2/28/10: Desiree Rogers Out, Obama Fundraiser In
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers is resigning, after the embarrassment of multiple gate crashing gaffes at the White House. Worse than that, Rogers refused to testify about either incident. Hope! Change! Transparency!
True to form, President Obama is doubling down on corruption by replacing the incompetent Rogers with Julianna Smoot - the chief fundraiser of Obama's 2008 campaign.
But the choice to unite money and access in the person of Smoot -- a career political fundraiser whose efforts were downplayed by a campaign eager to focus on small donors -- cuts against both President Obama's broader message of change and against the talking points of her departing predecessor, Desiree Rogers.
Rogers told Lynn Sweet that she saw her role as turning the White House into the "people's house," and Michelle Obama praised her in a statement for "welcoming scores of everyday Americans through its doors, from wounded warriors to local schoolchildren to NASCAR drivers."
Smoot may have the same goal, but her credentials and relationships point in the opposite direction: To ensuring access and satisfaction for the ultra-wealthy elite who will, incidentally, be called on to finance President Obama's next campaign.
Source: Politico
