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Wednesday, November 12
Obama Sending Iowa's Leach to Economic Summit!
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 12 Nov 2008 01:30 PM CST
Obama Sending Iowa's Leach to Economic Summit!
by Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg.com
 Barack Obama's transition team announced former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Republican Representative Jim Leach will represent the president-elect at the international economic summit in Washington.
Albright and Leach will be available for "unofficial meetings" with representatives of industrial and emerging countries who will be at the summit being hosted by George W. Bush on Nov. 14 and 15.
"There is one president at a time in the United States, so the president-elect has asked Secretary Albright and Congressman Leach, an experienced and bipartisan team, to be available to meet with and listen to our friends and allies on his behalf," Obama's senior foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said in a statement.
The meeting is being held to coordinate government responses to the worst financial crisis in 80 years.
Read the full article here.
Oh, ackkkk! Whereas I am glad that Obama seems to suddenly be remembering to include WOMEN in his all-inclusive team, I'll admit I about gagged to see that he is asking Iowa's Jim Leach to represent him at this summit. Jim Leach? The guy who chaired the House banking [deregulatory] committee before Iowa citizens ousted him from office? Come on, Obama. Give us a break. I guess that's Leach's reward for endorsing Obama once the inevitable became clear. But as a point in his favor, I guess I can say he's a far better choice than if Obama had chosen some neocon fox to guard the hen house.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean Will Not Seek Second Term
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 12 Nov 2008 05:00 AM CST
DNC Chairman Howard Dean Will Not Seek Second Term
 According to the AP, Howard Dean will honor his committment to a one-term chairmanship of the DNC.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean plans to step down from his post when his term expires in January, wrapping up a tenure in which the party heavily invested in all 50 states for a payoff that helped elect Barack Obama president.
Dean, who was briefly his party's presidential front-runner in 2004, was elected DNC chairman in 2005 and has long vowed to serve only one, four-year term. At a postelection news conference in Washington last week, Dean indicated again that he didn't plan to stay on, aides said on Monday....
Dean was the architect of a "50-State Strategy," investing money and staff in every state — including those where Democrats had long fared poorly — to build party infrastructure and lay the groundwork for electoral gains. The Obama campaign, working with DNC organizers in all 50 states, won several states that had not elected a Democratic president in decades, including Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.
State party chairs were generally thrilled with Dean's approach, while some Democratic leaders in Washington complained early on that the party's money would be better spent helping candidates who had a real chance of winning.
The disagreement broke into open warfare in 2006, when Dean clashed over money and strategy with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who ran the party's successful effort to win back control of Congress. Last week, Emanuel accepted the job of White House chief of staff in an Obama administration.
Yeah, I heard Emanuel absolutely hates Howard Dean. National progressives are not too thrilled with Obama's choice for Chief of Staff, if you hadn't heard.
To cheer yourself up, go over to Salon and read this great article by Mike Madden:
Obama's debt to Howard Dean
As Dean leaves the helm of the Democratic National Committee, one thing is clear: He got it right with his controversial 50-state strategy.
A true man of vision, he is. This is actually the first Dean article I've seen that makes any mention of a potential Cabinet position. Health would be appropriate, not necessarily because of his background as a physician but because of the brilliant way he instituted health care for the people of Vermont when he served as governor. There's a lot of experience there I'd hate to see go to waste just because the guy who's got Obama's ear hates Dean.
Or check out this Salon article called "Howard Dean, vindicated" by Joe Conason.
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