On Friday, the White House released a list of key appointments for the second Obama term, including Chief of Staff:
Denis McDonough ??? White House Chief of Staff
Rob Nabors ??? Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy
Antony Blinken ??? Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
Danielle Gray ??? Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary
Katy Kale ??? Assistant to the President for Management and Administration
Lisa Monaco ??? Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and Deputy National Security Advisor
Jennifer Palmieri ??? Assistant to the President and Communications Director
Dan Pfeiffer ??? Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor
Miguel Rodriguez ???Assistant to the President and Director of Legislative Affairs
David Simas ??? Assistant to the President and Deputy Senior Advisor for Communications and Strategy
CBS News offers a look at the new Chief of Staff, former national security adviser Denis McDonough:
The 43-year-old McDonough most recently served on the president's national security team and played an instrumental role in winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan. He was also among the national security team in the same room as the president during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
"He's been one of my closest and most trusted advisers," the president said at a news conference in the East Room of the White House, adding that he's "not just one of my closest friends [but also] one of my closest advisers."
McDonough has worked for the president since his the newly-elected Senator first came to Washington. After the electoral loss of his previous boss, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., McDonough helped Mr. Obama set up his Senate office. He went on to be a foreign policy adviser during his 2008 campaign and joined the White House staff after the president's election.
The president called him "indispensible" and someone who "understands the importance of reaching across the aisle."
Unlike his boss, apparently. How do you run a below-the-belt re-election campaign, deliver the most partisan and polarizing inaugural address in recent memory, fill the media with leaks that your goal is to "destroy" the opposing party, march squadrons of little kids on stage to promote the idea that anyone who opposes certain elements of your agenda wants children to die, and then "reach across the aisle?"
As for the length of McDonough's reaching-across-the-aisle arm, The Blaze noted today that he, along with new communications director Jennifer Palmieri, used to be guest bloggers for the far-left Think Progress website, which is not noted as an incubator for bipartisanship. What's really funny is that Palmieri was one of the people who used to hyperventilate about Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, back in the pre-"What difference does it make?" days when the President had an "R" after his name. But now it's super awesome if the Administration lies through its teeth to the American people about deadly foreign policy blunders, and it's considered rude to ask the Secretary of State hard questions about yesterday's stale malarkey.
