"Personnel is policy," runs the old saw, so when a President shuffles the chairs in the West Wing, Washington takes notice.
The latest moves--a series of staff changes announced in mid-December--offer some hints about Barack Obama's direction in 2014. He named White House deputy communications director Katie Beirne Fallon as his legislative director and brought in a veteran Clinton aide, John Podesta, to serve in his inner circle. Neither has close ties to Republicans in Congress or a recent track record of cutting big bipartisan deals. But both are expert at messaging, especially to the Democratic base. Which tells you how...
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