WAS HE PUSHED? – AT 4:21 P.M. ET:  According to ace reporter Toby Harnden of London's Telegraph, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs walked the plank on the order of incoming chief of staff, Bill Daley, in a typical, Chicago-style execution:

It’s being reported by John King on CNN right now that Gibbs wanted to be a presidential counsellor – something he’s been putting about for quite a while – but William Daley, the new chief of staff, nixed this because he believed that too many cooks would spoil the presidential broth. So that’s why Gibbs is out.

Additionally, King reports that Valerie Jarrett, whose sole qualification to being a senior counsellor seems to be that she’s a long-time Chicago buddy of Barack and Michelle Obama, will have her wings clipped. Daley, not Jarrett, will be the person speaking to the business community.

It’s no secret that Rahm Emanuel, a Daley protege, clashed with Jarrett. Or that David Plouffe, about to join the White House, was often at odds with her when he was the 2008 Obama campaign manager. Obama is nothing if not ruthless. He dropped Jane Dystel, the agent who approached him to write “Dreams from my Father”, and has previously cut loose long-time advisers. One aide described him as “the most unsentimental man I’ve ever met”.

So the next question is: with Gibbs and David Axelrod gone, how much longer will Valerie Jarrett last?

COMMENT:  I recall walking the streets of Chicago with friends at 5 a.m. the day after election day, 1960.  We still weren't sure who'd been elected president.  The Chicago Sun-Times came out with a headline:  IT'S KENNEDY.  Then, an hour later, it came out with another:  IS IT KENNEDY? 

But we knew one thing for sure – that Mayor Richard Daley, the father of now incoming presidential Chief of Staff William Daley, was holed up in the Morrissey Hotel, local headquarters of the Democratic Party, trying to find the votes to put Kennedy over the top.  Strangely, he found them.  Those citizens may never have known they voted, having been departed for many years, but they made history.

The Daley machine was, and is, well oiled.  It work superbly, in terms of its purposes.  I never thought I'd see the day when one of its sons would wield power directly in the White House.

Look, if Bill Daley is good, and straightens out this administration, I'm all for him.  One thing about the Daley machine – they knew how to get things done, what buttons to press, who to muscle and who to stroke.  Those are skills in need right now.

Mayor Daley the elder must be smiling in his grave, and figuring out how many judgeships he can get out of this.  Nominations please?

January 7, 2010