WASHINGTON - As President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday closeted himself in Chicago to prepare the transition, Democratic Party sources said Rep. Rahm Emanuel had accepted the offer to be his chief of staff.
Obama was quick out of the starting blocks on Wednesday, calling on Emanuel, a fellow Chicago politician and veteran of the Bill Clinton White House, to join him. Democratic sources on Thursday said Emanuel had accepted the job.
Even before the news was confirmed, House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement criticizing the choice.
"This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center," Boehner said of Emmanuel, a House colleague known for his blunt style.
In Chicago, the president-elect on Thursday was to receive his first presidential-style intelligence briefing before moving into the White House in 10 weeks. And aides said he would hold a press conference on Friday afternoon to describe his next steps.
President Bush, for his part, promised Thursday to pave the way for a smooth transition by meeting with Obama at the White House on Monday.
"This peaceful transfer of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy," Bush said Thursday, while warning the United States would be vigilant against any attempts by enemies to take advantage of the country during its period of transition.
Known for bluntness
In offering the chief of staff job to Emanuel, Obama turned to a fellow Chicago politician with a far different style from his own, a man known for his bluntness as well as his single-minded determination.
After leaving the Clinton White House, Emanuel turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the minority.
Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his long-standing ties to the former first lady and his Illinois connections with Obama.
Kerry as secretary of state?
Several Democrats said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new six-year term on Tuesday, was angling for secretary of state. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid O'Rourke, disputed the reports. "It's not true. It's ridiculous," she said.
Announcement of the transition team came in a written statement from the Obama camp.
The group is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under President Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama's chief of staff in the Senate; and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser.
Several Democrats described a sprawling operation well under way. Officials had kept deliberations under wraps to avoid the appearance of overconfidence in the weeks leading to Tuesday's election.
Lobbying promise
The official Obama campaign Web Site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on "regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years." It added that "no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."
But almost exactly one year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina.
"I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House," he said of lobbyists at the time.
Because they often have prior experience in government or politics, lobbyists have routinely filled out the list of potential appointees for past presidents of both parties.
Focus on Iraq?
Former rival John McCain began discussing with senior aides what role he will play in the Senate now that he has promised to work with Obama in his concession speech.
One obvious focus will be the war in Iraq. After two years spent more on the campaign than in the Senate, McCain will return as the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. That will put the four-term Arizona senator in a position to influence Obama's plan to set a 16-month timeline to withdraw U.S. troops from combat in Iraq.
During the campaign, McCain staunchly opposed setting a deadline even as the Iraqi government began working with the Bush administration to do so.
But in conceding the presidency to Obama, McCain pledged "to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."
Aides said they believed McCain would work well with Obama as president because much of his best work in the Senate had been done with Democrats, including a landmark campaign finance law he crafted with Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold.
Global challenges
The Obama administration will confront massive challenges both at home and abroad, as made clear on the first day after Obama's historic victory over McCain in Tuesday's election.
The U.S. stock market greeted his elevation to the pinnacle of American power by plunging nearly 500 points on more dire news about an economy in the throes of its worst crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
And the Kremlin sounded off as well, with President Dmitry Medvedev declaring: "Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community" ? an apparent reference to the United States under President George W. Bush.
Medvedev issued the stark challenge even as he threatened to erect missiles along the Polish border if an Obama administration were to go forward with plans laid out by the Bush administration to create a missile shield in the Eastern Europe.
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