“West Wing” on The Daily Caller

Between Barack Obama’s election and inauguration, Pete Rouse was known as the transition’s “keeper of the list”: He knew who was supposed to get jobs, who was owed favors. (more)

Changes to a president’s inner circle often move him in one direction, away from the team that surrounded him through the election and toward a more diverse mix of advisers. (more)

Few people outside Washington, and not many inside, have heard the name Pete Rouse. The man President Obama will name as his interim White House chief of staff on Friday is a quiet political player who avoids the spotlight. He does not suit up for the Sunday talk shows; there are no stories about him reducing staff members to tears for their slip-ups. (more)

During a health-care speech in the East Room of the White House yesterday, President Obama took a swat at a pesky, speech-interrupting fly, garnering a laugh from his audience in the process.  He then noted that the crowd had “seen me grab one of those before.” Indeed,  Tuesday was hardly the first time that a fly has interrupted the president, and it likely won’t be the last. (more)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met with a delegation from the White House press corps for 75 minutes on Thursday in an effort to improve frayed relations between the two sides. (more)

Rapper Jay-Z’s apparent visit to the White House Situation Room Wednesday reveals a radical departure from the last eight years of security policy, according to a senior Bush administration official. (more)

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the administration’s most feared and fascinating personality, is fending off questions about just how long he will remain in his draining job — and whether his next gig will be in Washington or back in Chicago, perhaps as Mr. Mayor. (more)