Nov 16, 2008 8:50 am US/Eastern
Obama Leaves Senate, Names More White House Aides
CHICAGO (AP) ―
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President-elect Barack Obama speaks to the press on November 07, 2008 in Chicago.
Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
As Barack Obama bid farewell to the Senate, the president-elect kept his attention on building a White House team, announcing the hiring Sunday of more key personnel.
Obama, who resigned his Senate seat Sunday, said in a letter published in Illinois newspapers that he was "ending one journey to begin another. ... But I will never forget and will be forever grateful to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible."
Shifting to assembling his staff, Obama added veterans from his campaign and Senate office to his incoming White House operations:
--senior adviser Pete Rouse. He was Obama's Senate chief of staff, a post he also held while working for former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
--Mona Sutphen, deputy chief of staff. A member of Obama's transition team staff, she has been managing director of Stonebridge International, a strategic consulting firm based in Washington. The chief of staff is Rep.
Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. Sutphen also was a foreign service officer and worked on the National Security Council in the Clinton White House.
--Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff. He is now director of personnel for Obama's transition team and was national chief of staff during the presidential campaign.
On Saturday, Obama named longtime Capitol Hill aide Philip Schiliro as assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.
Obama's team also includes Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, who now will serve in the same role for Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and longtime Obama friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett will be a senior adviser and assistant to Obama for intergovernmental relations.
Other staff positions expected to be announced soon could include the likely appointments of campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary, chief strategist David Axelrod as a top White House adviser, and Gregory Craig, President Clinton's impeachment trial lawyer, as White House counsel.
In his published letter, Obama quoted Abraham Lincoln, "another son of Illinois" who had left for Washington, "a greater man who spoke to a nation far more divided."
Lincoln, Obama wrote, said of his home: "To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything."
Obama wrote, "I feel the same, and like Lincoln, I ask for your support, your prayers, and for us to "`confidently hope that all will yet be well."'
Full Text of President-elect Barack Obama's letter published in Illinois newspapers Sunday, when he officially resigned from the Senate:
Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate -- one of the highest honors and privileges of my life -- I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation's next president. But I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible.
More than two decades ago, I arrived in Illinois as a young man eager to do my part in building a better America. On the South Side of Chicago, I worked with families who had lost jobs and lost hope when the local steel plant closed. It wasn't easy, but we slowly rebuilt those neighborhoods one block at a time, and in the process I received the best education I ever had. It's an education that led me to organize a voter registration project in Chicago, stand up for the rights of Illinois families as an attorney and eventually run for the Illinois state Senate.
It was in Springfield, in the heartland of America, where I saw all that is America converge -- farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. It was there that I learned to disagree without being disagreeable; to seek compromise while holding fast to those principles that can never be compromised, and to always assume the best in people instead of the worst. Later, when I made the decision to run for the United States Senate, the core decency and generosity of the American people is exactly what I saw as I traveled across our great state -- from Chicago to Cairo; from Decatur to Quincy.
I still remember the young woman in East St. Louis who had the grades, the drive and the will but not the money to go to college. I remember the young men and women I met at VFW halls across the state who serve our nation bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I will never forget the workers in Galesburg who faced the closing of a plant they had given their lives to, who wondered how they would provide health care to their sick children with no job and little savings.
Stories like these are why I came to Illinois all those years ago, and they will stay with me when I go to the White House in January. The challenges we face as a nation are now more numerous and difficult than when I first arrived in Chicago, but I have no doubt that we can meet them. For throughout my years in Illinois, I have heard hope as often as I have heard heartache. Where I have seen struggle, I have seen great strength. And in a state as broad and diverse in background and belief as any in our nation, I have found a spirit of unity and purpose that can steer us through the most troubled waters.
It was long ago that another son of Illinois left for Washington. A greater man who spoke to a nation far more divided, Abraham Lincoln, said of his home, "To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything." Today, I feel the same, and like Lincoln, I ask for your support, your prayers, and for us to "confidently hope that all will yet be well."
With your help, along with the service and sacrifice of Americans across the nation who are hungry for change and ready to bring it about, I have faith that all will in fact be well. And it is with that faith, and the high hopes I have for the enduring power of the American idea, that I offer the people of my beloved home a very affectionate thanks.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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