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Decoding The Latest White House Appointments

The transition team announced three top White House staff appointments today: Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's three transition co-chairs, will be senior adviser and assistant to the President for intergovernmental relations and public liaison (the Times has more on Jarrett's role here); Ron Klain will be Biden's chief of staff; and Phil Schiliro will be assistant to the President for legislative affairs. (Because of the leaky vessel that is the transition, word about Klain and Jarrett had already seeped out.)

Schiliro is especially interesting. He's a former chief of staff to California Rep. Henry Waxman, who's trying to unseat Michigan's John Dingell as head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell is known as the auto industry's staunchest ally in Congress and a longtime skeptic of ambitious climate-change legislation (though he's recently softened his stance a bit). Adjust your Intrade bets accordingly.

--Seyward Darby