Obama seems to be 'running scared'!

A fundraiser as social secretary

Julianna Smoot

The promotion of Julianna Smoot to White House Social Secretary is good news for wealthy donors to President Obama's campaign, for whom Smoot -- the chief campaign fundraiser -- is friend and point of contact.

Smoot, who had been working in the relative obscurity of the U.S. Trade Representative's office, will now be the key gatekeeper to the kind of social functions from which donors have complained that this administration, unlike President Clinton's, has barred them.
But the choice to unite money and access in the person of Smoot -- a career political fundraiser whose efforts were downplayed by a campaign eager to focus on small donors -- cuts against both President Obama's broader message of change and against the talking points of her departing predecessor, Desiree Rogers.

Rogers told Lynn Sweet that she saw her role as turning the White House into the "people's house," and Michelle Obama praised her in a statement for "welcoming scores of everyday Americans through its doors, from wounded warriors to local schoolchildren to NASCAR drivers."

Smoot may have the same goal, but her credentials and relationships point in the opposite direction: To ensuring access and satisfaction for the ultra-wealthy elite who will, incidentally, be called on to finance President Obama's next campaign.

A White House official says appointing a fundraising staffer Social Secretary isn't "outside the norm" because one of President George W. Bush's Social Secretaries, Lea Berman, had been such a staffer, though not one of Smoot's centrality.

'Nuff said? Yet?

Dick'em Daley Quotes o' da Ding Dong Day

Mayor Richard Daley defends Desiree Rogers

Mayor Richard Daley today defended White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, who's leaving the job after being criticized for an incident where two uninvited guests crashed a state dinner in November.

It wasn't Rogers' job to keep President Barack Obama safe, Daley said.

"There's only one group responsible for the security of the White House and the president. There's only one person, that's the Secret Service," the mayor said.

"Let's stop blaming her for anybody walking in there, because no one can stop anyone with the exception of the Secret Service," he said.

While the Secret Service accepted much of the blame after a Virginia couple made their way into a Nov. 24 dinner for the prime minister of India, Rogers was criticized because her staff failed to keep a checklist of guests entering the White House.

Daley called Rogers, a Chicagoan who has worked as the Illinois Lottery director and People's Gas, "a great friend of mine." (Yeah, I bet!--RP)

The mayor's remarks came at as he joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and others to dedicate a new community health center in the South Austin neighborhood.

Responding to Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman's announcement this week that the system will face a deficit of up to $1 billion next year, Daley also called on the school system's employees to be prepared to make sacrifices like those forced on the private sector and workers in other areas of government.

Though Daley cited his own acceptance of 24 unpaid furlough days this year as an example of that sacrifice, he insisted he was not suggesting unionized Chicago teachers make similar concessions.

"I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about in general. We have negotiations in regards to the teachers," he said. "But I'll tell you one thing. All over America this is happening, every community in America. This is not the exception."

An increase in the state income tax to cope with the yawning state budget deficit is only acceptable if it is coupled with a reduction in real estate taxes, the primary funding source for schools, the mayor said. "You can't one way increase the income tax and then not help real estate taxes," he said.

Daley also said it makes sense to end blanket free rides for seniors on the CTA, a proposal Gov. Pat Quinn said this week has little chance of making it out of the General Assembly.

"Seniors who are struggling, yes, need help. But those who are not struggling, they have to be part of the solution, and that's part of the cost," Daley said.

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Erm...I am a speaker of English and several other languages.

I do not speak Daley.