Obama's Auto Boss Faces Charges of ... Nothing

'Aggressive,' 'relentless' Rahm 'in constant touch'

(NEWSER) - Rahm Emanuel is “in constant touch” with journalists, offering a “round-the-clock offensive” on behalf of the White House, writes Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post. “He calls, drops a few F-bombs, makes his point and hangs up,” says one commentator. Brief he may be, but “perhaps no White House chief of staff in modern history has worked the media as aggressively and relentlessly as Emanuel,” Kurtz notes. More»

(NEWSER) - Chrysler and GM could end up needing a “considerably higher” amount than the $21.6 billion so far requested, Bloomberg reports. Steven Rattner, who heads President Obama’s auto task force, said it's possible the request could go as high as $40 billion. He also said that Chrysler’s mention of a merger with Fiat is a “worthy idea” because the company is “just kind of barely making it” alone. More»

There's little evidence of ties as questions pour from press

(NEWSER) - The media is aflutter with questions over Barack Obama’s connection to Rod Blagojevich, and although it’s fair for the press to probe, things are getting “silly,” Joan Walsh writes on Salon. The only tie we’ve seen is Blagojevich caught on tape ranting obscenely that Obama won't pay-to-play, yet some are saying Obama’s team has been too slow in enumerating its communications with the Illinois governor. More»

Says it wasn't Bain's responsibility to create jobs

(NEWSER) - The man who turned around the auto industry for the Obama administration thinks it's out of line in attacking Mitt Romney's Bain record . "I think the ad is unfair," former "car czar" Steve Rattner said on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. "Look, Mitt Romney made a mistake ever talking about the fact that he created 100,000 jobs. Bain Capital's responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs or some other number. It was to create profits for its investors … And it did it superbly well." More»

Press corps miffed by quiet social life, he suggests

(NEWSER) - President Obama isn't aloof, he says—it's just that he and Michelle don't tend to paint the town red. "My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I don’t go to a lot of Washington parties and, as a consequence, the Washington press corps maybe just doesn’t feel like I’m in the mix enough with them," he tells Time in an interview, noted by Politico . "And they figure, well, if I’m not spending time with them, I must be cold and aloof." More»