David & Susan Axelrod with daughter Lauren and NPR's Peter Sagal
Vice President Joseph Biden shared his deeply personal story of brain trauma at the annual Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) fundraising gala on Tuesday. He told the Chicago crowd gathered at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom about the life-threatening aneurysm and two subsequent seizures he suffered in 1988. Biden called epilepsy “a terrible lightning storm in the brain.”
“It’s amazing what we don’t know about how the brain functions,” Biden said. “For the first time in human history, significant resources and human capital are being applied to unlock how to catch that lightning.” REUTERS has more on the story.
CURE was founded in 1998 by Susan Axelrod, wife of former White House senior Adviser David Axelrod, and other parents frustrated with their inability to protect their children from the devastation of seizures and the side effects of medications. The Axelrod’s daughter, Lauren, lives with the disease.
“There is no lonelier feeling — and many of you have experienced it — when you know your child has a chronic illness which can’t be controlled,” David Axelrod explained.
Epilepsy affects over 3 million Americans of all ages and some 50 million people worldwide. It can develop at any age and may be a result of head injury, brain tumor, stroke and many other unknown causes.
“I can only image what it’s like to stare at your child while their eyes roll back in their head,” Biden said, quoted in The Chicago Tribune. “But the truth is, I believe with every fiber of my being that (a cure) is just around the corner.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn were among the 900 people attending the gala that raised almost $800,000 for the nonprofit organization. In addition to the Vice President’s keynote speech, the event featured Peter Sagal, Host of NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” Since its founding, CURE has raised $15 million to fund epilepsy research and has has awarded over 107 cutting-edge projects.
More information about CURE can be found at cureepilepsy.org. WHCI is proud to support the work of CURE and if you would like to donate, please click HERE. The video below premiered at the annual CURE gala and features poignant, personal stories of families who have battled epilepsy.
William Daley, JPMorgan Chase senior executive and Secretary of Commerce during the Clinton administration, has been named the new White House Chief of Staff.
Daley officially takes over for Rahm Emanuel who left to return to Chicago to campaign for mayor (coincidentally, Mr. Daley’s brother Richard serves as Chicago’s current Mayor). Pete Rouse, who served as interim chief of staff, will continue as a Counselor to the President.
Bill Daley, Bill Daley Jr., Tom Hynes, and Terry Dee at the CURE Epilepsy Benefit in Chicago 2010
In today’s special announcement in the East Room, President Obama said he was “proud to announce the appointment of an experienced public servant, devoted patriot, and my friend, fellow Chicagoan Bill Daley, to serve as my Chief of Staff. Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job.”
Not even 24 hours after NBC broke the news of Rahm Emanuel’s departure, President Barack Obama opened this morning’s announcement with, “Good morning and welcome to the least suspenseful announcement of all time.”
The President came to praise his former Chief of Staff through his efforts on health care reform and leading the White House’s staff through these turbulent times. “We’re also losing a comparable elader of our staff and one who we’re going to miss very much,” the President said. “When I first started assembling this administration I knew we were going to face some of the most difficult years our country has seen in years.”
WHC Insider presents the first annual WHC Weekend Insider Awards to highlight the great deeds of the famous and infamous who came to Washington to party, schmooze, and most importantly – be seen – at the events surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
It’s the biggest weekend in Washington, second only perhaps to Inauguration, which you clever kids know from civics class only comes once every four years (and without as many brunches).
So, here it is, the best of the fetes, as we scour the tables at the Washington Hilton to find someone not represented by Bob Barnett.
BEST OUTREACH BY A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. No one walks in LA, but apparently Hollywood hottie and “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier was making his way on foot to the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair after party when he was spotted by none other than Rahm Emanuel. The White House Chief of Staff’s brother, Ari Emanuel, was the inspiration for the high-strung, heavyweight agent portrayed by Jeremy Piven on the hit HBO show “Entourage.”
Rahm immediately had his motorcade pull over and Adrian hopped in. Now that’s taking it to the people!
White House favorite Sarah Feinberg, who has been Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, joins Bloomberg L.P. as director of communication and business strategy efforts, with an emphasis on expanding Bloomberg’s global presence.
“Sarah has demonstrated the strategic leadership that will build on Bloomberg’s position in Washington and across the globe,” said Kevin Sheekey, head of government relations and public affairs at Bloomberg L.P. and chairman of the new government information division. “Her experience at the intersection of communications, politics and public policy, her track record of managing complex issues and teams and her entrepreneurial spirit will be tremendous assets at Bloomberg.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining Bloomberg at such an exciting time for the Company,” said Feinberg. “As Bloomberg expands its presence in Washington and prepares to launch its government information division, I’m looking forward to being a part of an organization with such an impressive record of innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Feinberg, who is married to White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, will oversee all Washington-based communications across the Bloomberg product portfolio.
FishbowlDC’s Matt Dornic reports CBS will host Rahm Emanuel, TV stars Julianna Margolis and Chris O’Donnell, and new Massachussetts Senator Brown’s daughter Ayla Brown at this year’s Nerd Prom.
President Obama introduced a new strategy to bond with members of Congress at the annual White House Congressional Picnic.
President Obama set up three top officials to take a dive into a dunk tank. Robert Gibbs, Rahm Emanuel and Peter Orszag volunteer to have their Commander-in-chief have a lot of fun at their expense. WHC Insider wonders if this is the first time a President has gone so far to make some friends and win more votes on Capitol Hill.
Howard Kurtz’s article in today’s WaPo says, “Perhaps no White House chief of staff in modern history has worked the media as aggressively and relentlessly as Emanuel. Drawing on his long-standing relationships with journalists, Emanuel serves up on-the-record quotes, background spin and the sort of capital gossip that lubricates relationships. The former Chicago congressman also seeks their take on events and floats possible administration tactics.”
Move it to a Friday night (for the first time), bring a celebrity bartender to the after-party, and the night is guaranteed to go long. The Radio-TV Correspondents’ dinner festivities didn’t break until several hours after midnight.
The MSNBC-thrown after-party, attended by Obama advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, among others, had a different vibe than Fox’s fondly remembered 2004 disco affair: more cocktails and comfort-food. Contessa Brewer’s black dress, with its open back, was one of the more daring of the evening and drew admirers; her lengthy conversation with NBC News president Steve Capus had some guessing. The special drinks that Rachel Maddow was mixing up behind the bar — including her “signature cocktail” the Hearst (gin, sweet vermouth and bitters) — must have been potent: The last of the NBC junior staffers trickled out after 3 a.m.
Obama as Comedian-in-Chief
As for the dinner itself, the reviews are in: President Obama was pretty funny. Then again, it’s hard to know — it could be just another manifestation of that whole being-in-bed-with-the-press phenomenon that hepoked fun at in his remarks last night. “Why bother hanging out with celebrities when I can spend time with people who make me one?” Obama said, comparing the RTCA event to the Hollywood celeb-studded White House Correspondents Association dinner in May.
Unlike the WHCD, there was no one line that everyone grabbed on to, but the papers, Twitterers and bloggers found plenty to like, although they appear to be tiring of his frequent jokes about chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s colorful vocabulary. (Last night’s: “In Egypt, we had the opportunity to tour the pyramids. And by now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the pictures of Rahm on that camel. I admit, I was a little nervous about the whole situation. I said at the time, ‘This is a wild animal known to bite, kick and spit. And who knows what the camel could do.’ “) Read more…
Obama Walks to Oval Office -- courtesy Antoine Sanfuentes
Mark Lukasiewicz (a.k.a. “Luk”) is one of the biggest names in TV news, yet he operates behind the cameras and lights — and notoriety — as a Vice President of NBC News.
He has been leading NBC News’ digital efforts and on the side (ahem) over the years he has created and produced some of NBC News biggest events, the most recent: NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House, Brian Williams Reports.” With amazing access and resources, he and his team shot 150 hours of tape and created two primetime network hours, which also appeared on NBC’s cable channel MSNBC.
WHCInsider talked to Luk about the two-night special report, both of which captured a “top 10″ TV ranking for that week. about how the NBC the program came together.
Linda Rozett: Did you plan what everybody would be shooting beforehand, or did you just show up with lots of people and start shooting … and sort it out in the edit room?
Mark Lukasiewicz: The White House puts out a public schedule each day, so we certainly knew in advance some of what would be on President Obama’s schedule. But in terms of exactly how it would unfold, there’s no way to know that. You just roll with it. In the end, the broadcast included an entire chapter on how the White House managed the Sonia Sotomayor story — and that episode completely unfolded before our eyes. No one could have predicted it.
Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest and NBC News VP Mark Lukasiewicz on the South Lawn of the White House, consider camera locations for "Inside the Obama White House: Brian Williams Reports" – courtesy Subrata De
In the process we followed, every producer submitted an outline of their best material, what they saw what was noteworthy, what unfolded. Each submitted the outline by midnight on Friday, a few hours after they left the White House.
Before leaving the White House Brian, Subrata De and I were also able to compare notes — and overnight I put together a 12-act outline of the two hours incorporating all the best material from the producers, and laying it out and structuring it into a rough narrative.
By noon Saturday everyone was back in New York and the entire team went to work on that 11-page outline, in a two-hour meeting. We moved some things around, added some things, took some others out. And at the end of that meeting, a producer/editor team was assigned to begin producing each act.
Sunday was another full day in a “war room” on the 5th floor of 30 Rock, where Brian worked with each producer/editor team and scripted each act in sequence. Brian recorded his scripts for those acts Sunday evening. By Monday morning, we were screening a largely completed version of the two-hour special. It was an incredible process.
In addition to the NBC Special, didn’t you have time on MSNBC?
On NBC, we had one hour on Tuesday, June 2, and one hour Wednesday, June 3. We combined those into a single, two-hour program on Friday, which also ran on MSNBC on the weekend. And very soon, it will be a DVD.
And had our own website for the broadcast: www.whitehouse.msnbc.com. Pieces of video that we let run longer and stuff that didn’t make the broadcast, we put that on the website. We also had web-exclusive elements — our web producers were involved from day one; and msnbc.com had its own editorial team with us at the White House. They had access to everything. The website also has the full two-hour video, as well as all the previous “Inside the White House” broadcasts going back several years
With that much material, you must have had some good stuff that got left on the cutting room floor … what were your favorites that just didn’t quite make the cut?
There is. We had 150 hours of material. One thing we couldn’t get into the Monday, Tuesday broadcasts, but got in on Friday was a section about White House photographer Pete Souza. The producer who shot that material made the case for a great segment; a lovely and fascinating little glimpse of how the White House photographer works, how he works with the President. The segment told the story behind a particular photo, hanging in the West Wing, of a young boy in the Oval Office. The picture shows a 4-year old standing in front of the President’s desk and Obama is leaving over so the young boy can touch his hair. Souza told us the little boy had recently had his hair cut and wondered if their heads felt the same. In the photo, Obama is leaning over so the boy can feel his head.
How would you describe Obama’s comfort level with cameras following him that closely for an extended period?
I can’t speak for the President on this, but it appeared that he was very comfortable. We certainly had extraordinary access to him all day long in different settings: casual interactions with immediate staff members, casual interactions with the First Lady, walking from place to place, backstage, meetings in the Oval Office, in the Roosevelt Room, in the limousine, getting off the elevator in the morning and getting on the elevator in the evening. He seemed very comfortable.
ICYMI … Tuesday night’s NBC Special Report from the White House showed team Obama managing the fallout from Sotomayor’s comment about a Latina woman’s experience. First Gibbs, then Ax, tried to cool down the debate. But it took Obama (perhaps channeling Fred Armisen’sObama Cool) to do the job.
Rahm Emanuel was working his own agenda that day, and it didn’t include NBC cameras.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems to have gotten used to the slings and arrows of Congress, but Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham stopped Secretary Geithner in his tracks when he asked him about being included as one of People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People under the heading of ”Barack’s Beauties” along with First Lady Michelle Obama, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, and assistant White House Chef Sam Kass.
Here is the transcript:
MR. MEACHAM: People magazine has selected you as one of “Barack’s Beauties.”Would you phrase it that you’re–you were in close consultation? How does that feel?
SECRETARY GEITHNER: It doesn’t–[laughing]–it doesn’t feel particularly good, frankly. [Laughter.] It doesn’t make up for the challenge of being away from my family and doing other things, but you’re so nice to bring it up, Jon.
MR. MEACHAM: Well, you’re welcome. I’d like the record to show that I think Alexander Hamilton blushed as well at various points with various folks.
Jon Meacham, the newly crowned Pulitzer prize winner can get a little history into anything.
Bon Jovi, Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Meghan McCain, Antonin Scalia and More
ABC News will have its share of political and entertainment stars at its tables:
David Axelrod, White House senior advisor, and his wife Susan Axelrod
Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff
Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget
Valerie Jarrett, senior presidential advisor
Jackie Norris, First Lady’s Chief of Staff
Leon Panetta, CIA Director
Susan Rice, UN Ambassador
Justice Antonin Scalia
Meghan McCain
Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi
Kate Walsh
Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel
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