President-elect Barack Obama will name former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers the director of his National Economic Council, placing the Harvard University economist he passed over for Treasury secretary inside the White House as his closest economic adviser, Democratic officials said Saturday night.
The move came as the president-elect prepares Monday to introduce his new Treasury secretary nominee, Timothy Geithner, and the rest of his economic team at an event in Chicago Monday.
Among those on stage will be Mr. Summers, who was central to his campaign's economic team and is now leading efforts to draft a massive economic stimulus plan the president-elect hopes to sign into law as one of his first acts as the nation's leader.
Progressives do seem to have won most House leadership positions, with Hoyer as an obvious exception. While it is extremely disappointing that there is no progressive equivalent of Hoyer in a high-level cabinet position, either on foreign policy or on economics, the House does control the purse strings. As such, the progressive voices at the table will be Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, and Barney Frank, who recently called for 25% cuts in defense spending. So, progressives won't be entirely cut out of high-level discussions in the new Democratic trifecta, except, it appears, when cabinet meetings are held.
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