Team Obama
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.