More senior staff

[BlueJessamine]

Source: POLITICO

Obama annnounced three more senior White House staffers today, two of them top campaign aides and the third a former foreign service officer and National Security Council Official.

Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate chief of staff and a key liaison to other Democrats during the campaign, will be a senior advisor. Jim Messina, Max Baucus's chief of staff who served as David Plouffe's deputy and managed some of the campaign's day-to-day will be a deputy chief of staff, as will Mona Sutphen, who works for Sandy Berger's consultancy, Stonebridge.




Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1108/More_senior_staff.html

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A little more on info on Pete Rouse via Wikipedia:

Rouse has worked on Capitol Hill for more than 30 years, since 1971. According to Amy Sullivan (Washington Monthly), Rouse came to be known as "the 101st Senator" thanks to his knowledge and skills.

He is a 1968 graduate of Colby College, a graduate of the London School of Economics, and is a 1977 graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Rouse helped prepare a memo, "The Strategic Plan," for Obama's first year in the Senate.<5> Helping Obama navigate Senate politics and yet remain an outsider, Rouse worked with Obama and Senator Russell Feingold on strengthening ethics reform legislation.<6> Similarly, he suggested that Obama speak with Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Joseph I. Lieberman in the early stages of exploring his presidential candidacy. Rouse also is credited with persuading Obama to vote against the nomination of John G. Roberts, Jr., who is now Chief Justice of the United States (Bacon 2007).

more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Rouse

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Jim Messina!

He was great when he was in Poco! ;-)

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

3. Yeah

I liked the POCO work more than the Loggins collaboration.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Jim Messina was a local Missoula, MT activist about 15 years ago.

We were acquainted then and worked together on some local campaigns and issues. He's a good guy and a solid progressive.

In fact we used to tease him about going to work for Max Baucus, ie "selling out to the man."

Some of my friends are still in touch with and are friends with him.
It's good to see Obama is employing good people to work for him.

It actually looks like we may see some major transformative change in areas like health care. If we keep pushing and working our asses off, that is.

All health care bills go through Baucus' finance Committee. And Baucus is already putting together his own plan. Which is great. (not that the plan is great, just that it's great he is putting together a plan) We will see how great the plan is or isn't. And that's hugh 11!!!!!

For the last 15 years, either people were too terrified to put up a plan for fear it would be torn apart and attacked, or, as in the case of the Clinton plan, it was conceived in secret without the opportunity for Americans to understand and debate the many thousands of pages that went into it.

The fact that Max Baucus is starting NOW for the 2009 session is almost revolutionary. He's framing health care in both economic and national security terms. Also almost revolutionary.

We need to keep on top of this and make sure we get what we want. I think there's an opportunity we could get single payer or "A bridge to single payer" if we pay attention and we invest our time and efforts wisely.

Poco was a great band!

[nickgutierrez]

2. Ahh, competence.

People in government who are actually interested in governing. Won't it be great?

[No Elephants]

5. Well, talking to Ted Kennedy was a good idea. Not so sure about LIEberman.