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"Personnel Is Policy"  List of Barack Hussein Obama's Appointees and Congressional Leadership & Chairmen

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Obama Administration
Cabinet, White House Advisors and other Key
Staff

"P e r s o n n e l   I s   P o l i c y"

So far, little "Change" - mostly Clinton & Gore staff, Hillary herself, lobbyists, CFR members, staff & Board members from Podesta's radical group. Expect Acorn organizers, followers of Ayers/Alinsky/La Raza and other radicals & perhaps even non-citizens to fill many appointed and career posts.

Transition Resources:


  • Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel, currently a Congressman from Chicago. He serves in the House Democratic leadership and will resign his seat. He is described as a "fiery Democrat".  He served as a political and policy aide in the Clinton White House. His ACU scorecard is 0%, a completely liberal rating; and he was one of the key promoters of the jobs-destroying NAFTA treaty. His role in the Blagojevich scandal still begs questions. Famous quote which reveals his legislative strategy: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
    • Deputy Chief of Staff: Jim Messina. Former aide to Sen. Max Baucus, director of personnel for the Obama transition team and was national chief of staff for Obama's presidential campaign. 
    • Deputy Chief of Staff: Mona K. Sutphen. She is a member of the transition team staff, managing director of Stonebridge International, a global consulting firm co-chaired by Samuel Sandy Berger, who was national security adviser to President Clinton. She worked for the Clinton White House, 1998-2000. Member, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
  • White House Press Secretary: Robert Gibbs, a top aide to Obama on his campaign and in his Senate office.
  • White House Communications Director: Ellen Moran, the executive director of the radical pro-abortion activist political action committee, EMILY’S List. EMILY's List's mission is to "elect pro-choice Democratic women to office by raising money for their campaigns." The appointment serves as one of many expected thanks to the abortion industry.  Moran also worked with the AFL-CIO and the Democratic National Committee. In 2000, she headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s $50 million issue-advocacy campaign; and helped plan both inaugurals for President Bill Clinton. She worked on the national campaign staff of Tom Harkin's 1992 presidential campaign, and was a supporter of Hillary Clinton until she dropped out of the 2008 race.  She also worked with both David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manger, and David Axelrod, his newly selected senior advisor.
  • Director of Speechwriting: Jonathan Favreau
  • White House Counsel: Gregory Craig, the Counsel job is partly the "President's lawyer". Craig was Ted Kennedy's senior advisor, was special counsel for the impeachment defense of Clinton, and a foreign policy adviser during the Obama campaign. He will also oversee White House vetting of potential appointees to the Supreme Court.

Among those Craig has represented are:  John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Reagan; Pedro Miguel González, President of Panama's legislature, under U.S. indictment for the 1992 murder of a U.S. soldier, Bolivian Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez-Berzaín who was accused of human rights abuses; Haiti's Mevs family which "rose to great wealth" during 'Papa Doc' Duvalier's dictatorship through a monopoly on the country's sugar industry, and they were considered a backer of a coup against the democratically elected government.

Craig represented the father (thus really Castro & the Cuban Communist Party) of Elian Gonzalez; Juan Miguel, where he successfully got the boy who had escaped to freedom sent back to Communist Cuba at gunpoint in a major international incident. Craig, once President Clinton's attorney, called the case 'one of the most satisfying experiences I have had as a lawyer.' Craig also prepared two private jets to aid Gonzalez's forced return to Cuba.  After SWAT teams seized Elian, he was held prisoner at the Aspen Institute's Wye River property until being sent to Cuba. More Info.  Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder also helped evict Elian back to the clutches of Castro. Shame on Obama.

  • Senior White House Adviser: Peter M. Rouse. He has been Obama's Senate chief of staff.  He is a veteran staffer on Capitol Hill and is one of Obama's most trusted advisers.
  • Legislative Director: Phil Schiliro, a senior advisor to the Obama campaign, and former staff member for Rep. Waxman and Sen. Daschle.
  • Attorney General: Eric Holder, who was the No. 2 official in the Justice Department under President Clinton and pushed Clinton's pardon of fugitive Marc Rich.
  • Senior Advisor to the President: David Axelrod
    He was President-elect Obama’s Chief Strategist during the presidential campaign, and led Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign. A native of New York City, Axelrod graduated from the University of Chicago and spent eight years as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where he covered national, state, and local politics and became the youngest political writer and columnist in the paper’s history. Leaving journalism in 1984, Axelrod was Paul Simon’s campaign manager. In 1985, he founded Axelrod & Associates, a political consulting and corporate lobbying firm known today as AKP&D Message and Media. Axelrod has worked for Democrats across the country, including Senators Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, and Herb Kohl, as well as Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, and Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, along with some mayors of big cities. More info on Axlerod.
  • Staff Secretary Lisa Brown,
    Lisa Brown is the Executive Director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Lisa was Counsel to Vice President Gore from September 1999 through January 2001, and Deputy Counsel from 1997-1999. In addition to advising the Vice President on legal issues, Lisa served on the Executive Board of President Clinton's Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities and worked closely with Vice President Gore's Domestic Policy Office on a variety of legislative initiatives. Lisa was an Attorney Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Clinton Administration at the Department of Justice from 1996-1997. Earlier, she was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm Shea & Gardner.  Princeton, University of Chicago Law.
  • Cabinet Secretary: Chris Lu,
    He has worked for Obama in a number of roles over the past four years; Legislative Director and Acting Chief of Staff in Obama’s Senate office, and a policy advisor during the campaign. From 1997-2005, he was Deputy Chief Counsel to Rep. Henry A. Waxman on the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee. Princeton, Harvard Law, Chris was a litigation attorney at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C. (1992-1997), after a clerkship with the Honorable Robert E. Cowen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1991-1992).
  • Economic Advisor: Lawrence Summers, Bill Clinton’s last Treasury secretary and now a professor at Harvard University, He might later replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman. CFR. Summers would have had a difficult time being confirmed for a Secretary post.
  • Amnesty Activist Symbol Director for Intergovernmental Affairs: Cecilia Muñoz, a pro-amnesty activist with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) (La Raza means "The Race"), one of the most radical pro-illegal immigration groups in the USA; where she was senior vice president for the office of research, advocacy and legislation. Munoz may exploit her position in dealing with state and local governments by pressuring government officials to not enforce laws against illegal immigration, to spend more money on illegals and pressuring more cities to become sanctuary cities for illegals.  Munoz: "I guess outrage got me pretty far. I found jobs in the immigrant rights movement. I moved to Washington to work as an advocate. I found plenty to be angry about along the way and built something of a reputation for being strident." She tried to deflect opposition to La Raza's true radical agenda: "My organization in particular gets challenged, especially in the media. We get portrayed as a radical, U.S.-hating, brown beret-wearing separatist organization hell-bent on retrieving the Southwest United States for Mexico.” She also called amnesty "one of the most important domestic policies of our time."
     
  • Chief of Staff to the Presidential Assistant for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison: Michael Strautmanis. Formerly Legislative Director and Counsel to Congressman Rod Blagojevich, and worked for Blagojevich's governor's race in 2002.
     
 

Some Names Being Discussed
for Transition or Official Jobs

  • Secretary of Labor possibilities: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Jennifer Granholm; Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work; Ed McElroy, former president of the American Federation of Teachers; former Rep. David Bonior; Maria Echaveste, former Clinton White House adviser.
  • Henry Rivera, a former Democrat FCC commissioner for FCC transition team? (He would be part of the expected assault on free speech on radio).
  • Deputy Attorney General possibilities: Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School and a former lawyer in the White House counsel’s office under Clinton. David Ogden, a former chief of staff to Clinton's Attorney General Janet Reno, who is currently heading Obama’s Justice Department transition team.
  • Chief Technology Officer: Vinton Cerf, the real inventor of the internet (not Al Gore). Also Julius Genachowski, a former FCC counsel who helped set up Obama's campaign, & Symantec chief John W. Thompson.
  • CIA or other intelligence post: John Hamre, (CFR) president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
  • Council of Economic Advisors: Obama economic advisors Austan Goolsbee or Jason Furman.
  • National Economic Council: Dan Tarullo or Jacob "Jack" Lew, both former economic advisors in the Clinton administration.  Tarullo, a former assistant to the president for international economic policy, is coordinating part of Obama's economic transition team; and he is a member of the CFR. Lew, a former OMB director under Clinton and former executive vice president at New York University, heads Citigroup's alternative investments group. He is a member of the CFR.

Possible Bush Holdovers, at least temporarily:

  • Ben Bernake: Federal Reserve Chairman
  • Robert Mueller: FBI Director
  • Adm. Michael Mullen: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Cabinet Secretaries, Staff at Departments and Agencies

  • Department of Agriculture
    Secretary of Agriculture: former Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA)
    .
  • Department of Commerce
    Secretary of Commerce: Senator Judd Gregg
  • Department of Defense
    Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
    (CFR), Bush's Secretary of Defense is remaining in this important post. Henry Kissinger, no friend of freedom, praised Obama's selection of Gates.
  • Department of Education
    Secretary of Education: Arne Duncan
    who is the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and a friend of Obama. He gave preliminary approval for an all-homosexual school in Chicago. Duncan worked with Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge on curriculum for Chicago Schools, where Bill Ayers served on the board and influenced the school curriculum. He supported adopting the dumbed-down "Everyday Math" curriculum. In 2007, only 17% of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools. Duncan is known as a reformer and supports charter schools and performance pay. But he supports year-round indoctrination by eliminating summer vacations and "early education" (taking kids away from mothers at earlier ages to further weaken the family and indoctrinate). Home schoolers are suspicious of him.
  • Environmental Protection Agency
    Secretary of EPA: Lisa Jackson
    , the currently chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and previously was commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, where she authored the N.J. global warming law. . She led efforts to regulate CO2 emissions from automobiles and other sources and can be expected to have near-unlimited authority to destroy businesses and family budgets with energy taxes and "cap and trade" Cap and trade will so regulate and cost businesses that they will move remaining American jobs to unlimited-polluter China and the third world, all exempt from CO2 treaties and agreements, leading to far higher greenhouse emissions worldwide.
  • Department of Energy
  • Secretary of Energy: Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and director of the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a "climate change" advocate who favors forcing Americans to pay higher prices for energy, and opposes the use of coal--without having a real world alternative. It would take 250 clean nuclear power plants to replace coal-generated electricity, and in spite of extremist rhetoric, solar and wind cannot begin to replace coal-based generation. Chu revealed to the Wall Street Journal in September: "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." Gasoline in Europe is $7-$9 a gallon! Can you afford to pay that?
    • "Energy Czar": Communist Flag Carol Browner, the radical former Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Clinton administration.  She is a member the Socialist International's Sustainable World Society, serves on the Board of Podesta's radical Center for American Progress, and is on the Board of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.  She is also on the Board with Rockefeller family members and John Podesta of the League of Conservation Voters. She is the Principal with The Albright Group--Madelyn Albright's foreign "consulting" company which takes money from foreign governments and clients.  Browner's husband, former Rep. Tom Downey (D-NY) has been an energy lobbyist with the Downey McGrath Group. Downey is expected to be named an energy advisor. In 2006, Browner and Downey lobbied on behalf of Dubai Ports World, which was seeking to buy six major American port operations. Should anyone who has ever represented foreign governments be trusted in our government? She was Counsel to Sen. Al Gore (1988-1991) and Associate Director of Citizen Action (1981-1986). Before leaving the EPA under Clinton in 2001, she had all of her computer records and email destroyed, in violation of a federal court injunction.
      Browner can be expected to lead the charge for Obama's promise to "skyrocket electric (and other energy) rates." She was known as the most leftist of Clinton's advisors.  Browner rewrote a law called New Source Review so that power plants, refineries and other industries were always breaking particulate emissions rules. But her most dangerous scheme was having the EPA seize power to declare carbon and CO2 as a "dangerous pollutant" under clean-air laws and thus impose heavy taxes and restrictions on all energy. Under Browner's orders, EPA general counsel Jonathan Cannon prepared a 1998 memorandum concluding that "CO2 emissions are within the scope of the EPA's authority to regulate," even though Congress specifically declined to include carbon when it last amended the Clean Air Act in 1990. Now a law professor, Mr. Cannon serves on the Obama transition team.
    • Council on Environmental Quality -- Chairman: Nancy Sutley Los Angeles Deputy Mayor
  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
    Secretary of HHS: WITHDRAWN Tom Daschle,
    also to be the "Health Care Reform (Socialized Medicine) Czar". The former Senator (D-SC) is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and has been a lobbyist or "advisor" for drug and medical corporations with the lobbying firm Alston & Bird. His wife is also a corporate lobbyist. Daschle is a transition group leader on health care. His associations with the medical industry could be a conflict as he oversees the government takeover of health care.
  • Department of Homeland Security
    Secretary of Homeland Security: Gov. Janet Napolitano
    of Arizona (CFR). As governor, she frequently blocked attempts to secure the border with Mexico, in contrast to her tough rhetoric. The open border is one of America's greatest security threats. Info.
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Department of the Interior
    Secretary of the Interior: Senator Ken Salazar
    (D-CO), who has been known for blocking oil drilling.
  • Department of Justice
    Attorney General: Eric Holder, an enemy of the Second Amendment.  He was deputy attorney general under Clinton, a senior legal advisor to Obama's campaign and helped review Obama's vice presidential candidates.  His role in the pardon of fugitive Marc Rich may present confirmation problems. Since 2001, Holder has been an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., representing corporate clients including Merck. In 2008, Holder fought to destroy the Second Amendment in the D.C. v. Heller Supreme Court case; supporting the Washington, D.C. gun ban, where he said the Department of Justice from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton had always believed that the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of individuals to own guns for personal use.  Holder said that overturning the 1976 law "opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets." More info
    terrorist bomb symbol Most notorious among the requests for clemency granted during Holder’s tenure was from 16 members of a Puerto Rican Marxist terrorist group, the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known by its Spanish acronym FALN, which engaged in a theft and terror campaign in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico during the 1970s and 1980s.
    Communist Flag Along with Obama's Counsel Gregory Craig (see above), Holder also played a key role in the forced return to Castro's Cuba of little Elian Gonzalez in 2000. Holder said of the federal agents who stormed Elian's house with drawn guns: "They were armed agents who went in there who acted very sensitively..." More Info. and MoreShame on Obama.
    terrorist bomb symbol Holder also pushed through the pardons of Weather Underground terrorists Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans, who were associated with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Rosenberg and Evans had been jailed for bombing government buildings.
  • Department of Labor
  • Department of State
    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
    What hasn't been said about Hillary?  Of course we know about the scandals at Whitewater and the White House. Secret meetings pushing Socialized medicine. What was her relationship with Vince Foster? What will be disclosed from the donation records of Bill's foundation records? Henry Kissinger, no friend of freedom, praised Obama's selection of Clinton.
  • Department of Transportation
  • Department of the Treasury
    Secretary of the Treasury: Timothy Geithner, (CFR) president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Geithner has been involved in the bailouts, and was Rubin’s Undersecretary for International Affairs at Treasury under Clinton.
  • Department of Veterans Affairs
    Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Eric Shinseki
    a retired US Army general and Chief of Staff of the United States Army. He had argued for more troops in Iraq. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

     
Other Cabinet and Executive Office of the President Offices:
  • Council of Economic Advisers
    Director: Christina Romer, an economics professor at the U. Cal.-Berkeley, Romer also worked with the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve.
  • Council of Environmental Quality: Nancy Sutley
  • National Security Council
    National Security Adviser: Gen. James L. Jones
    , former NATO commander. Henry Kissinger, no friend of freedom, praised Obama's selection of Jones.
  • Office of Administration
  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
    Director: Peter Orszag, currently the Congressional Budget Office Director, and formerly economic adviser in the Clinton White House. He worked with Robert Ruben in the Clinton administration.
  • Office of National Drug Control Policy
  • Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
  • United States Trade Representative
  • U.N. Ambassador: Dr. Susan Rice (CFR) formerly a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a liberal internationalist organization. She was Senior Advisor for National Security Affairs on the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Rice was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President Clinton from 1997-2001. From 1995-1997, Rice was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) and, from 1993-1995, was Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the NSC. She was a senior advisor on foreign policy to Obama's presidential campaign.
    Obama is considering forcing the US into the UN International Criminal Court, which could try Americans in UN kangaroo courts, judged by anti-Americans for invented political crimes. Rice is considered very pro-UN power.  Obama also supports the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

    Terrorism experts blame Rice for having played a key role in blocking efforts to neutralize Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. According to Mansoor Ijaz, a former trouble shooter for Clinton, the FBI had their efforts to capture bin Laden “overruled every single time by the State Department, by Susan Rice and her cronies, who were hell-bent on destroying the Sudan.” In a Washington Post Op-Ed published in 2002, Mansoor Ijaz and Tim Carney, U.S. Ambassador to Sudan blamed Susan Rice for being a major obstacle to accepting offers of help from Sudan and to share their intelligence on bin Laden’s terror network. Rice was also influential in the Clinton Administration’s remaining uninvolved in the Rwandan genocide that took place in that nation in 1994. The Atlantic (September 2001) published an article by Samantha Power titled: “Bystanders to Genocide,” and outlined Rice’s role in the do-nothing policy of the Clinton Administration. At one point during debate on what the Administration should do, Rice said: “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?” Those present were stunned by her comment. Lt. Colonel Tony Marley remembers the statement: “We could believe that people would wonder that, but not that they would actually voice it.” Rice claimed that if she did make this statement it was inappropriate.

White House Offices:

  • Domestic Policy Council
    Director: Melody Barnes, a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy, and a VP of Podesta's radical Center for American Progress. Barnes will be part of the team working for Socialized medicine.
  • Homeland Security Council
  • National Economic Council
    Director: Lawrence Summers (CFR) Under Clinton, he was former Secretary of the Treasury as well as deputy Treasury secretary under Rubin.  Summers helped manage financial crises in Mexico, Asia and Russia. He'll coordinate Obama's economic policies.
  • Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
  • Office of the First Lady
  • Office of National AIDS Policy
  • Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Boards
  • USA Freedom Corps
  • White House Fellows Office
  • White House Military Office

 

 

Transition Staff and Advisors
Most transition staff will end up with official policy jobs

Obama-Biden Transition Staff

Transition Co-Chairmen

  • John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff under Clinton-1998-2001. Podesta founded the left-wing thinktank Center for American Progress with George Soros's money. In 1988, he founded with his brother Tony, Podesta Associates, a corporate lobbying firm. Podesta was counselor to Sen. Daschle from 1995-1996 and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1979-1981.
  • Valerie Jarrett, President and CEO, The Habitat Company, a real estate development corporation. She is believed to be Obama's choice to replace him in the Senate. She served for eight years in the City of Chicago government; first as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development, then as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley and finally, as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development. Prior to her City government service, Jarrett practiced law with two private law firms. She is Chairman of the U. of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, and served as a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago from 2006-2007. She was Finance Chair for the 2004 U.S. Senatorial Campaign for Barack Obama, the first Treasurer of the Senator’s PAC, the Hopefund, and served as a Senior Advisor to the Obama Campaign.
  • Peter M. Rouse, Chief of Staff to Senator Obama, and was chief of staff to members of Congress for more than thirty years, including former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD); Rep. Dick Durbin (1984/85) and Lt. Governor Terry Miller of Alaska (1979-83). MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
  • "Key Advisor": Robert E. Rubin (CFR), who served as Secretary of the Treasury and headed the National Economic Council under President Clinton, currently serves as both a director and counselor with Citigroup, which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout funds. The New York Times has described Rubin as a “key adviser” to President-elect Obama. has been one of the highest paid executives at the now twice bailed-out financial giant Citigroup: over four years with Citigroup, Rubin earned more than $60 million. Rubin earned $17.3 million in 2006, $16.4 million in 2005, $16.5 million in 2004, and $16.6 million in 2003. He has been associated with the bank since 1999, served as its interim chairman from November to December 2007. Rubin’s role was described as an advisor to the company’s top executives.  Three of Obama’s top transition officials have ties to Rubin: Geithner, Summers and Orszag.  Info.

Transition Advisory Board Members

  • Carol Browner, Principal, The Albright Group, Former Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency under Clinton.
  • William Daley, Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Former Secretary of Commerce under Clinton; in 1993, he served as special counsel to the President pushing the passage of NAFTA. Member, Council on Foreign relations (CFR).
  • Christopher Edley, Jr., Dean, Boalt Hall School of Law, Former Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget under Clinton; member, Council on Foreign relations (CFR). He chaired President Clinton's 1998 Affirmative Action Review.
  • Michael Froman, Managing Director, Citigroup, Former Chief of Staff, Department of the Treasury under Clinton, and member, Council on Foreign relations (CFR).
  • Julius Genachowski, Co-founder, LaunchBox Digital; Special Advisor, General Atlantic, Former FCC official under Clinton. He also clerked for Justice Souter. The FCC will be a battleground in the Censorship Doctrine fight.
  • Donald Gips, Group Vice President, Level 3 Communications, Former Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore
  • Mark Gitenstein, Partner, Mayer Brown, Former Chief Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee
  • Edward Kaufman, President, Public Strategies, Former Chief of Staff, Sen. Biden
  • Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona, member, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
  • Federico Peña, Managing Director, Vestar Capital Partners, Former Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy under Clinton, Member, Council on Foreign relations (CFR).
  • Susan Rice, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, Obama campaign, Former Assistant Secretary of State under Clinton, Member, Council on Foreign relations (CFR).
  • Sonal Shah, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org; Former Treasury Department and National Security Council Official.  Prior to Google.org, she was VP at Goldman, Sachs and developed and implemented the firm’s environmental strategy. She is also the co-founder of Indicorps. As the former Associate Director for Economic and National Security Policy at Podesta's leftist Center for American Progress, Sonal worked on trade & outsourcing. Before that she worked for eight years at the Department of Treasury under Clinton on various economic issues and regions of the world. She was the Director of the office covering sub Saharan Africa, worked in Bosnia and Kosovo after the war, and served as the senior adviser to the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury during the Asian financial crisis.

Transition Senior Staff

  • Chris Lu – Executive Director
  • Dan Pfeiffer – Communications Director
  • Stephanie Cutter – Chief Spokesperson
  • Cassandra Butts – General Counsel
  • Jim Messina – Personnel Director
  • Patrick Gaspard – Associate Personnel Director
  • Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel
  • Melody Barnes – Co-Director of Agency Review
  • Lisa Brown – Co-Director of Agency Review
  • Phil Schiliro – Director of Congressional Relations
  • Michael Strautmanis – Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs
  • Katy Kale – Director of Operations
  • Brad Kiley – Director of Operations
 

Transition Agency Review Teams

"The Agency Review Teams for the Obama-Biden transition will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in."

Agency Review Co-Chairmen:

  • Melody Barnes She was the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to the Obama campaign. Previously, she was the Executive V.P. for Policy at Podesta's Center for American Progress, Chief Counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee where she worked on "women’s health and reproductive rights" (abortion) and shaped religious liberties laws. She was a Principal at The Raben Group. She was also Director of Legislative Affairs to the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
  • Lisa Brown is on leave from the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy where she is the Executive Director. She was Counsel to Vice President Gore, and previously worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, was a Partner at the D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (now Goodwin Procter), and clerked on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable John C. Godbold.
  • Don Gips is on leave from his role as Group Vice President of Global Corporate Development at Level 3 Communications, Previously, he served in the White House as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore, and was Chief of the International Bureau at the FCC where he was responsible for the WTO negotiations and all spectrum policy. He also helped launch the Americorps Program at the Corporation for National Service. Before entering government, he was an Executive Manager at McKinsey & Co.

Working Group Members

  • Seth Harris
  • David J. Hayes
  • Reed Hundt
  • Sally Katzen
  • Tom Perez
  • Ray Rivera
  • Sarah Sewall
  • Louisa Terrell
  • Michael Warren
  • Tom Wheeler
  • Jon Wilkins
  • Deputy Director Lisa Ellman
  • Special Assistant Liz Fujii
  • Special Assistant Joani Walsh

Economics and International Trade Team Leaders

  • Reed Hundt
  • Michael Warren
  • Josh Gotbaum
  • William “Thomas” Dohrmann
  • James Johnson
  • Anjan Mukherjee
  • Gregory L. Rosston
  • Sylvia Mathews Burwell
  • Susan Ness
  • Phil Weiser
  • Peter M. Shane
  • Fred P. Hochberg
  • Ginger Lew
  • Gary Gensler
  • Mozelle W. Thompson
  • Peter Blair Henry
  • Lisa D. Cook
  • George Munoz
  • Nelson Cunningham
  • Alan H. Fleischmann

National Security Team Leaders

  • Sarah Sewall
  • Tom Donilon
  • Wendy R. Sherman
  • Michèle A. Flournoy
  • John P. White
  • Robert R. Beers
  • Clark Kent Ervin
  • Gayle E. Smith
  • Aaron Williams
  • John O. Brennan
  • Judith A. (“Jami”) Miscik

Justice and Civil Rights Team Leaders

  • Tom Perez
  • Dawn Johnsen
  • Alejandro Mayorkas
  • David William Ogden
  • Tom Perelli
  • Theodore M. Shaw
  • Aderson Bellegarde Francois
  • Judge Cruz Reynoso
  • Spencer Overton
  • Robert Lenhard
  • Alan W. Houseman
  • LaVeeda Battle
  • Kareem Dale
  • Marilyn Golden

Energy and Natural Resources Team Leaders

  • David J. Hayes
  • Bart Chilton
  • Carole Jett
  • Elgie Holstein
  • Elizabeth Montoya
  • Sue Tierney
  • Cecilia V. Estolano
  • Lisa Jackson
  • Robert Sussman
  • Rose McKinney-James
  • Keith Harper
  • John Leshy

Education & Labor Team Leaders

  • Seth Harris
  • Judith A. Winston
  • Michael Camuñez
  • Deborah Jospin
  • Shirley Sagawa
  • Thomas A. Kochan
  • Nancy E. Peace
  • Phyllis Segal
  • Joseph Swerdzewski
  • Edward Montgomery
  • Cynthia Estlund
  • Linda A. Puchala
  • Richard Huberman

Department of Health and Human Services Team Leaders

Tom Perez
Anthony Brown
William Scott Gould
Pamela Gilbert
Bill Corr
Nicole Lurie
Roberta Achtenberg
Xavier de Souza Briggs
Bruce Katz
Dr. Susan Daniels
Jim Roosevelt
Jonathan D. Moreno

Science, Tech, Space and Arts Team Leaders

Tom Wheeler
Don Beyer
Ralph Everett
Susan Crawford
Ken Werbach
Lori Garver
Roderic (“Roddy”) Olvera Young
Bill Ivey
Anne Luzzatto
Clement Price
Jim Kohlenberger
Henry M. Rivera

Executive Office of the President Team Leaders

Sally Katzen
Antony Blinken
Ivo Daalder
Mara Eve Rudman
Audrey Choi
Michele Jolin
George Frampton
Thomas Soto
Al Lenhardt
Todd Stern
Mark Lindsay
Brad Kiley
Barbara Chow
Bowman Cutter
Christopher Putala
Donald Vereen
Thomas Kalil
Mario Molina
Anna Gomez
Peter Cowhey
Rick Stamberger

Government Operations Team Leaders

Sally Katzen
Martha Johnson
Jane Woodfin
Bruce McConnell
Gloria Parker
Amy Comstock Rick
Elaine Kaplan
Linh Nguyen
Sylvia Bolivar
Stephen Crawford

Transportation Team Leaders

  • Seth Harris
  • Mortimer Downey
  • Jane Garvey
  • Michael Huerta
  • John Cullather
  • Carol Carmody
 
 

Presidential Commissions and Advisory Boards

 

Vice President Elect Biden's Advisors and Staff

  • Chief of Staff: Ron Klain
     
  • Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Communications: Jay Carney, currently ultra-liberal Time Magazine's Washington, DC bureau chief.
     

First Lady Elect Michelle Obama's Staff

 

Other:

  • Chairman of the DNC: (Howard Dean will step down in January)

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Notes: This directory follows on from our list of Bush Administration staff and appointees. Memberships and other information noted here are subject to change.  Did we miss you? Did we someone? Got additional info which would be useful for others to know? Please let us know.

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