Obama adds 3 to White House staff

Senators Byron Dorgan (left) and Jon Kyl both said Hillary Clinton would be a good choice for secretary of state. (Freddie Lee/Fox News Sunday via Associated Press)

President-elect Barack Obama, who relinquished his Senate seat yesterday, has announced that he will add three Washington veterans to his White House staff.

Pete Rouse, Obama's chief of staff in the Senate and former chief of staff to former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, will be a senior adviser, Obama said in a statement. Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen will both serve as deputy chief of staff. All are on Obama's transition team.

Messina, former chief of staff for Democratic Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York, is currently the transition team's personnel director.

Sutphen, a former US Foreign Service officer, has also been managing director of the international consulting firm Stonebridge International LLC.

Also, Obama has chosen Washington lawyer Gregory B. Craig, who was President Clinton's lead attorney during the 1998 impeachment proceedings, to be his White House counsel, according to an individual involved with the transition.

Craig has been a longtime adviser to Clinton and his wife, but became a close adviser to Obama during the campaign, reportedly serving as the stand-in for Senator John McCain during debate preparations.

Craig has defended high-profile clients, including John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Reagan, and Kennedy nephew William Kennedy Smith, who was accused of rape.

Obama also released a message offering "a very affectionate thanks" to the people of Illinois he served as senator.

"I will never forget . . . the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible," Obama said in the message sent to Illinois newspapers, according to the Chicago Sun-Times website.

He quoted Abraham Lincoln, who also went to the White House from Illinois, in asking people to "confidently hope that all will yet be well."

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Some Democrats have speculated that Clinton is President-elect Barack Obama's leading choice for the post.

"She is a lady of great intelligence, demonstrated enormous determination, and would be an outstanding appointment," Kissinger, who served as secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 under Presidents Nixon and Ford, told the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit in New Delhi yesterday.

Clinton, who lost to Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, flew to Chicago on Nov. 13, where the two met.

The meeting probably wouldn't have taken place if Obama didn't intend to offer Clinton the position, nor would she have traveled to Chicago if she weren't inclined to accept, said the Democrat familiar with the matter.

"If it is true, it will show a couple of things," Kissinger said.

"It shows great courage on the part of the president-elect to appoint a very strong personality, who has an independent constituency, into a Cabinet position. It also shows willingness on the part of Clinton to subordinate herself to someone whom she lost out to."

Jon Kyl of Arizona, the number two Republican in the Senate, praised the potential appointment.

"It seems to me she's got the experience, she's got the temperament for it," he said yesterday on "Fox News Sunday." "She would be well-received around the world."

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, also said the choice would be a good one and that she wouldn't face problems getting confirmed by the Senate.

"I don't think she would have difficulty in the Senate," he said on the Fox program. "She's worked across the aisle, has good bipartisan relationships."

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