This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.washingtonpost.com/obama-taps-ron-klain-as-ebola-czar/2014/10/17/e8d4cad0-3462-4446-bc79-fb51d0ae0500_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Obama taps Ron Klain as Ebola czar | Obama taps Ron Klain as Ebola czar |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Obama has asked Ron Klain, who served as chief of staff to both Vice President Biden and former vice president Al Gore, as his Ebola response coordinator, according to a White House official. | |
| "He will report directly to the president’s homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, and the president's national security adviser, Susan Rice, as he ensures that efforts to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients in this country are properly integrated but don’t distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at the source in West Africa," a White House official wrote in an e-mail. | |
| Klain, a longtime Democratic operative, served as Biden's chief of staff from 2009 to 2011 and as Gore's from 1995 to 1999. He helped oversee the Democratic side in the 2000 presidential election recount as its lead lawyer, a role that Kevin Spacey portrayed in the HBO film "Recount." | |
| CNN first reported the news Friday morning. | CNN first reported the news Friday morning. |
| Obama has come under pressure from Republicans for weeks to appoint an "Ebola czar" to oversee the federal government's overall effort to contain the disease. Thursday night the president told reporters, "It may make sense for us to have one person in part just so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process, just to make sure that we're crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's going forward. " | |
| "Klain’s role is consistent with the view the president articulated in the Oval Office last night that Monaco, Rice and others have done outstanding work in confronting this challenge so far -- but given their management of other national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government’s Ebola response," the White House official added in the e-mailed statement. | |
| Robert Bauer, who served as White House counsel under Obama and also worked on the 2008 recount, said Klain has developed a reputation of having "taken on highly-charged assignments where there significant complexities, and managed them very well." | |
| Klain became close with Biden while serving as a staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden served as chairman. Klain helped advise Biden during the 2008 campaign, and his bona fides inside the West Wing date back to shortly after Obama won that historic election. | |
| During the transition, the newly elected president wanted to find a role for Klain in the West Wing, and his name was mentioned as a potential White House communication director, according to a person familiar with the internal deliberations. But Biden also wanted him and convinced Klain to join the vice president’s office as the chief of staff, a role he had also served for Vice President Gore in the late 1990s. | |
| Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who was a longtime political adviser to Biden, called Klain well-suited for the role based on his varied experience dealing with Congress, the White House and the media. As a young general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kaufman said, Klain gut his teeth helping advise the committee during the contentious, and ultimately failed, nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in the late 1980s.” | |
| While managing Biden’s staff in the vice president’s office from 2009-2011, Klain helped marshal support in Congress for the massive economic stimulus package being pushed by the administration, Kaufman said. | |
| “He’s like your renaissance man, the more difficult the problem the better he is,” Kaufman said. | |
| Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) immediately praised the news. | |
| "I've known Ron Klain for over twenty years," Schumer said in a statement. "He is smart, aggressive, and levelheaded; exactly the qualities we need in a czar to steer our response to Ebola. He is an excellent choice." | "I've known Ron Klain for over twenty years," Schumer said in a statement. "He is smart, aggressive, and levelheaded; exactly the qualities we need in a czar to steer our response to Ebola. He is an excellent choice." |
| Klain left the White House in 2011 to become president of Case Holdings, the holding company for the business and philanthropic interests of former AOL chairman Steve Case. | Klain left the White House in 2011 to become president of Case Holdings, the holding company for the business and philanthropic interests of former AOL chairman Steve Case. |
| David Nakamura contributed to this report. | |
| This post has been updated. | This post has been updated. |
| Related: CDC director on the defensive as Ebola spreads |