Posted on 03/08/2014 4:29:21 PM PST by Olog-hai
A top White House official who has been with President Barack Obama since he first became a senator nine years ago is resigning.
Alyssa Mastromonaco is Obama’s deputy chief of staff for operations and often described as the most influential person inside the White House who isn't well known outside of it. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Any bets?
More scumbags scuttle to become lobbyists.
It was Mastromonaco who orchestrated presidential trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, and who skillfully and secretly set up meetings between Obama and his potential vice presidential picks even as the press watched the campaign’s every move. She’s been with Obama since his days in the Senate.
By all accounts, her White House titles — deputy chief of staff for operations for the past three years, and scheduling director before that — do not fully convey Ms. Mastromonaco’s role in helping decide how Mr. Obama spends his time, whom he sees, where he goes and whom he appoints.
“She has a power that is relatively scary to people,” said one Democratic activist who declined to be identified.
Nor do the titles hint at Ms. Mastromonaco’s close relationships with both the president and Michelle Obama, after coordinating their lives for so long.
“She’s like family to them,” said Pete Rouse, another of the original circle and Ms. Mastromonaco’s mentor, who left in December. In the 2010 magazine interview, she repeatedly referred to the president as “Barack,” a familiarity almost unheard-of among aides to any president. (Colleagues say she calls him “Mr. President.”)
(snip)
Ms. Mastromonaco was a bridge to some senators long before she married David Krone, chief of staff to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. They took two days off in November to be married by Justice Elena Kagan at the Supreme Court, witnessed only by Ms. Mastromonaco’s aides.
I hate all these people.
No big deal
Why do the looks on the faces of the people in that photo strike me as unnatural . . . ?
Has the ship of fools run aground? Do these departed servants know something we don’t?
Me too.
In Chicagoland vernacular "Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations" means "offshore accounts specialist."
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2006/11/sweet_column_obama_is_going_to.html
November 30, 2006
he core Obama players — all experienced in national political strategy — are Chicago media consultant David Axelrod and, in Washington, David Plouffe, an Axelrod partner; communications chief Robert Gibbs; chief of staff Pete Rouse, and Hopefund political director Alyssa Mastromonaco.
//
(no link)
Power Player of the Week: Alyssa Mastromonaco
FOX News Channel - Sunday, March 18, 2007
Show: FOX NEWS SUNDAY
Author: Chris Wallace
WALLACE: From now till the next president takes the oath of office, we’re going to occasionally profile the key strategists and advisors who, working behind the scenes, are so vital to the campaigns.
Well, today we kick off our new feature with our first You Decide ‘08 Power Player of the Week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALYSSA MASTROMONACO , DIRECTOR OF SCHEDULING, BARACK OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN: We do a little bit of everything but never want it to be known that we do anything.
WALLACE: Alyssa Mastromonaco is director of scheduling in advance for Barack Obama’s campaign, which means she’s in charge of executing his political strategy, making sure he’s where he needs to be and so is everyone else.
MASTROMONACO: The greatest commodity on the campaign is his time.
WALLACE: You’re the final arbiter?
MASTROMONACO: I am the final arbiter.
WALLACE: On February 10th, Obama was in Springfield, Illinois to launch his campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, D-ILL.: ... who have traveled from far and wide to brave the cold today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Did you have any questions about having the announcement outside in the middle of the coldest weekend of the year?
MASTROMONACO: I was terrified of how cold it was going to be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: ... for president of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: It turned out more than 15,000 people braved the weather to see Obama, which sent a signal he was ready for prime time.
Mastromonaco has to juggle all the competing demands of the campaign.
MASTROMONACO: We talked message, we talked policy, we talked finance. We figure out what our goals of the quarter are and figure out how to execute them.
If there are X number of days you need to be in California, what do we need to do in California?
WALLACE: Plus, she has to get Obama back to the Senate for votes. He’s only missed one so far. And she schedules his family time.
MASTROMONACO: I work with Michelle and we go through the kids’ calendar and where they are in Chicago and what’s going on and try to make sure that he’s there for all the important things.
WALLACE: She may look like a kid, but at age 31, Mastromonaco was a political veteran.
She worked for John Kerry for four years and ran scheduling for his campaign, directing a staff of 200.
She still remembers those few hours on election day when it looked like he would be president.
MASTROMONACO: Then the next day, we went to Faneuil Hall. That was definitely a scheduling challenge. But that was a sad day.
WALLACE: How long did it take you to get over it?
MASTROMONACO: I might not entirely be over it yet.
WALLACE: In 2005, she joined Obama’s office, figuring a freshman senator would be a good break from presidential politics. But it didn’t work out that way. She says Obama is low maintenance but driven.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: How’s everybody doing?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Recalling the 2006 effort to elect a Democratic Senate...
MASTROMONACO: Our flight had been canceled, so I was with Barack, and I was like, “Well, I’m going to get a plane. I’m going to figure out how we get there. You know, we can’t let them down in Rhode Island.” And he said, “Well, let’s just rent a car and drive.”
I mean, he’s very happy — he’s a very normal person.
WALLACE: What’s normal for Mastromonaco 10 months before Iowa is 14- hour days, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
MASTROMONACO: I just always like knowing that the planes are taking off and landing, and the cars are where they need to be, and that people have briefing materials, and when that all happens, I sleep easy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: With the 2008 campaign starting so early, Mastromonaco says one challenge will be for the candidates and staffers to pace themselves, which is why she says those 14-hour days now will get even longer in a few months.
(snip)
Are the rats seeing the writing on the “ haul” and abandoning the ship?
Wouldn’t want to be named as a coCONspirator!
“Let’s Move!” is working, I see.
“”Ten bucks says that she suffered a crippling back injury while reaching for a croissant in the White House cafeteria,entitling her to a $150K/yr tax free disability pension””
Check out her picture on Wikipedia that says you might be right - about the croissants anyway....
She worked for Bernie Sanders, John Kerry, Harry Reid and obozo....
We all believed that Valerie Jarrett was the most influential person in obozo’s WH and this woman comes out of left field? Doesn’t make sense. She hasn’t been with obozo as long as Jarrett. Does this woman have Secret Service protection? Jarrett does.
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