Serious Question

10 Comments

1. 

   Phil Perspective on December 16, 2013 at 12:14 am

   More old blood.  Eh!!!

2. 

   Arthur Gilroy on December 16, 2013 at 12:17 am

   

   AG

3. 

   LosGatosCA on December 16, 2013 at 1:02 am

   I guess Hamilton Jordan wasn’t available.

   • 

     Marie2 on December 16, 2013 at 1:42 am

     Laughed and tipped before remembering that Jordan is most definitely unavailable for any assignment.  Or perhaps that was what you meant.

4. 

   Oui on December 16, 2013 at 2:50 am

   .

   Tikun Olam’s views on CAP and Podesta

   CAP’s president carries out Podesta’s corporatist agenda. She defends its good name and principles:

   Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, said in an interview that the group frequently takes positions that conflict with the corporate agendas of its donors…

   Ken Silverstein notes Tanden has far broader concerns than only doing the right thing:

   Raising money had always been important…but Tanden ratcheted up the efforts to openly court donors, which has impacted CAP’s work. Staffers were very clearly instructed to check with the think tank’s development team before writing anything that might upset contributors, I was told.

5. 

   Oui on December 16, 2013 at 5:16 am

   .

   White House move seen as sign of growing power for Senate Dems

   (The Hill) – The decision to name a protege of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as head of the White House legislative affairs office is being taken as a sign that Senate Democrats will have growing power over the political agenda for 2014.

   The replacement of Miguel Rodriguez with Katie Beirne Fallon came as a shock to some former administration officials, who noted that Fallon was chosen over internal candidates with more experience.

   The move is all the more remarkable coming after the White House brought back Phil Schiliro, a former director of the White House legislative affairs shop, to advise it on healthcare policy. Schiliro is a former aide to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) who is trusted by congressional Democrats.

6. 

   The Voice In The Wilderness on December 16, 2013 at 5:41 am

   We don’t like anybody that Schumer sent.

7. 

   seabe on December 16, 2013 at 7:45 am

   It’s not like CAP is an independent think tank like Heritage is. I mean sure, Heritage is a bunch of hacks, but they don’t toe the party line. If the president says he wants to cut SS, CAP will make arguments with charts and graphs for why this is a good thing. I’ve noticed lately they’re getting off the austerity train so that’s good I guess. If that’s the direction it goes then maybe it’s good. For now I’ll withhold judgment but don’t count it as enthusiasm.

8. 

   kafkananda on December 16, 2013 at 10:23 am

   Looks like it might mean an increased focus on environmental issues. From an editorial in the New York Times…..

   Mr. Podesta’s appointment should further elevate the issue of climate change in the White House. That is something he cares deeply about. It is also an issue that Mr. Obama has committed himself to; Mr. Podesta’s main task will be to give the Environmental Protection Agency the support it needs to devise new rules controlling greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants, a complex and politically fraught task. And his very presence could influence Mr. Obama’s thinking on the proposed pipeline from Canada’s oil sands — even though Mr. Podesta has said that he will recuse himself from the final decision because the liberal think tank he founded 10 years ago, the Center for American Progress, has been unsparingly critical of the entire enterprise.

   Mr. Podesta can be of particular assistance to the interior secretary, Sally Jewell. Ms. Jewell, an engineer by training, had earned widespread praise as chief executive of REI, the recreational equipment retailer and the nation’s largest consumer cooperative. But in her present job, there are enemies everywhere, and, unlike most of her predecessors, she came to it with little political and policy making experience, and no strong connections to the White House.

   Mr. Podesta could help her fill those gaps, not least because he believes deeply in the Interior Department’s mission. It was at his urging, and that of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, that Mr. Clinton became something of a born-again environmentalist in his later years, promoting Everglades restoration, protecting vast areas of the national forests from commercial exploitation, saving redwood forests in California and establishing a dozen or so major national monuments by presidential proclamation.

   The Clinton-Babbitt-Podesta partnership left a remarkable legacy on land conservation. Ms. Jewell has said she wants to do the same thing. In a speech to the National Press Club in October that a nervous environmental community found reassuring, she said that if Congress would not move forward to protect ecologically valuable public lands, the administration would do so unilaterally.

   • 

     on December 16, 2013 at 11:59 am

     Sounds promising, on paper, that Podesta has a strong interest in the very important issue of the environment.  Unfortunately we’ve waited too long to take strong action to combat global warming, and because there are far too many people on the planet — 7 billion officially is probably greatly understating it — any remedial efforts to cut back CO2 and similar are likely to be easily offset by the steady population increase.  Iow, our goose is cooked for a good long while, until we wake up and start pushing for global population controls.

     Meanwhile,  Podesta seems like at least a marginal improvement over previous chiefs for Obama, someone I peg as moderately but significantly more liberal than his predecessors.

     And wasn’t he the guy in the Clinton WH everyone jokingly referred to as “Mr X Files” for his interest in ufo’s and Roswell?  If so, he has my blessings — not that he will be able to get the real PTB of our hidden govt from disclosing what they know.