Now It's Rouse's Show

[babylonsister]

Some fun facts...

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/10/1/121845/316


Now It's Rouse's Show

by BooMan
Fri Oct 1st, 2010 at 12:18:45 PM EST


Rahm is now officially gone. In his place, is Pete Rouse.

Intensely private, Mr. Rouse is unmarried and lives alone in northwest Washington with his two cats. (He is a big cat person, friends say.) He is not given to socializing; when Mr. Daschle hosted a huge staff reunion just before he left the Senate, Mr. Rouse did not show. He is also a huge music buff; in 2008, he persuaded the surviving members of the Grateful Dead to reunite and campaign for Mr. Obama.

I saw the Dead play at Penn State that year. I didn't know I had Mr. Rouse to thank for that. Sounds like he won't be nearly as enthusiastic as Rahm was in the "punching hippies" department. Apparently, he is a hippie himself.

Also, too:

When Republicans rose up against the appointment of Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, to oversee a new consumer protection agency, Mr. Rouse helped devise a strategy that ended with the president appointing Ms. Warren as a top-level adviser — a position that needed no Senate confirmation.

Not that the guy isn't an insider. When he worked for Majority Leader Tom Daschle, he was known as the 101st Senator. I doubt Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Joe Miller, or Marco Rubio will give much of a shit about that, however. Nor will Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn. I don't care who you appoint as chief of staff, the Senate Republicans aren't going to cooperate with this administration. They used to work with Obama. Now they stand silent while their base questions his religion and citizenship.

snip (including part of a Frontline interview that's interesting)///

For my money, the president would have been better served by having Rouse as his chief of staff from the get-go. But, we'll see if there is any discernible difference in the administration's performance now that Rahm has gone off to Chicago. On the big issues, it is still Senate arithmetic that drives the decision making, and the rest is just fiddling at the margins. I hope, however, that things will improve with a man like Rouse in there. Maybe the Grateful Dead agree with me.

[Parker CA]

1. Kick and Rec. Nice piece.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. No, it is Obama's show, and Rouse will push Obama's policies...

I do not expect any big difference between the the Rahm era and the Rouse era.

[babylonsister]

3. So then all the accusations against rahm and 'his' policies

were patently untrue? Do you think his opinion didn't influence the Prez?

[Ozymanithrax]

5. I think the President chose Rahm because he knew what Rahm was and could do...

I think Obama set policy and followed his natural inclination as a consensus builder. Rahm knew Congress, and Rahm worked well with the new centrists Democrats elected by Obama's coat tails.

I think Obama was wrong in thinking he could be a consensus builder in American politics. The other side was never going to play. But Obama invited power brokers and opponents to the table anyway, tried to build consensus, and managed only very modest successes because of his style of leadership and the realities of politics in America.

I think Obama is a brilliant man who knew the type of influence Rahm would have and chose him for that role, just as he chose all of those in his cabinet. I think the policies were Obama's not Rahm's. I think Rahm carried out Obama's polices and had as much influence on specific decision as any other adviser in Obama cabinet. But I don't think he was the man behind the thrown, pulling Obama's strings for evil corporate America. I don't think that Rouse, or anyone else who becomes Chief of Staff, will change Obama's policies and methods.

Now, a Republican take over, or just an erosion of votes will change those polices to some extent. If the Republicans should succede and take one or both houses, Obama will be forced to run his administration from a war room to fend off an endless string of investigations. Fewer votes in the House and the Senate will doom any real chance that important legislation passes. That siege mentality will force Obama to be more confrontational. But it won't be the COS that does that.

[babylonsister]

6. I think you're right, and Ezra agrees with you...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x463345

[thereismore]

4. Sounds good to me! nt