Obama Taps Second Tier of Security Team

By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff

WASHINGTON _ President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden today announced four more top security picks, among them a Boston native and a long-time adviser to the late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill.

Three out of the four individuals played prominent roles in the Clinton Administration, continuing the president-elect's trend of naming Democratic veterans to his White House staff and cabinet departments.

James B. Steinberg, who served in the Clinton National Security Council, will return to Washington from his perch as dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin to be Obama's nominee as top deputy to Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton.

Steinberg, 55, was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard University before serving as Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's top defense aide in the 1980s.

Steinberg, an early advocate for setting a timetable to withdraw US forces from Iraq, wrote in an email to staff at the university that "it will be a great privilege to serve with President Obama, Secretary of State-designate Clinton and the entire national security team at this time of great challenge but also of great opportunity for the United States and the world," according to the Associated Press.

Also joining Mrs. Clinton as a deputy at State will be Jacob J. "Jack" Lew, an investment banker and former Clinton administration budget director who served as a senior policy adviser to Massachusetts political legend Tip O'Neill in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lew, previously the chief operations official at New York University, is leaving his job as CEO of Citi Alternative Investments.

A transition official said Lew, 53, will be responsible for running the day to day operations of the diplomatic corps, while Steinberg will be the chief policy assistant to Clinton. Both positions have to be confirmed by the US Senate.

Meanwhile, Thomas E. Donilon, 53, was chosen to serve as deputy to retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, previously tapped by Obama to be his national security adviser.

Donilon is another veteran of the Clinton administration, having served as chief of staff at the Department of State in the last Democratic administration.

In the vice president's office, Antony “Tony” Blinken, who served as Biden's staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will follow his boss to the White House, where he will serve as Biden's national security adviser.

“The team that we have assembled is uniquely suited to meet the great global challenges facing us today," Obama, who is spending the Christmas holiday in his native Hawaii, said in the statement. "They join a strong team of leading experts and accomplished managers and I look forward to working with them in the years ahead.”

Biden said "Blinken has been my most trusted advisor on the most important issues we've faced in the areas of national security and international affairs over the past six years. His broad experience in foreign policy and his sound judgment will be invaluable to me and to the President-elect in addressing the challenges ahead.”

While the two State Department positions require Senate approval, the White House staff positions are the prerogative of the president and vice president.