Pete Rouse: Meet Obama's New Chief of Staff
It was happy trails for Rahm Emanuel, now former White House Chief of Staff, as he left the White House Friday for a mayoral bid in Chicago. He even got a dead fish from Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbee as a going away present; according to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, that's "how friends say goodbye" in Chicago.
Replacing Emanuel in the interim is trusted Obama adviser Pete Rouse. Few outside Washington know much about the quite insider, and while he may in many ways be the polar opposite of the brash Emanuel, he's just as savvy and connected.
On Friday's Washington Unplugged, Politics Daily and Chicago Sun Times' Lynn Sweet told CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, "They're opposite in personality but they both have a, I think, a pragmatic devotion to doing the doable. That's what they have in common."
Sweet said that Emanuel might not be as "outspoken" as he's widely thought to be; perhaps, she added, he might even be a little misunderstood. Plante noted that Emanuel was not thought to be as bullish on health-care reform as the rest of the White House; and Sweet responded that "he put his personal views, of which he has many, aside to carry out Obama's agenda."
Watch Friday's Washington Unplugged above also featuring CBS News Senior Political Producers Jill Jackson and Rob Hendin with "Hot Ads of the Week" and a look at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg before "The Social Network".
"Washington Unplugged," CBSNews.com's exclusive daily politics Webshow, appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 2:00 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.
