Emanuel leaving White House job
Obama’s chief of staff expected to be replaced by senior adviser
WASHINGTON – White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel will announce his resignation today and leave office the same day, multiple administration officials said, continuing a series of key staffing changes ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Pete Rouse, a senior adviser who was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff in the Senate, is expected to be interim chief, although several officials said he could wind up in the job permanently.
Obama will make two “personnel announcements” in the East Room at 11:05 a.m. today, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday. The president is expected to announce the Emanuel and Rouse moves at the same time, to maintain as much continuity as possible.
Emanuel has been setting the stage for his departure for weeks, since the moment outgoing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said he would not run for re-election. The question of whether and when Emanuel would leave has been a sizable distraction, people who work with the White House said, as other senior officials try to assess what the vacancy will mean and what other moves will be set in motion.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who became close to Emanuel during his House service, nodded when asked whether she would endorse his mayoral bid.
“He can do anything he puts his mind to, and we all wish him much success,” she said.
Longtime lawmakers such as Pelosi know Rouse almost as well as they know Emanuel, and Pelosi said she approved of the pick. “Pete Rouse certainly has the respect of those in Congress who know his service to our country well,” she said. “If that’s the president’s choice, then we salute him.”
Rouse, a longtime former Senate employee, is a popular choice among the White House staff. Already intimately involved in most major internal decisions, he often wrestles with the president’s most difficult problems.
He is so well-known in the Senate – where for many years he was a senior aide to then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. – that he was often referred to as the 101st senator. Yet he has a much lower public profile than Emanuel.