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title: Obama Taps New Faces To Revive White House
description: Republicans are ruffled that recent hires aren't interested in reaching across the aisle
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article:published_time: 2013-12-30T05:00:00.000Z
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* [Politics](/section/politics/)

# Obama Taps New Faces To Revive White House

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by 

[Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-miller/)

Dec 30, 2013 5:00 AM UTC

by 

[Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-miller/)

Dec 30, 2013 5:00 AM UTC

“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 the White House plans to turn the page on a disappointing year.

Podesta, founder of the liberal Center for American Progress and Bill Clinton’s final chief of staff, has spent much of the past five years backing up the President’s left flank from his think tank. His new brief: help Obama work around an obstructionist Congress. Podesta also has deep ties to Hillary Clinton.

Fallon’s task will be to patch over divisions that have emerged between the White House and congressional Democrats. Her focus will be on climate change, immigration and Obamacare–issues that have little legislative movement but could be important in the coming midterm elections.

The White House is also adding new hands to help limit the damage from the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, recruiting former staffer Phil Schiliro to lead the complex law’s implementation and former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene to manage the troubled website.

The White House maintains that its new hires address specific problems and don’t amount to a larger shake-up. Republicans understandably see the changes as evidence that the Administration is uninterested in reaching across the aisle. What is certain is that after a turbulent 12 months, the White House is searching for a reset.

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