CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 16, 2008 – 4:33 p.m.
Obama’s White House Hires Reflect Respect for Hill
By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff
Among the small number of White House staff announcements made so far by President-elect Barack Obama , most of the top spots have gone to recent Capitol Hill veterans.
The latest wave, announced early Sunday morning, includes Senior Adviser Pete Rouse, who served as Senate chief of staff to Obama and former Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, who was the chief of staff to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus .
They join incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel , a Chicago congressman who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House leadership, and White House lobbyist Phil Schiliro, who worked as Daschle’s policy director and was House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman ’s top aide before joining the Obama campaign as a liaison to Capitol Hill.
While Capitol Hill experience is not the primary reason for the appointments, the hires reflect Obama’s sensitivity to the importance of Congress in governance, according to a senior transition official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
He is intent on enacting an agenda by finding common ground with Democrats and Republicans, according to the official.
Turning to Capitol Hill for talent is a “very smart move that will only enhance prospects for significant legislative victories,” said Jim Manley, a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev.
There may be other reasons for Obama’s propensity to hire from the Hill: His network in Washington was built in the Senate and he has portrayed Washington’s influence industry as having a corrupting influence on government.
That hasn’t stopped Obama from hiring people with lobbying backgrounds to fill the ranks of a transition team charged with shaping the incoming administration, but it may limit their chances to land plum White House posts come January.
“Unless the President-elect sees a void to be filled by someone on K Street who he knows personally, there probably won’t be anyone currently downtown in his White House,” said one former congressional aide who now works for a lobbying firm.
“The people selected thus far for the transition and the high-level appointments have come from previous Democratic administrations or know the people doing the selecting/vetting,” he said. “If you were not in their orbit previously, there is probably no need to apply.”
Learning from Bush’s Mistakes?
In contrast, President Bush was notoriously ham-handed in his dealings with Capitol Hill, particularly in the early years of his administration. The desire of congressional Republicans to appear supportive of a president of their party often obscured the roiling tensions under the surface as Bush squandered a deep reservoir of good will.
He developed policies that were antithetical to many conservatives, most notably the 2001 education law known as No Child Left Behind and the 2003 Medicare prescription drug law, often ignored Congress until he needed votes at the last minute, and was ultimately viewed as a lame duck by many in his own party as soon as he was re-elected.
Obama’s White House Hires Reflect Respect for Hill
“Now there is no re-election prism, “ Rep. Zach Wamp , R-Tenn., said when Bush won a second term. “People are not going to have to feel that they have to vote for things that they think are unnecessary.”
It was clear from the first major domestic policy initiative of his second term -- an overhaul of Social Security -- that Bush had little political capital left in the Capitol.
“From the Speaker on down, they pretty much ignored him,” said John Feehery, a Republican consultant who was a top aide to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert , R-Ill. “They weren’t going to walk the plank on it.”
Bush’s influence in Congress dwindled even further with the failed appointment of White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers, a Bush loyalist, to the Supreme Court in late 2005, and was evident in the restoration of then-Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott to the Republican leadership team in 2006 after the administration had pushed him out four years earlier.
Bush picked top-notch staff to represent him on Capitol Hill but demonstrated little interest in what congressional leaders thought and had even less personal engagement with lawmakers, according to a House Republican leadership aide.
“I’m not sure Bush had the proper respect for Congress,” the aide said, observing that the job of well-regarded congressional liaisons like Nicholas Calio and David Hobbs ended up being “to cover for the president, who didn’t want to have to deal with anybody from Congress.”
The White House staff can only do so much, the aide said.
“It all has to do with the principle,” he said. “The lesson is the president has to engage.”
Obama’s Style Still To Take Shape
The degree to which Obama plans to directly engage his former congressional colleagues remains to be seen.
The appointments of Emanuel, Rouse, Schiliro, Messina, as well as those of long-ago Hill denizen Ron Klain as Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. ’s chief of staff and former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Robert Gibbs who is being considered as White House press secretary, may well portend a new era of cooperation between the White House and Congress.
A Senate Democratic leadership aide described Rouse and Messina as “two of the very best” on Capitol Hill.
“Both know how to push the right buttons to get things done in the Senate,” the aide said.
Obama’s White House Hires Reflect Respect for Hill
But such a model could also encourage Obama to leave the legislative lifting to his aides, which Republicans say served Bush poorly.
Like Bush, Obama campaigned heavily on his ability to transcend partisan lines on the state level and to bring that skill to Washington.
The transition official said that true legislative success will hinge on building bipartisan coalitions that go beyond the pure numerical advantage Democrats enjoy in the House and Senate. In other words, it is not good enough to simply have the numbers to win if there isn’t broader public support for the policy.
“They’re going to have to really resist the temptation to jam things down,” Feehery said.
Of his hires announced on Sunday -- Rouse, Messina and Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen, the managing director of Stonebridge International -- Obama said, “These individuals are important additions to a team with the experience and ability to help our nation overcome pressing challenges at home and around the world.”
Among non-Hill selections, Obama had earlier said he was naming his longtime confidante Valerie Jarrett as senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison.
Comments
"The desire of congressional Republicans to appear supportive of a president of their party often obscured the roiling tensions under the surface as Bush squandered a deep reservoir of good will." Add one more thing to the long, long, long, long list of things Bush has squandered.
It would be a fortuitous day were Obama to ask Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, "Mr. Dean...What about the Abenaki?" I'm certain the sinking pit Mr. Dean would get in his stomach could not be hidden by his poker face. Civil Rights means not putting up with racism. There's no place in a fair and decent administration for anyone who has so actively waged a campaign against such a trodden minority. I hope and pray a reporter asks Obama (before he hands out jobs) if he has any idea about Dean's historical mistreatment of these people.
Respect for Capital Hill? Congress has a very low rating with the citizens of this country. I thought Obama was going to bring change. All of the names are the same old windbags who have been driving this country into the ground for the past 20 to 30 years. Oh, I get it. He wants to complete the "change." Completely sink the US of A. I wish there was a way to completely sweep all of the current Senators and Representatives off of Capital Hill and replace them with some fresh faces, minds and ideas.
Well I don't know how well the combination of washington faithfuls and chicago followers will work.. I hope there won't be a clash and that they work in favor of america! Can obama keep em together? seeing his previuous ahchievements, ie http://www.spinwhip.com/obama i reckon YES!
Are the selection also from the Hill as you can only appoint those you know? What happened to the fresh new change?
Mike, Blame Bush for Congress's low approval rating, and overall ineffectiveness. As this article supports, Bush's distance from Congress has mitigated their power, and made them free to explore their inherent desire to argue with one another. Leadership (unlike money) trickles down, and when your leader is uninterested in finding the common ground, there is no reason to think Congress would be. Think about it--everyone of these people is an elected official, and most enjoy bipartisan support from their home district. The American people want the other guy out--the one that is not in their district. That is not an indictment of Congress so much as an indictment of the system, overseen by George W Bush.
Obama stated quite clearly during the primaries that quite likely his & Hillary's cabinets & administrations would contain many of the same players & that the difference would be vision. Why so many people are now acting surprised to see Obama hiring some old capable hands is somewhat beyond me...
Change does not mean hiring people with no history in politics, ergo, no experience in legislation or policy. So far he is not hiring from K Street. We need experience in the White House, so yes, that means hiring known political names. However, Obama will set the vision and the mission with deliberate thought...something the last eight years has lacked.
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