Morning line, Dec. 15, 2008
Obama will hold a national security meeting in Chicago today, followed by a press conference at 5 p.m. Eastern on energy and the environment. (Much more after the jump.)
At the press conference, he is expected to announce the appointment of Steven Chu for secretary of Energy, and may announce Carol Browner as climate and energy "czar" and Lisa Jackson as his nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, reports Political Punch (ABC News).
The national security meeting will include Vice President-elect Biden, secretary of State-designee Hillary Clinton, Attorney General-designee Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security-designee Janet Napolitano, U.N. Ambassador-designee Susan Rice, incoming National Security Adviser Jim Jones, incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, incoming White House Counsel Greg Craig, and current national security staff, including secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
This morning, the New York Times takes a look at Obama appointees Tom Daschle and Carol Browner, whose lobbyist spouses test of his ethics policies. The Times reports that while "[t]he ethics code that Mr. Obama imposed on his transition team takes a hard line against lobbyists . . . Obama’s embrace of Mr. Daschle and his presumed choice of Ms. Browner suggest that he will take a softer line on lobbying by the spouses of the officials in his administration."
ProPublica's Joaquin Sapien takes a look at Obama's likely pick for EPA, Lisa Jackson, the former head of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, who critics say, "has been too close to industry, withheld information from the public -- and fallen well short of the pledge she made when taking office in February 2006 to fix the state’s beleaguered toxic waste program."
Robert Gates tells the New York Times that straddling two administrations as defense secretary “does create some occasional awkwardness.”
Paul Light, an expert on government at New York University, takes a shot at the proliferation czars in the fledgling administration. "There've been so many czars over last 50 years, and they've all been failures," he told the Wall Street Journal, commenting on Obama's creation of such posts to oversee issue areas including energy and the environment, urban affairs, health care and the economy.
Speaking of czars, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Obama's choice to run a new White House office on health issues and to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has "specific -- and potentially controversial -- ideas about how to reshape the healthcare system," writes the Los Angeles Times, which takes a look at how Daschle may implement Obama's push for health care reform.
In an editorial, the Washington Post takes on the myth of Obama's small donor success, and calls on Obama to "lead a serious conversation about the role of the public financing system."
