Obama Fills Out 4 More Senior Posts

President-Elect Picks Officials To Oversee Transportation, Labor, Trade And Small Business Policy

(CBS/AP)  Completing his Cabinet a month before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama named officials to oversee transportation, labor, trade and small business policy Friday but warned that economic recovery won't be nearly as swift.

"It will take longer than any of us would like - years, not months. It will get worse before it gets better. But it will get better if we are willing to act boldly and swiftly," Obama said - and he promised to do just that.

He noted his speed in putting his full economic team in place, saying he had done so at an earlier point than previous presidents because of the magnitude of the troubles the country faces. Obama takes office Jan. 20.

Obama declined to put a price tag on an economic stimulus plan he will propose, though economists who have been advising him have suggested a package of as much as $850 billion over two years.

Still, Obama signaled that it could be huge because of his priorities: creating jobs, getting the economy back on track and fixing financial markets among them. "That is going to cost a significant amount of money on the front end," he said, and then he emphasized what he called long-term benefits of acting and dangers of doing too little.

He vowed to spend responsibly: "We're not intending to spend money lightly" and "if we're building a road, it better not be a road to nowhere."

At his fifth news conference in as many days, Obama announced his selections of Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois for transportation secretary, California Rep. Hilda Solis for labor secretary, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for U.S. trade representative and venture capitalist Karen Mills to head the Small Business Administration.

All four appointments must be confirmed by the Senate.

He spoke just a few hours after the Bush administration announced an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry, offering $17.4 billion in rescue loans in exchange for concessions from carmakers and their workers.

Obama said those steps are necessary and the companies must not "squander the chance" to change bad management practices. He said it's "absolutely necessary" to restructure the companies to save the industry, while also working toward creating "fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow."

While Obama declined to say specifically what changes he might make to the Bush administration's plan, he had a message for the Big Three auto companies: "The American people's patience is running out" and management must "seize on this opportunity" over the next few months to come up with a sustainable plan for survival.

"There are going to be some painful steps that are going to have to be taken," Obama said.

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Click here for more on Obama's reaction to the auto industry bailout.

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He disclosed the latest members of his incoming administration on the eve of a Hawaiian holiday vacation. The Democrat has been pushing to finish putting together most of his Cabinet and White House team before his break.

Obama has yet to name his picks for senior intelligence positions; those announcements aren't expected until he returns.

Several Democratic officials with knowledge of the deliberations said Friday that Dennis Blair, a retired admiral and the former head of U.S. Pacific Command, is likely - if not certain - to become director of national intelligence. It's unclear whom Obama will tap to lead the Central Intelligence Agency; John Brennan, Obama's transition intelligence adviser, abruptly withdrew his name from consideration in November.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about nominations Obama has not yet disclosed publicly.

Friday's nominees were:

LaHood, who is leaving the House after 14 years, would be the second Republican in Democrat Obama's Cabinet. The other is President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, who has been asked to stay on at the Pentagon.

Solis, the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants, who has focused on immigration and environmental issues while in the House.

Kirk, a partner in the Dallas office of the Houston-based law and lobbying firm Vinson & Elkins, who was the first black elected Dallas mayor.

Mills, a founding partner of the New York-based equity firm Solera Capital. She has been an adviser to Maine Gov. John Baldacci on economic matters.

Obama has met with reporters each day this week to announce major appointments.

Obama also has a host of sub-Cabinet selections to make. Among them: Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist and a top expert on overfishing and climate change, is a leading contender to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to colleagues at the school. And Harvard physicist John Holdren has emerged as Obama's likely pick for White House science adviser. These and other announcements could come as early as Saturday.

[reaganitegop]

Wonder what will come-out on this one... most of his other picks are high on political calculation, and low on principle and character-

Biden was caught plagerizing speeches and stealing the whole life story of the UK''s Neil Kinnock in 1988.

Rahm Emanuel likes to think of himself as a political tough-guy, but he''s not handling himself too well now that the table''s turned... and is being less than forthcoming re. his talks with Blago, to say the least.

Bill Richardson is now under investigation for pay-to-play, where a political contributor was handed a juicy contract.

Eric Holder is one who pardoned convicted felon Marc Rich, and was Blagojevich''s pick to sort out Illinois'' long-dormant casino license...he was paid $300,000. Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire recently.

Hillary has no foreign policy experience, lacks basic diplomatic skills, is known for a violent temper, and has major conflicts of interest with her husbands'' many donors around the globe. She was caught lying during the primaries, when she claimed to have come "under fire" on a visit to Bosnia in 1996- what happened to honesty and integrity as selection criteria?

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

[faletinme]

This is a proud day for all of the Jewish Faith. never before in history have all the heads of the financial departments (Treasury, Federal Reserve, SEC, CFTC,and the House Banking Commitee) all been of the same faith as Geithner, Bernanke, Schapiro, Gensler and Frank are. As are Rahn Emnuel, larry Summers and David Axelrod who will be pulling the strings in the White House.

This is a wonderful thing for America!!!!!! To think that the American people would be so free of prejudice that they selected all Jews for these posts is a credit to the country.

[jschmidt27]

Guess Obana didn''t read this,"UN Blowback: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims". http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6

[likeitis5050]

Particularly those states facing jobs losses due to competition with foreign automobile manufacturers who have many fewer American retirees to provide benefits for.


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Posted by ibsteve2u

BO is busy finding a new home for the Gitmo prisoners...maybe you''ll luck out.

[likeitis5050]

Now to deal with the Bush trashing of America.


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Posted by sockpuppet4

You can''t forget the Democrats and their hefty contribution...I know they would have you believe they are just pawns in the game but trust me...the ball has been in their court for too long not to make them serious contributors to this mess. Keep blowing sunshine up Pelosi''s azz and eventually she''ll be f.arting radiation...she''s 90% poisonous waste as it is.

[jtormey3]

Dear Congressman LaHood:
1. Quiet Rockland asks that, once sworn-in as Transportation Secretary, you please cause your re-configured USDOT, and the FAA under you, to withdraw the US$53,500,000+ failed boondoggle of the prior administration known as the %u201CNY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign%u201D. It never made sense to put between 200-600 new jumbo-jets per day over densely-populated and minority-laden neighborhoods in Rockland County. Our due process rights were blatantly violated in connection with the Redesign, as currently litigated in the consolidated causes of over a dozen plaintiffs before the D.C. Circuit.

2. Quiet Rockland calls for you and your colleagues to please treat and pay all Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) and Aviation Inspectors fairly; protect them from threat and harm; and listen to them. NATCA needs a real contract. ATC input is vital to the future of American aviation safety.

3. The American people must have a federal government that restores, to quote learned Congressman James Oberstar, a %u201CCulture Of Safety%u201D in aviation. An FAA %u201Cpartnership program%u201D, on the other hand, wherein the Agency with USDOT complicity abdicates its legally-mandated function as regulator and instead adopts a cozy economic pandering relationship unabashedly calling the airlines its only %u201Ccustomers%u201D - is a grotesque, harmful, and abysmal dynamic, and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
bobbysturgell[dot]net

[missingamerica]

Seeing as Karen Mills sits on Maine''s Governor''s Council for the Redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station, I would hope that she considers advocating the modification of the BRAC list to relocate bases and munitions factories out of those southern states whose prosperity has increased due to the presence of foreign-owned automobile manufacturing plants.

It seems only wise to me to move those military bases to states that have been particularly hard hit by the exportation of manufacturing jobs.

Particularly those states facing jobs losses due to competition with foreign automobile manufacturers who have many fewer American retirees to provide benefits for.

[cattiej]

What''s the story regarding Eric Holder, the Attorney General designate? Was reported in the newspaper yesterday that he was tied with our Governor Rod Blagojevitch and the attempt to put a gambling casino in Rosemount, Illinois. It failed after it was learned that there were too many ties to the mob. Holder failed to report this little episode to the Justice Committee,,does anyone know why???

[be_real]

Posted by cattieJ at 04:35 PM : Dec 19, 2008

The US has no official language. We speak english, because the Spaniards didn''t like the cold weather if not you and I we be speaking spanish and English as a second language

[cattiej]

What''s with Solis speaking Spanish to us. I am not Spanish, this is America and English is our official language. Looks to me that between Solis and Richardson, the illegal''s from south of the border will be wanting to work in the auto industry, the roads etc. They will all cry foul when they aren''t hired. Obama is in favor of comprenhensive immigration. Obama is co-author of the Dream Act that would give children of illegals aliens the right to have in state or free tuititon at state colleges or universities. There are over 25 million illegals in our country. Our country is still for sale. Why are we giving millions of dollars to Mexico for them to increase the Mexican border patrol...most of them are on the take and are as corrupt as any of our corrupt and greedy politicans..There are just more violent. American''s Remember the Alamo!