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Team Obama

1/8/09, 2:21 am EST

This WaPo piece smartly identifies the super-cabinet Obama is busy installing in his West Wing, a group of senior presidential advisers in charge of coordinating Obama’s top policy goals, who may or may not butt heads with the actual cabinet secretaries who share their turf.

Although the piece plays up the potential for chaos, there’s nothing haphazard about the way Obama is going about building his inner circle. The White House czars, like climate czar(ina) Carol Browner, will enjoy a mandate to push through Obama’s policy objectives among several departments and agencies — in Browner’s case among variously the EPA, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Commerce, etc.

Interestingly, former majority leader Tom Daschle is pulling double duty, serving jointly as Obama’s Heath and Human Services Secretary _and_ health-care czar.

Informally, I’d love to know who is going to be the more senior counselor to Obama — Daschle or Biden.


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Comments

DirtyDennis | 1/8/2009, 8:01 am EST

I’m sure Mr. Obama is JUST as curious as yourself, Tim.

coupeditor | 1/8/2009, 1:20 pm EST

In 2001, in the landmark court case Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner, Carol M. Browner and the agency she administered, the EPA, were found guilty of race, color, and sex-based discrimination as well as tolerating a hostile work environment. The case provided the impetus for the passage (unanimous in both chambers) of the No FEAR Act (Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation) that was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The law was heralded as the first civil rights law of the 21st century. Study of Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner is now mandated for all new Federal employees within 90 days of their being hired, and every 2 years for all Federal employees. The extent of the racism and retaliation within Ms. Browner’s EPA was so pervasive that Congress and the Executive required study of it as the penultimate example of what was WRONG with government. When asked in Congressional hearings whether she accepted the judgement of the jury, Ms. Browner said she did.

The question for Mr. Obama, is: Given her unrepentant position on the deplorable conditions she oversaw at EPA, how is Carol Browner qualified to hold administrative position again?

Voice of Reason | 1/8/2009, 8:08 pm EST

Because Obama is about Change

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