Obama offers key post to Emanuel

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By Stephen Dinan, Christina Bellantoni and Joseph Curl

UPDATED:

President-elect Barack Obama turned his attention Wednesday to selecting Cabinet officers to help deliver on his campaign pledges to right a faltering economy and ease public concern about two drawn-out wars, offering a key job in his administration to Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

Democratic officials say Mr. Emanuel, a former aide in the Clinton White House, has been offered the job chief of staff in the Obama administration, according to the Associated Press. Elected in 2003, he is the fourth-highest ranking Democrat in the House and chairs the Democratic House caucus.

Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Emanuel is known for his knack in raising campaign money. He's the former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm for House Democrats. The group poured tens of millions of dollars into House races nationwide, outspent Republicans and helped Democrats pick up more than a dozen seats Tuesday.

The campaign announced John Podesta, chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, longtime Obama friend Valerie Jarrett and aide Pete Rouse will oversee Mr. Obama's transition team, which is being set up through a newly created nonprofit entity called the Obama-Biden Transition Project.

The chief executive of a Chicago real estate management company, Ms. Jarrett could be in the running to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. And Lawrence Summers, former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, is among the names reportedly considered to lead the Treasury.

The campaign also announced Wednesday afternoon that a 12-person board, including former Clinton Commerce Secretary William Daley and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, will advise the transition team. Other advisers on the panel include Carol Browner, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton White House.

Across the halls of government, the reality of an orderly transition sunk in Wednesday morning. CIA Director Michael Hayden greeted his own troops with an e-mail preparing them for the job of serving two masters for the next few months: President Bush's team and the transitional government of President-elect Barack Obama.

"Presidential elections are a centerpiece of our democracy," Mr. Hayden wrote in his e-mail to staff. "Now that the American people have had their say, their federal government assumes an additional responsibility. Beyond all the tasks in place on November 4th, the public expects us to do what we can to ensure a smooth, effective transition to a new administration. Our Agency would have it no other way."

Mr. Hayden said the Agency's "outreach to the President-elect" included two CIA officials who would give Mr. Obama his daily intelligence briefings. The CIA Director also had a candid message for intelligence officers wondering about the security of their jobs in an Obama administration.