Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your open thread. Share your thought, links and snark below.
I don’t think this is any surprise but perhaps the timing is a bit sudden. Rahm Emmanuel will leave as White House Chief of Staff on Friday.
Although no final decision has been made because of family considerations, ABC News has learned that White House officials are preparing for Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to announce on Friday — as Congress adjourns for recess — that he is leaving his post to explore a run for mayor of Chicago.
White House officials expect that President Obama will also name an interim chief of staff, perhaps senior adviser Pete Rouse, at the announcement.
Sources close to Emanuel cautioned that he has yet to pull that last trigger on the decision.
Will a different chief advisor make a difference. There does seem to be a big turnover recently, with most of Obama’s economic team leaving. Will it change the course of Obama’s presidency?
One thing we’ll have to look forward to if Republicans retake the House is silly investigations. Some of them won’t be so silly, like partisan war on climate science. Rep. Darrell Issa is rubbing his hands in glee at the havoc he can cause as head of the Environmental Committee:
The House’s top Republican watchdog is planning to launch an investigation into international climate data if he takes the helm of the chamber’s oversight panel next year.
Go to Blog Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said a probe of the “Climategate” scandal will top his environmental agenda if the Republicans take over the House next year and he gets the chairmanship.
“I do have a backburner investigation that I’m going to want to have completed, and that is, we paid a lot of money to have international evaluation, most of it done in Britain, that turns out to have been less than truthful in some of the figures,” he said. “We’re going to want to not investigate to get our money back, but we’re going to want to have a do-over of good numbers so that everyone can have confidence.”
In 20 years everyone will look back at how stupid this was. However, the time to address climate issues is yesterday and more ignorant buffoonery from Republicans will delay any response.