The White House Office of the Chief of Staff-2020 Transition Brief

Since 1997, the White House Transition Project has provided non-partisan expertise in all phases of democratic transitions, from constitution-building in emerging democracies to regularized, statute driven transfers of power. Since 2007, I have been fortunate to contribute to this great organization

My 2020 co-authored long briefing paper with Chuck Walcott on the White House Office of the Chief of Staff is here. Our short overview briefing is here.

John Kelly Was Always Doomed to Fail as Chief of Staff

White House chief of staff John Kelly discovered what every White House staff member should know about their job status: they serve at the pleasure of the president. 

Once any chief loses the confidence of POTUS, and to a lesser extent the confidence of the rest of the White House staff, they are a dead man walking. This was true of Donald Trump’s first short-lived chief, Reince Priebus, and true of Bill Daley, President Obama’s second chief of staff. And President Trump is a reportedly difficult to work for and a mercurial person in general.

For the rest of my opinion piece at The Hill, click here

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/420416-john-kelly-was-always-doomed-to-fail-as-chief-of-staff

After Reince

In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci as communications director over the objections of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Scaramucci has publicly and humiliatingly criticized Priebus, calling him a "paranoid schizophrenic" who will be pushed out soon, and let it be known that the only person he reports to is the President himself, not the chief of staff -- a stunning arrangement for a communications director and a sign of debilitating weakness for a sitting chief of staff.

Reince Priebus has discovered quicker than most what all chiefs come to learn eventually: that the White House chief of staff position is the most difficult and thankless job in government. In a job where burnout and short tenures are the norm, reports abound that President Donald Trump, frustrated by the new administration's numerous missteps, may replace Priebus in what would be a record-breakingly short tenure for a chief of staff in the nation's history (save for those chiefs that finished out the end of an administration). In fact, rumors abound that Anthony Scaramucci himself is being considered as a replacement for Priebus. This would be a disaster. A creature of Wall Street, Scaramucci has never worked in government, the White House, or the West Wing.

...

For the rest of this CNN Opinion piece, click here.

White House Chiefs of Staff, 1969-2017

Below is a list of modern White House Chiefs of Staff (1969-2017) compiled for a book I am co-authoring on the topic.

Chief of Staff                                     Tenure             President                     Party

Harry Robbins (H.R.) Haldeman        1969-73           Nixon                          Republican

Alexander M. Haig, Jr.                       1973-74           Nixon                          Republican

Donald H. Rumsfeld                          1974-75           Ford                            Republican

Richard M. Cheney                             1975-77           Ford                            Republican

William Hamilton M. Jordan              1979-80           Carter                          Democratic

Jack H. Watson, Jr.                             1980-81           Carter                          Democratic

James A. Baker III                              1981-85           Reagan                                    Republican

Donald T. Regan                                 1985-87           Reagan                                    Republican

Howard H. Baker, Jr.                          1987-88           Reagan                                    Republican

Kenneth M. Duberstein                      1988-89           Reagan                                    Republican

John H. Sununu                                  1989-91           G.H.W. Bush              Republican

Samuel K. Skinner                              1991-92           G.H.W. Bush              Republican

James A. Baker III                              1992-93           G.H.W. Bush              Republican

Thomas F. McLarty III                       1993-94           Clinton                        Democratic

Leon E. Panetta                                  1994-97           Clinton                        Democratic

Erskine B. Bowles                              1997-98           Clinton                        Democratic

John D. Podesta                                  1998-01           Clinton                        Democratic

Andrew H. Card, Jr.                           2001-06           G.W. Bush                  Republican

Joshua B. Bolten                                 2006-09           G.W. Bush                  Republican

Rahm I. Emanuel*                              2009-10           Obama                         Democratic

William M. Daley                                2011-12           Obama                         Democratic

Jacob J. Lew                                       2012-13           Obama                         Democratic

Denis R. McDonough                         2013-17           Obama                         Democratic

Reinhold R. “Reince” Priebus            2017                 Trump                          Republican
John F. Kelly                                       2017-p             Trump                          Republican

* After Emanuel left his post to run for mayor of Chicago, Senior Adviser Peter M. Rouse served as interim chief of staff from October 1, 2010, to January 13, 2011.

White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff, 1981-2017

Below is a list of individuals who have served as deputy chief of staff in the White House from 1981-2017. I compiled this information for the book I am co-authoring about the White House Chief of Staff and Office of Chief of Staff. This chart does not exist elsewhere as far as I know.

President	Chief of Staff	Deputy Chiefs of Staff[1]
Ronald W. Reagan	James A. Baker III [01/20/81-02/02/85]	Michael K. Deaver [01/20/81-05/10/85]
	Donald T. Regan [02/02/85-02/27/87]	Michael K. Deaver [01/20/81-05/10/85] W. Dennis Thomas [07/15/85-05/87][2]
	Howard H. Baker, Jr. [02/27/87-07/01/88]	Kenneth M. Duberstein [03/23/87-07/01/88]
	Kenneth M. Duberstein [07/01/88-01/20/89]	M.B. Oglesby, Jr. [07/05/88-01/20/89]
George H.W. Bush	John H. Sununu [01/20/89-12/16/91]	Andrew H. Card, Jr. [01/20/89-02/03/92][3] James W. Cicconi [01/89-01/91][4]
	Samuel K. Skinner [12/16/91-08/23/92]	Andrew H. Card, Jr. [01/20/89-02/03/92] William Henson Moore, III [02/03/92-08/23/92]
	James A. Baker III [08/23/92-01/20/93]	Robert B. Zoellick [08/23/92-01/20/93]
William J Clinton	Thomas F. McLarty III [01/20/93-07/17/94]	Mark D. Gearan [01/20/93-05/93] Roy M. Neel [05/93-11/93] Philip Lader [12/93-10/03/94] Harold M. Ickes [01/03/94-01/20/97]
	Leon E. Panetta [07/17/94-01/20/97]	Harold M. Ickes (Policy and Political Affairs) [01/03/94-01/20/97] Philip Lader [12/93-10/03/94] Erskine B. Bowles (White House Operations) [10/03/94-01/11/96] Evelyn S. Lieberman (White House Operations) [01/11/96-12/96]
	Erskine B. Bowles [01/20/97-10/20/98]	Sylvia M. Mathews [01/97-05/98] Maria Echaveste [05/29/98-01/20/01] John D. Podesta [01/97-10/20/98]
	John D. Podesta [10/20/98-01/20/01]	Maria Echaveste [05/29/98-01/20/01] Stephen J. Ricchetti [11/98-01/20/01]
George W. Bush	Andrew H. Card, Jr. [01/20/01-04/14/06]	Joseph W. Hagin (Operations) [01/20/01-07/20/08] Joshua B. Bolten (Policy) [01/20/01-06/26/03] Harriet E. Miers (Policy) [06/27/03-02/03/05] Karl C. Rove (Policy) [02/03/05-08/31/07]
	Joshua B. Bolten [04/14/06-01/21/09]	Joseph W. Hagin (Operations) [01/20/01-07/20/08] Blake L. Gottesman (Operations) [07/20/08-01/20/09] Karl C. Rove (Planning) [02/03/05-08/31/07] Joel D. Kaplan (Policy) [04/19/06-01/20/09]
Barack H. Obama	Rahm I. Emanuel [01/20/09-10/1/10]	James A. Messina (Operations) [01/20/09-01/26/11] Mona K. Sutphen (Policy) [01/20/09-01/26/11]
	William M. Daley [01/13/11-01/27/12]	Alyssa Mastromonaco (Operations) [01/27/11-present] Nancy-Anne DeParle (Policy) [01/27/11-01/25/13]
	Jacob J. Lew [01/27/12-01/25/13]	Alyssa Mastromonaco (Operations) [01/27/11-present] Nancy-Anne DeParle (Policy) [01/27/11-01/25/13]
	Denis R. McDonough [01/25/13-01/20/17]	Alyssa Mastromonaco (Operations) [01/27/11-05/14] Anita J. Decker Breckenridge (Operations) [05/14-01/20/17] Rob Nabors (Policy) [01/25/13-04/02/15] Mark B. Childress (Planning) [01/12-05/22/14] Kristie Canegallo (Implementation) [05/22/14-01/20/17]
Donald J. Trump	Reinhold R. “Reince” Priebus [01/20/17-present]	Joseph W. Hagin (Operations) [01/20/17-present] Katie Walsh (Implementation) [01/20/17-present] Rick A. Dearborn (Policy) [01/20/17-present]

---

[1] Unless otherwise indicated, staffers had the formal title “deputy chief of staff.”

[2] Official title was “Assistant to the President.”

[3] Official title was “Deputy to the Chief of Staff.”

[4] Official title was “Deputy to the Chief of Staff.”

Daley Out, Lew In: No "Getting-To-Know-You-Period" Necessary for New Chief

Politico Arena Topic: What does departure of Daley mean?

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley’s imminent departure is not a surprise. Increasingly, he was a lightning rod of criticism both within the White House and on Capitol Hill. His rocky relationship with Senate Democrats and public missteps during the debt ceiling negotiations and over scheduling President Obama’s jobs plan speech to Congress are well documented. In November, some of Daley’s administrative responsibilities were transferred to White House Counselor Pete Rouse, who was the interim chief between Rahm Emanuel and Daley. This move of downgrading the chief’s role—unprecedented in the modern era—signaled that Daley’s grip on the position, and on the White House, was tenuous. From that moment he became a lame duck and it was simply a question of “when” he would depart, not “if” he would depart.

The fact that Daley will leave the White House at the beginning of 2012 rather than closer to the election should be a net positive for the Obama administration. That he is being replaced by Jack Lew, a seasoned White House player with a long history as a Congressional staffer (including a lengthy stint as committee staff for House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-MA)) and relationships on Capitol Hill, will be very important to improving morale within the White House and repairing the relationship with Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and company. Lew knows his way around the West Wing, and as OMB Director during the Clinton and Obama administrations, knows a thing or two about budgets. As a current member of the White House, he also has a relationship with President Obama which means a “getting-to-know-you-period” between the President and Chief can be avoided. Finally, as the Obama White House prepares to spend the year slugging it out with Congressional Republicans over budget priorities and the deficit, who better to lead the negotiations than a chief of staff who has been OMB Director for two presidents?

Permalink to Politico Arena comment

The Panetta Kerfuffle

I have been reading, hearing, watching all day the criticism of Barack Obama's pick of Leon Panetta to head the CIA. I am absolutely baffled by the criticism over this pick, much of which is aimed at Panetta's supposed lack of intelligence experience. My sense is that when Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the incoming chair of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, felt slighted by not being informed of the Panetta pick in advance of the news and criticized the pick, others, including many Republicans, saw an opportunity to pile on.

There are a number of reasons why the criticism of the Panetta pick is asinine:

1. As a very successful White House chief of staff (1994-7) who was largely responsible for turning around a wobbly Clinton presidency, Panetta demonstrated great management skills--a must for CIA Director. Also as chief of staff, Panetta was one of the chief consumers of the intel coming from CIA.

2. As Paul Begala pointed out on CNN tonight, as OMB Director (1993-4), Panetta oversaw the CIA's budget including the so-called black budget that few get to see. Also, as OMB Director, you need good budget and management skills which he has demonstrated.

3. Panetta was part of the Iraq Study Group.

4. Not all CIA Directors come from CIA ranks or the intelligence field. George H.W. Bush had little intel background when he served in that capacity under President Ford.

5. Nor does an intel background guarantee success. George Tenet was a company man. How'd that turn out?

6. As a 16 year veteran of Capitol Hill, Panetta knows how to lobby on behalf of an agency or cause. Former members of Congress make great lobbyists.

The criticism and trashing of Panetta, a well-respected public servant by individuals on both sides of the aisle, is mere politics. I suspect and hope the President-elect will not cave in and withdraw the pick. Panetta would make a fine addition to the Obama administration.