While not a Cabinet-level or policy-making position, Barack Obama today announced that Bradley J. Kiley will be his Director of the Office of Management and Administration. You could actually say that Kiley will be running the White House, as the Office handles the nuts and bolts of the administration such as “financial management and information technology support, human resources management, library and research assistance, facilities management, procurement, printing and graphics support, security, and mail and messenger operations.”
Queue the Queer Eye for the White House jokes.
The Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, which submitted Kiley’s name as a recommendation for the position writes:
“Brad Kiley has been named as the director of the Office of Management and Administration by President-elect Barack Obama. Kiley, who is openly gay, is currently the director of operations for the Obama-Biden Transition Project and was a former vice president at the Center for American Progress.
In this role he will oversee all aspects of administrative services to all entities of the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including direct support services to the President of the United States. These services include financial management, human resources management and research assistance. He will represent the EOP before congressional funding panels.”
Kiley has experience with handling the nitty-gritty of administration. He was Bill Clinton’s deputy assistant for management and administration. Let’s all congratulate Kiley on his appointment now, since we will never hear anything about him again.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Ben
hell yes
damien
BIGOT!
Oh, wait… 🙂
P.S. I was totally intending to make a Queer Eye joke, but you beat me to it.
Richard Rothstein
Let me see if I’ve got this right. Our new gay friendly President completely ignored the gay and lesbian commuunity for his “diversity” cabinet, but appointed a gay man to the job of office manager? Wow, now that’s a breakthrough!
seitan-on-a-stick
You’ve never heard of Stationary Queens! I know I am but what are you?
James
I really hope this isn’t supposed to be the ‘get the gays on board’ pick, I hope they aren’t that naive…. Without slighting this guy, who I think must be incredibly talented to be appointed anywhere in the Obama admin, this reeks of sexualized labour. I want cabinet-level LGBT, and unless we get it, I don’t think I can get behind the admin fully. Who cares if its tokenism, the whole rest of his cabinet is, too :).
Michael W.
@James: Barack Obama doesn’t need a “get the gays on board” pick. We’re already on board.
paul
So we now have a gay secretary in the WH. Imagine that. How bold of Obama. Maybe he will now appoint a lesbian to lead the Transportation department as they are so used to renting U Hauls.
Mark
Barrack has already appointed a lesbian as a member of his cabinet:
http://www.towleroad.com/2008/12/obama-selects-l.html
Stevemd2
The key part of this appointment is that Kiley is openly gay. Not some closeted republican. The gay community needs more of this sort of thing, and there should be a sub-cabinet post in Obama’s administration for gay and lesbian affairs, with real power.
And yes, while I am opposed in some ways to Warren preaching and will turn my back and raise a gay flag when he speaks at the inauguration, please remember the ultimate goals. One is to break the back of the right wing of the republican party, who were little different then the Russian Politburo in their outlook on things, and their lies. And this means picking up some of the evangelical votes. You’ll never get Warren to support gay marriage, hey he is a southern Baptist whom I wonder what he would have thought, had he been old enough to understand the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. But much of the homophobia problem is generational. Breaking the closet is the key thing to do to get people to realize that gay people are good ordinary people, and it is the younger evangelicals who will move in this direction. It is just going to take time.
And meanwhile, we need to do something to put the right wing repubs in their own closet. Turn the name ‘Bush’ into the worst of profanities in our language. A fitting legacy for the so called compassionate conservative who would have been right at home on the politburo if it gave him power, unless the Soviets realized that he was the greatest danger to world peace, which they really wanted after losing 20 million in WWII. Just that their economic system didn’t work hardly at all, and they had to isolate themselves lest they lost all their good people to emigration to the west.
Darth Paul
So, what, he’s like Obama’s mentat or something?
Brock
I don’t know who you’re talking about Michael, but I am NOT on board.
After all the campaigning I did for him, I got to see my community get royally slapped in the face when the self-righteous Mr. Obama asked Rick Warren to deliver an inaugural address. Obama’s trying to be people-pleasing with all the wrong people.
Makes me miss Hil. We wouldn’t have to worry about this with her.
Leland Frances
The problem, now as during the primaries, is that people like Mark have their heads so far up Obama’s ass that they can neither read nor think. Nancy Sutley’s position is NOT even “cabinet level,” let alone “Cabinet.” Here are the positions are—NONE of which have been filled by an out gay. But I’m not cyncial. Maybe he’ll create a Secretary of Coif for Michelle’s favorite hairburner. Massa gotta keep us all in our rightful place, after all.
President’s Cabinet:
Secretary of State
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Defense
Attorney General
Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of Transportation
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Homeland Security
Cabinet-level administration offices:
Vice President of the United States
White House Chief of Staff
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Director of the National Drug Control Policy
United States Trade Representative
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Darth Paul
@Brock: And what were you expecting? A gay revolution? Even your precious Hillary is a big player concerned with her career first and details second. Wake up.
BrianPrince
Even though I’m gay… I’m beginning to underestand the other side… some of you people are so bitter you should be force-fed sugar until your butt-holes stop puckering up, and you become a little less anal retentive.
Seriously… you can’t honestly expect him to fill every (or half, or a fourth) of his cabinet with people you want, JUST because of who they have relationship(s) with… if you do… you’re fools.
To ask… anybody to do everything for us is an absurdity — no one person carried the “freedom” of the African-Americans from slavery… it was a conjoined effort… and as long as you’re sitting at your computers whining because we’re not getting everything we want… we’ll never get what we deserve.
chuck
Well, at least this this thread the “Prince” did not call us idiots. Just fools.
Perhaps one day, real soon, the “Prince” will share how he really feels about the gay community and let it all hang out for us to see.
He seems to be edging ever closer to it.