Chief of Staff

Liberals are in high umbrage over the naming of William Daley as Obama’s Chief of Staff today. Well, they might as well have their knickers in a twist over that as anything else, since they need to be in a state of high umbrage over something no matter what.

I can’t say that I’m all that thrilled to have another Wall Streeter in the West Wing, but let’s try to keep a sense of balance here. He is Chief of Staff. The operative word is “staff,” which means, figuratively speaking, that he tells the butler when to clear off the table. Sure, it’s a bit more than that, but he runs the staff, not the damned President.

One pundit was using Rahm Emanuel as an example and said that Harry Reid was all set to get the “public option” passed in the Senate until Emanuel used his wiles to talk him out of it. Quick, everybody, how many of you think Emanuel did that on his own initiative? How many think he did it without Obama telling him to do it? Right, me too.

Daley is going to do what Emanuel did. He is going to sit in an office within call of the Oval Office and when Obama says “froggy” he is going to hop. He may ask “how high?” first. Then, whatever Obama wants to happen, he will make happen. That is what a Chief of Staff does.