The White House, on Monday, announced the departure of Bill Daley as President Obama’s Chief of Staff and introduced his replacement, Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew.
Daley is stepping down one full year ahead of his scheduled departure date. While the news comes as a surprise, nobody inside of the Beltway was necessarily shocked by the announcement. In November Daley was effectively demoted when the White House announced that in a “shuffle” some of Daley’s responsibilities would be taken over by senior advisor to the President Pete Rouse.
The Moderate Daley, a former Commerce Secretary and JP Morgan executive, was brought in last January in hopes of improving relations with business leaders.
Daley’s tenure was rocky and strained by his unfamiliarity with Congress, anonymous complaints from White House staffers about his managerial style, and his difficulty in adapting to the current political climate. By November Daley had seen his role reduced and after only 361 days on the job, the Daley era was over.
Replacing Daley will be the mild mannered Jack Lew, who is somewhat of an enigma. A former Citigroup banker who resists assertions that the Wall Street crash was a result of federal de-regulation, but one who has bona fide liberal credentials as well.
Lew got his start in Washington as a staffer for then Speaker of the House and liberal lion Tip O’Neil. While in college at Carlton College in Minnesota, Lew’s faculty advisor was the late liberal legend Paul Wellstone and worked on healthcare legislation while with the Clinton Administration.
Despite his pedigree, it is safe to say that liberals will be watching him closely.
He’s another rat in the leaky ship of Chicago pirates that sacked the Progressive ship of state that this administration SHOULD have been.