The biggest news coming out of Washington this week is that Rahm Emanuel, the current Chief of Staff for the administration, will be stepping down this Friday to run for the Mayor of Chicago. The replacement for Emanuel is going to Pete Rouse, a senior adviser in the administration. He is said to be an "extremely close" adviser to Obama.
Regarding the news coming out of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin will join forces with Michael Steele and the Republican National Committee next month to hold a pair of fundraising rallies. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee will team up with the RNC chairman at an event in Anaheim, California, on October 16 and in Orlando, Florida, on October 23. Also, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, will lay out his "personal vision" for how Congress needs to be reformed if he becomes speaker of the House in a speech Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. According to excerpts of his speech obtained by CNN, Boehner will pledge to take input from anyone on how to make "the people's House" work better. "Reform should be an ongoing and inclusive effort," he says. "I don't have all the answers, and wouldn't pretend to. I welcome ideas and helping hands from any lawmaker, expert, or citizen about how we can make this institution function again." He'll offer a sharp critique of the way Democrats are currently running the House, arguing that the current session of Congress is "not concluding – it is collapsing."
In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, says that in "12 years of a GOP-controlled Congress, there were an unprecedented number of abuses of power; a completely broken ethics process; passing major bills at 5:50 a.m. after holding a vote open for 3 hours; and countless deals with special interests behind closed doors."
