White House Chief of Staff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

White House Chief of Staff
' 'Executive Office of the President
Incumbent: Rahm Emanuel since: 20 January 2009
First	John R. Steelman
Formation	1946 (Assistant to the President) 1961 (White House Chief of Staff)
Presidential succession	None; Cabinet Rank only
Website	The White House

The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President. The office-holder has been dubbed "The Second-Most Powerful Man in Washington" due to the nature of the job.^[1]

The current White House Chief of Staff is Rahm Emanuel, serving in this position since January 20, 2009, when President Barack Obama was inaugurated.^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Role 3 Deputy 4 List of White House Chiefs of Staff 5 Fictional portrayal 6 See also 7 References

[edit] History

The duties of the White House Chief of Staff vary greatly from one administration to another. However, the Chief of Staff has been responsible for overseeing the actions of the White House staff, managing the president's schedule, and deciding who is allowed to meet with the president. Because of these duties, the Chief of Staff has at various times been labeled "The Gatekeeper" and "The Co-President".

Originally, the duties now performed by the Chief of Staff belonged to the President's private secretary and was fulfilled by crucial confidants and advisers like George B. Cortelyou, Joseph Tumulty, and Louis McHenry Howe. ^[3]. This person served as the President's chief aide in a role that combined personal and professional assignments of highly delicate and demanding natures, requiring great skill and discretion^[4] . The job of gatekeeper and overseeing the President's schedule was separately delegated to the Appointments Secretary, as with FDR's aide Edwin "Pa" Watson.

From 1933 to 1939, as he greatly expanded the scope of the federal government's policies and powers in response to the Great Depression, Roosevelt relied on his "Brains Trust" of top advisers. Although working directly for the President, they were often appointed to vacant positions in agencies and departments, from whence they drew their salaries since the White House lacked statutory or budgetary authority to create new staff positions. It wasn't until 1939, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term in office, that the foundations of the modern White House staff were created using a formal structure. Roosevelt was able to get Congress to approve the creation of the Executive Office of the President reporting directly to the President which included the White House Office.

In 1946, in response to the rapid growth of the U.S. government's executive branch, the position of Assistant to the President of the United States was established. Charged with the affairs of the White House it was the immediate predecessor to the modern Chief of Staff. It was in 1961, under Republican President Eisenhower, that the president's pre-eminent assistant was designated the White House Chief of Staff.

Assistant to the President became a rank generally shared by the Chief of Staff with such senior aides as Deputy Chiefs of Staff, the White House Counsel, the White House Press Secretary, and others. This new system didn't catch on straight away. Democrats Kennedy and Johnson still relied on their Appointments Secretaries instead and it was not until the Nixon administration that the Chief of staff become a permanent fixture in the white house.

The average term-of-service for a White House Chief of Staff is a little under 2.5 years. John R. Steelman, under Harry S. Truman, was the last Chief of Staff to serve for an entire presidential administration. Steelman also holds the record for longest-serving Chief of Staff (6 years). Andrew Card and Sherman Adams tie for second-longest (5 years each).

Most White House Chiefs of Staff are former politicians, and many continue their political careers in other senior roles. Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff Alexander Haig became Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan. Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff Dick Cheney became a U.S. Representative for Wyoming, Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush and vice president under George W. Bush (in which capacity Cheney served as Acting President on two occasions under the provisions of the 25th Amendment, when Bush was briefly incapacitated during medical procedures). Donald Rumsfeld was another Chief of Staff for the Ford administration and subsequently served as Secretary of Defense in the Ford administration and decades later in the George W. Bush administration.

[edit] Role

The roles of the Chief of Staff are both managerial and advisory and can include the following

• Select key White House staff and supervise them
• Structure the White House staff system
• Control the flow of people into the Oval Office
• Manage the flow of information
• Protect the interests of the President
• Negotiate with Congress, other members of the executive branch, and extragovernmental political groups to implement the President's agenda

It is possible that a powerful Chief of Staff with a "hands-off" president (who decides not to become involved in the minutiae of government), can become a de facto Prime Minister. Such prime ministers exist in some governmental systems, such as France's and Russia's: The prime minister runs the government (operations-wise), while the president remains somewhat aloof from the political process, but personally handling policy matters. Richard Nixon's first Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, garnered a reputation in Washington for the iron hand he wielded in the position — famously referring to himself as "the President's son-of-a-bitch," he was a rigid gatekeeper who would frequently meet with administration officials in place of the President, then report himself to Nixon on the officials' talking points. Journalist Bob Woodward, in his books All the President's Men and The Secret Man, wrote that many of his sources, including the infamous Deep Throat, displayed a genuine fear of Haldeman.^[5][6]

By contrast, Andrew Card, President George W. Bush's first Chief of Staff, was not regarded as being as powerful. Some^[who?] have speculated that this was due to Card being "overshadowed" by the influence of Karl Rove, the Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff who was "the architect" of Bush's political rise.^[7]

[edit] Deputy

The Chief of Staff is assisted by one or more Deputy Chiefs of Staff. Under the Obama Administration, these roles are filled by Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen. During the George W. Bush Administration, Joel Kaplan held this title for Policy. Karl Rove preceded Kaplan in this role until April 19, 2006 when (then-new) Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten added his former Deputy Director of the OMB to the Deputies list. Rove left the White House officially on August 31, 2007. Joe Hagin is the former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.

[edit] List of White House Chiefs of Staff

[edit] Fictional portrayal

• The FOX drama 24 has portrayed the following White House Chiefs of Staff:
  • Jude Ciccolella as Mike Novick, assisting President David Palmer and later President Charles Logan.
  • D.B. Woodside as Wayne Palmer, also assisting President David Palmer (his brother).
  • John Allen Nelson as Walt Cummings, also assisting Logan until his arrest for treason.
  • Peter MacNicol as Tom Lennox, assisting the aforementioned Wayne Palmer after his election to the Presidency.
  • Bob Gunton as Ethan Kanin, assisting President Allison Taylor.
  • Sprague Grayden as Olivia Taylor, also assisting President Taylor, her mother, as an acting White House Chief of Staff.
• Actor John Spencer played this role for 5 seasons as Democrat Leo McGarry on the NBC drama The West Wing. Character C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) later served in the role after Leo McGarry suffered a heart attack. Later, John Spencer himself suffered a fatal heart attack, which was dealt with in the show by having McGarry have a second heart attack on election night. Television critics and political analysts alike have praised Spencer's performance as Chief of Staff to President Josiah Bartlet as an accurate portrayal of the challenging position. Bradley Whitford, who portrayed character Josh Lyman, Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bartlet and later Chief of Staff to President Matthew Santos on The West Wing, also played a fictional White House Chief of Staff in the movie My Fellow Americans.
• Actor Harry J. Lennix played Chief of Staff Jim Gardner on the ABC drama Commander in Chief.
• Actor Martin Sheen played Chief of Staff A.J. MacInerney in the 1995 film The American President before portraying President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing.
• Actor Frank Langella played Chief of Staff Bob Alexander in the 1993 film Dave.
• Actor and future U.S. Senator from Tennessee Fred Thompson as White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent in the 1993 film In the Line of Fire
• The 2001–2006 books by Joel C. Rosenberg portray main character Bob Corsetti as the White House Chief of Staff.
• Actor Tony Goldwyn played Chief of Staff Fletcher Coal in the 1993 film The Pelican Brief
• Actor Paul Guilfoyle played Chief of Staff Lloyd "Shep" Shepard in the 1997 film Air Force One.
• Actor John Barron played Chief of Staff 'Deacon' in the 1982 TV series Whoops Apocalypse.
• Actor Sam Elliott played Chief of Staff Kermit Newman in the 2000 film The Contender

[edit] See also

• Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States

[edit] References

v • d • e White House Chiefs of Staff John R. Steelman • Sherman Adams • Wilton Persons • W. Marvin Watson • H. R. Haldeman • Alexander Haig • Donald Rumsfeld • Dick Cheney • Hamilton Jordan • Jack Watson • James Baker • Donald Regan • Howard Baker • Kenneth Duberstein • John H. Sununu • Samuel K. Skinner • James Baker • Mack McLarty • Leon Panetta • Erskine Bowles • John Podesta • Andrew Card • Joshua Bolten • Rahm Emanuel

v • d • e Executive Office of the President of the United States Council of Economic Advisers · Council on Environmental Quality · Council on Women and Girls · Domestic Policy Council · National Economic Council · National Security Council · Office of Administration · Office of Management and Budget · United States Office of National AIDS Policy · Office of National Drug Control Policy · Office of Science and Technology Policy · Office of the United States Trade Representative · President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board · President's Intelligence Advisory Board · Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board · White House Military Office · White House Office · Office of the Vice President

v • d • e White House Office Office of Presidential Advance · Office of Appointments and Scheduling · Office of Cabinet Affairs · Office of the Chief of Staff · Office of Communications · Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy · Office of Executive Clerk · Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships · Office of the First Lady · Office of Health Reform · Homeland Security Council · Office of Legislative Affairs · Office of Management and Administration · Oval Office Operations · Office of Political Affairs · Office of Presidential Personnel · Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs · Office of the Press Secretary · Office of Social Innovation · Office of the Staff Secretary · Office of Urban Affairs Policy · Office of the White House Counsel · White House Fellows