White House's Fox News Foe Stepping Down

Administration not sweating Fox host's campaign against Anita Dunn

(NEWSER) - Fox talking head Glenn Beck has White House communications director Anita Dunn in his crosshairs, but the administration isn't exactly sweating. "I caught some of that from the Glenn Beck show yesterday, but I don't think anybody takes it—takes his attacks very seriously," the deputy White House press secretary said today of Beck's vitriolic reaction to a video in which Dunn says Mao Zedong is one of her "favorite political philosophers." More»

Nope, says spokesman: event reports, pics are online

(NEWSER) - At the nadir of the economic crisis, the Obama White House held a lavish Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween costume party, organized by Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and full of Star Wars character. But with unemployment at 10%, the Tea Party at its apex, and the economic downturn still rocking the country, officials feared the 2009 party would look terribly decadent, so kept it a secret, reports the New York Post . “White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans—or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care—that the event was not discussed publicly, and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” alleges Jodi Kantor in her new book, The Obamas . More»

Bill Daley says Congress won't let Obama be a chief executive

(NEWSER) - Roger Simon of Politico has an entertaining interview with White House chief of staff Bill Daley. Some highlights:

• How it's going: “It’s been a brutal three years. It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years. And we are doing all this under the overhang of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. F--k! It wasn’t like all this was happening in good times."
• On 'we can't wait': "Both Democrats and Republicans have really made it very difficult for the president to be anything like a chief executive. This has led to a kind of frustration," and to the president's push for the executive branch to do as much as it can without Congress.

Key figures deny harsh quotes, assertions of Obama weakness

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration is fighting back against allegations from Ron Suskind's coming book Confidence Men that the president's top advisers undermined his authority and ignored his orders, reports Politico . “This is not what I told the author, this is not what I believe, and anyone who knows me and my history of supporting this president as a candidate and in office knows this isn’t true,” said former communications director Anita Dunn , who was quoted in Suskind's book as saying the White House was "a genuinely hostile workplace to women." More»

White House calls for 'immediate transition'

(NEWSER) - The White House is not-so-subtly telling Yemen's embattled president to hit the road, with top counterterror adviser John Brennan telling Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday to “fulfill expeditiously” his pledge to step down. Brennan “called upon” Saleh “to sign the GCC-brokered agreement for peaceful and Constitutional political transition in Yemen,” according to a White House statement. The pledge offers him immunity from prosecution in exchange for his resignation, notes Politico . More»