The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has set these dates for confirmation hearings:
January 8, 10:00 a.m. for Secretary of Health and Human Services-Designate Thomas A. Daschle.
January 9, 9:30 a.m. for Secretary of Labor-Designate, Hilda L. Solis.
January 13, 10 a.m. for Secretary of Education-Designate, Arne Duncan.
On ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, fill-in host Jake Tapper played a series of clips from present and former White House press secretaries giving their tips about the job for Robert Gibbs, who will hold that job under Barack Obama.
But when Tapper noted that Obama has suggested the media focus too often on "silly things," Gibbs offered some observations of his own about the press.
"I wouldn't disagree that there were times in the campaign that that ... we were watching hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs, and we were debating the meaning of the phrase 'lipstick on a pig,'" Gibbs said.
He was referring to the mini-tempest that occurred when he dismissed John McCain's claim to the mantle of change by ticking off his policy positions and saying, ""That's not change. That's just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig - it's still a pig."
The McCain camp called the remark a slur on McCain running mate Sarah Palin who made lipstick a buzzword in the campaign at the Republican convention by saying it was what made the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull.
"In large ways, the public gets their information through a working press," Gibbs said. "It's up to the press secretary to advocate for the type of access and for the type of knowledge that they need, to do their job in order to be able to communicate the president's message..
"My guess is, if you can talk to the current administration, particularly as it relates to the economic recovery or the money that's been used to help, you know, banks and to relieve the stresses on our financial system, is -- if they could do it all over again, I bet one of the things that they might tell you is, they need -- probably needed a stronger communications strategy for letting people know and understand how this was going to work and what this money was going to be used for."
Sounds like Gibbs may have read the Washington Post piece saying that the relentless news cycle was making a bad recession worse.
Eric Weiner wrote: "If the FDA regulated the media, it would require all stories about the economy to carry this warning: 'Dizziness and pangs of existential angst may result. Do not read if you suffer from gloominess or are prone to bouts of anxiety. If you are near retirement age or work in the auto industry, consult with a physician before reading.' "
Three members for Barack Obama's transition team were announced today:
James B. Steinberg for Deputy Secretary of State, and Jacob Lew for Deputy Secretary of State, and the appointment of Thomas E. Donilon as Deputy National Security Advisor and Antony "Tony" Blinken as National Security Advisor to the Vice President.
President-elect Barack Obama announced several key additions to his White House staff including Cassandra Butts, Deputy White House Counsel; Elizabeth Sears Smith, Deputy Cabinet Secretary; Shawn Maher, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the United States Senate; Dan Turton, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the United States House; Camille Johnston, Director of Communications for Michelle Obama; Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Press Secretary for Michelle Obama and Semonti Mustaphi, Deputy Press Secretary for Michelle Obama.
Here are short biographies on his choices:
Barack Obama is adding another Lincolnesque touch to his inauguration. First he summoned memories of Abraham Lincoln's 1861 inaugural train ride from Illinois to Washington by deciding that he too would travel to the capitol by train with stops in Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore.
Now, his Inaugural Committee has announced he will take the oath of office using the same Bible on which Lincoln was sworn in on March 4, 1861. It is traditional for Presidents to use a Bible for their swearing-in, but Obama will be the first to use the Lincoln bible.
George Washington had started the precedent at his inauguration in 1789, using a Masonic bible. Three presidents also used that bible - Warren Harding, Dwight Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush. The current George Bush wanted to use it in 2001 but couldn't because of inclement weather. Jimmy Carter used a family bible, Ronald Reagan swore on his mother's bible and Bill Clinton used a King James Bible handed down by his grandmother. (The Architect of the Capitol has a complete list of Bibles used by the Presidents where known, and the passage to which they were opened).
Lincoln did not use his family Bible because it had been packed away with the family belongings which were still en route from Springfield, Illinois. So William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, bought another Bible, bound in burgundy-velvet and with the seal of the Supreme Court inside, for use at the swearing-in. Both Bibles are in the Library of Congress and the inaugural Bible will be on display there in Washington from February 12 through May 9.
Facing questions about his role in a controversial 2001 pardon, Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. is getting some unexpected support from across the aisle.
Former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey, who was the prosecutor in the tax evasion case of commodities trader Marc Rich and later supervised a criminal investigation of his pardon that Holder approved, wrote a letter Dec. 19 endorsing Holder to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Comey noted that Holder's role in the Rich pardon approved in the waning days of the Clinton administration "was a huge misjudgment, one for which he has, appropriately, paid dearly in reputation." Nevertheless, Comey wrote, "I hope very much he is confirmed." He suggested the experience could make Holder a better attorney general, "because he has learned a hard lesson about protecting the integrity of that great institution from political fixers."
President elect Barack Obama is reaching onto Capitol Hill to pick two veteran Congressional aides to serve on his new White House lobbying team.
A senior Democratic aide said Monday that Shawn Maher, a majority staff director for Majority Leader Harry Reid, was to be named the leader of the Senate lobbying team under Obama's head of legislative affairs, Phil Schiliro.
The senior Democratic aide said. Dan Turton, top aide to House Rules Chairman Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., would be named leader of the House lobbying team for Obama.
Schiliro is a former top aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who will be succeed Energy and Commerce Chairman John D. Dingell, of Michigan, at the start of the 111th Congress.
-- Alan Ota
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has set January 13 for the confirmation hearing of Steven Chu as Energy Secretary and January 15 for Ken Salazar to be Interior Secretary.
As he wraps up his Cabinet picks, President-elect Barack Obama certainly seems to have raided Congress a lot for his Cabinet and top staff picks. It's not unusual in recent history for presidents to go to the congressional well, or even to pluck current members out of their seats, but Obama seems to have done it more than most.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is about to leave her New York Senate seat to become secretary of state. Ken Salazar will step down from his Colorado Senate seat to become Interior secretary. Hilda Solis will vacate her California House seat to take over the Labor Department.
Ray LaHood, Obama's choice for Transportation secretary, had just ended his congressional career this year by not running for another term. Tom Daschle, who will head the Health and Human Services department and the new White House office of health care reform, has been out of the Senate since 2005, but then again, he used to be the majority leader.
Joseph Biden, who never enjoyed the attention Sarah Palin got and has faded into the background during the transition, now faces the fact he is going to have one tough act to follow on Inauguration Day.
On the inaugural schedule released today, Biden will take the oath of office as Vice President after a "musical selection" by none other than the "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin. So, Biden may be swearing to support and defend the Constitution while the crowd is still coming down from "Respect" and "Baby, Baby, Baby." (Actually, the announcement gave no hint of what the musical selection would be).
Obama will be preceded musically be a selection arranged by composer John Williams featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman, celloist Yo Yo Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill.
The invocation near the start of the ceremony will be given by Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, who hosted Barack Obama and John McCain last August where he interviewed each in succession about their beliefs on a range of issues.
Once considered a bit of a dark horse candidate for Transportation Secretary, Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, has risen to the top of the list.
Though Kirk is not a sure thing, time is ticking down on a self-imposed Christmas Day deadline for Obama to have his Cabinet in place. Some transportation lobbyists and Democratic Senate aides confirmed that Kirk appears to be at the top of the short list for the job, although nothing is set in stone.
Late last week Kirk confirmed that he is being vetted by the transition team for a position in Obama’s Cabinet, but has not said which one. Aides said in addition to Transportation Secretary, Kirk is also being considered for U.S. Trade Representative.
Kirk, an early Obama supporter, served as Texas secretary of state under Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, and as an aide to the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas. Kirk was elected in 1995 as the first African-American mayor of Dallas. He resigned in 2005 to make an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, losing to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. He is currently a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a powerful Texas law firm.
Also on the short list for DOT secretary are Steve Heminger, executive director of the San Francisco Bay area’s transportation commission; and Jane Garvey, former head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
A senior Democrat confirms that Obama has chosen Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has postponed a confirmation hearing for Attorney General designate Eric H. Holder Jr. for one week, to Jan. 15, in response to GOP demands.
"It is disappointing to me that they are insisting that we delay at a time when the nation needs its top law enforcement officer and national security team in place and working," Leahy said.
Critics of Holder are expected to raise questions about his role in Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich in 2001. Rich's ex-wife, Denise, donated heavily to Democratic causes, including Clinton's presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton 's 2000 Senate campaign. Holder signed off on the pardon.
Holder told the House Government Reform Committee in early 2001, "It is now clear, and this is admittedly hindsight, that we, at the Justice Department, and more importantly, former President Clinton, the American public, in the cause of justice, would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels."
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that "at least eight Republican senators say they want to delay the start of the hearings to Jan. 26, or after inauguration week, so their staffs can investigate" the Rich pardon and his role in at least three clemency cases.
Leahy said "The Committee has not yet received the names of other designees for high-ranking Department of Justice officials that we had anticipated and more time is now available to the Judiciary Committee. Therefore, to accommodate the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, at their request we are delaying the hearing, again, until January 15."
Rep. John Salazar, who had been widely mentioned as a possible Agriculture secretary, has all but taken himself out of consideration now that he has won a seat on the Appropriations Committee. Environmentalists and animal rights groups were not thrilled when his name surfaced for the position earlier this month, given his voting record on conservation and horse cruelty. But the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been lobbying the Obama team to tap the Colorado Democrat, who is a caucus member and farmer.
Salazar was honored to be mentioned as a potential nominee, but now would rather stay in Congress to handle appropriations, a Salazar aide said Friday.
The Democratic Caucus on Wednesday approved Salazar to become a member of the Appropriations Committee, which handles spending bills.
If the Obama transition approached him, "it is highly unlikely he would take the job," the aide said. Salazar would instead offer to advise the president on farm policy as a Colorado Representative.
Environmental groups had raised concerns about Obama potentially picking a man who voted against extra funding for conservation programs, even though he represents a state that is financially dependent on the environment. Salazar objected to a House amendment during debate last year on the farm bill (PL 110-246) that would have shifted government farmer aid from commodity payments to conservation, nutrition and rural development.
The Humane Society of the United States opposed Salazar for the nomination partly because he voted against a bill (HR 503) that would ban transporting, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donating horses for human consumption.
President-elect Obama will name Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winner and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as Energy Secretary, according to several news reports.
Neither the transition nor the Berkeley lab would confirm or deny that Obama has asked Chu to become Energy Secretary. Lab spokesmen said Chu will be traveling in China and the U.K. until Sunday, so a formal announcement before Monday is unlikely.
The Berkeley lab, which is under the umbrella of the Energy Department, is considered one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the world. Chu’s background is in atomic particle physics, which gives him the expertise to oversee Energy’s chief portfolio, managing the nations’ nuclear weapons and nuclear science programs.
Madeline Albright, the first woman to serve as Secretary of State when she was chosen by former President Bill Clinton, brushed away any talk that Hillary Clinton will have any difficulty working with strong-minded members of Barack Obama’s national security team or Obama’s choice of Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice.
When it comes to James L. Jones, the former Marine commandant who will be National Security Adviser, or Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Albright said on MSNBC, “I expect things to be very collegial … but also that there will be a requirement laid down by the president-elect and then president of having his team present their views.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has announced that the committee’s confirmation hearing for Eric H. Holder Jr. to be Attorney General will begin on Thursday, Jan, 8, at 9:30 a.m. in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.
— Keith Perine
By Coral Davenport
President-elect Barack Obama will likely announce his energy and environment team this week, according to sources close to the transition. The announcement will probably come Wednesday or Thursday, and is expected to follow votes in Congress on an auto industry bailout package.
Obama is expected to announce his nominees for Energy Secretary, Interior Secretary and head of the Environmental Protection Agency together, in keeping with a pattern of announcing "teams" for particular issue clusters. He has already named his economics and national security teams.
Also possible is the announcement of a new White House office of energy or climate change, perhaps in the form of a new National Energy Council on par with the National Security Council. The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank which is advising the Obama transition, has recommended the creation of such a council, headed by a White House-level energy or climate czar. Advocates of the proposal say Obama's ambitious energy and climate proposals will involve nearly every agency, including Energy, Interior, EPA, Agriculture, Transportation, State, Defense and Labor, and will need one figure to coordinate the effort.
Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick J Leahy told reporters today that he intends to hold a confirmation hearing for Eric H. Holder Jr. to be Attorney General during the week of Jan. 5.
Leahy has said "Eric Holder and I have known each other for so long, we almost talk in shorthand. We send e-mails back and forth. We will work closely together."
Holder is expected to face renewed questions about his role in Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich in 2001. Rich's ex-wife, Denise, donated heavily to Democratic causes, including Clinton's presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton 's 2000 Senate campaign. Holder signed off on the pardon.
Holder told the House Government Reform Committee in early 2001, "It is now clear, and this is admittedly hindsight, that we, at the Justice Department, and more importantly, former President Clinton, the American public, in the cause of justice, would have been better served if the case had been handled through the normal channels."
But Leahy has said Clinton, not Holder, bears the responsibility for the Rich pardon.
The foot soldiers of the Obama transition have already made it to the Federal Communications Commission.
Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a Republican, met with Obama’s FCC agency review team at least once in recent days, he said in a chat with reporters on Wednesday. But Martin declined to provide details, saying he’d forgotten to ask Obama’s folks if he could discuss the meeting publicly.
Though Martin stayed mum on the subject, it’s easy to guess what the President-elect’s FCC transition squad is worrying about first: Obama will inherit a grand scale communications upgrade like the country has never seen during his first month in office — and all of the trouble that could come with it.
The nationwide shutdown of analog broadcasting is scheduled for Feb. 17 — after the much-watched Super Bowl, but before heavily-viewed March Madness — and that’s only 29 days after Obama takes office.
Robert Gates may have decided to stay on at Defense even though he had frequently referred to the digital clock in his pocket ticking off the days and hours until Jan. 20, but Former Federal Emergency Management Agency head James Lee Witt all but ruled out the possibility of a return engagement as the agency’s top official.
Witt, who ran FEMA in the Clinton administration, has been rumored as a potential replacement for FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison.
Witt said he hoped President-elect Obama doesn’t ask him to make a comeback “because it’s awful hard to turn the president of the United States down.”
He noted his willingness to help the Obama administration.
“I will do anything I can,” he said. “They could give me a dollar a year and I’d help them. But I’m not advocating to be back in the government.”
Former President Bill Clinton said Hillary was "shocked" by the news Barack Obama wanted her for Secretary of State and that "she first read about it in the newspaper." Clinton said on CNN's "American Morning" that the decision was hard for her because "she adored being in the Senate."
Then the brief interview turned to what his involvement would be in her work, a subject that has raised a lot of question marks in the press in terms of what Obama may have got himself into with the appointment.
"I think my involvement will be what our involvement with each other's work has always been," he said. "That is, all the years I was a governor and president, I talked to her about everything. And I, you know, found her advice invaluable. And I'm sure that we'll talk about all this. I mean, I really care about a lot of these profound challenges that our country and the world are facing."
"I'll just try to go a helpful sounding board to her. But I don't think I will do any more than that unless he asks me to do something specific which I'm neither looking for nor are close to," Clinton said.
Will this all work?
This was the Daily Show's perspective:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday he and President-elect Barack Obama agreed his tenure at the Pentagon would be “open-ended” before Obama announced that he would stay on the job through the presidential transition.
“I have no intention of being a caretaker secretary,” Gates said. Gates, who became secretary Dec. 18, 2006, is the first Pentagon chief to stay on through a presidential transition. He said he would assist Obam’s transition team in filling subordinate posts in the department with appropriate nominees.
Intially, Gates had planned to leave the post once President Bush left office, but said he could not refuse an offer to stay on. “I spent a long time hoping the question would never be popped. I then hoped he’d change his mind. And yesterday it became a reality,” he said.
President Bush, who spent most of the 2008 election on the sidelines, had several thoughts about Barack Obama both as a campaigner and the next President when he was interviewed last night on ABC's "World News."
Bush told anchor Charles Gibson that the Obama administration was going to be "an exciting time for America," and while he had obviously hoped for a victory by John McCain, "the election of Barack Obama is going to lift our spirits in many ways."
Bush said he never expected to see an African-American win the White House during his lifetime.
As for the outcome of the election, Bush attributed it more to the Obama's strengths than McCain mis-steps. "From Barack Obama's perspective is, he had a really good campaign," Bush said. "I mean this guy, I'm told, raised $150 million in one month. That meant a lot of people were for him for president."
Although he acknowledged the Democratic victory was a "repudiation" of the GOP and that his own unpopularity cost the party votes, Bush said, "I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy. In other words, they made a conscious choice to put him in as president."