Now that the rumor of Rahm Emanuel leaving the White House has reached full flower, come the buds of the follow-on rumor — who will replace him as Obama's chief of staff?
Politico suggest that Thomas Donilon is the "most likely candidate" and Huff Post agrees sufficiently to write a story with that as the lead.
Are they sniffing each other's fumes, or does somebody know something? I guess we'll find out.
In the meantime, I found this on Mr. Donilon. It's widely acknowledged that he's a lobbyist, with strong ties to Fannie Mae. You have to go googling, however, to find his ties to Goldman Sachs. Here's the WSJ online, from April 2009:
Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon earned $3.9 million as a partner at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where his clients include Citigroup, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Obama fundraiser and heiress Penny Pritzker.The google led to this Kos diarist, which led to that story. Wikipedia also has the info, and Timothy Carney at the Washington Examiner has the financial disclosure forms (pdf). The year in question is 2008, not quite dinosaur days.
So let's cut to the chase. Is Barack Obama going to appoint another Wall Street insider, with ties to ... let me find the quote ... "Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Apollo Investments" as Rahm ("UAW") Emanual's replacement?
This story needs a little rebranding, don't you think? I'd call it a Goldman story — yet another one.
GP
