Oh, thank God. What would anyone do without him there?! Ron Klain finally started “working” today after missing 2 White House meetings. He also won’t be at a House hearing on Friday.
Via Washington Times:
Political point man or medical manager? That is the persistent question for Ron Klain, who officially begins his tenure as the nation’s “Ebola response coordinator” on Wednesday. The choice of the deft Mr. Klain — an attorney and former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joseph R. Biden and Al Gore and an associate counsel to former President Bill Clinton — has critics wondering if President Obama “sees Ebola as a political crisis, not a health crisis” in the words of Rep. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican.
It is certainly a strategic crisis, riddled with mixed messages and tardy responses that Mr. Klain must cobble into coherence for the press and an alarmed public. Both have noticed that the newly minted czar will not appear before an upcoming House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform hearing on Ebola chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. That could change.
Meanwhile, there is also a report that Mr. Klain accepted his position because of a future appointment as a replacement for John Podesta, counselor to President Obama.