to White House chief of staff this morning during an appearance on ABC's The View.
"Let's slow down a minute," she said, laughing, after being pressed as to whether she would accept the position if offered it. "I love my job... I would like to just do what I'm doing."
Jarrett, who currently serves as assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, is known to be one of President Obama's most trusted advisers.
Public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, eh? Who better to consult on Rahm's replacement? Yet Jarrett sure didn't say anything about admired workhorse and known quantity Pete Rouse, Rahm's immediate, probably interim, successor. Instead, continuing the pattern of strange ineptitude she has shown in her current position, she served up canned formula on national television. Empty prevarication! Deeee-licious! If the President asks you to be his Chief of Staff, you can't say no, but I suspect right about now Valerie Jarrett is seeing the world in Cheneyvision: she sounds like someone who believes the best person for Rahm's job is herself.
Obama ought to know better. Valerie Jarrett personifies everything distant, self-entitled, arrogant, and nontransparent about his administration. Only a fool or a mortal enemy would counsel him to phase her in after Rouse cleans up dutifully after Rahm Emanuel. And what of the President's own judgment? The whole political world is watching.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: With Rahm Out, Another Test of Savvy for Obama
I just heard Robert Gibbs is leaving too. Is that true? Could we offer a deal where we keep Rahmbo, Axe, Gibbsie and just get rid of Obama? But Valerie Jarrett would have to go. She really creeps me out. There is something positively reptilian about the woman. (No slight against midgetrattlesnake intended of course).
May '10
Re: With Rahm Out, Another Test of Savvy for Obama
For those of you that are on Twitter, @MayorEmanuel is pure genius. But warning not a single Tweet would meet the Rico Code of Conduct... not by a country mile...Post Comment