WASHINGTON: The White House rebuffed talk of a pre-election staff shakeup Tuesday, after Washington tongues were set wagging when Chief of Staff Bill Daley offloaded some duties to a veteran subordinate.
Daley, who only took the key post in January, told staff Monday he would hand some internal White House organization, normally in a chief of staff's purview, to Pete Rouse, a longtime aide to President Barack Obama.
The move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, revived whispers that Daley, who is close to big business and seen as a centrist, had been alienated by Obama's new populist tone as he seeks a second term.
Reports had also circulated that Daley's management style had chafed on the tight-knit inner core which has been around Obama since his early days in the Senate and as a presidential candidate.
"I think a little bit more is being made of this than in fact is happening," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
"Bill Daley has asked ... Pete Rouse, counsel to the president, to help streamline and make more efficient and effective internal communications in the White House and to help with some of the day-to-day management of the place.
"Bill Daley, as the chief of staff, obviously retains all his authority and his responsibility."
"It is less about transferring duties than it is about adding responsibilities without subtracting them for anyone else."
The Journal reported that Daley had been concentrating more in recent weeks on managing the White House's outreach to outsiders as an ambassador, while Rouse would serve as "inside manager."
Rouse, a backroom player who shuns publicity, is a member of Obama's inner political circle, is beloved by White House staff and known as a trouble shooter for the toughest assignments.
Daley, a former JP Morgan executive who served president Bill Clinton as commerce secretary, was appointed after Obama suffered a drubbing to Republicans in 2010 mid-term elections.
But he has been criticized over Obama's testy ties with fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and also over an embarrassing showdown with Republicans over the timing of the president's economic address to Congress in September.
His arrival in January was seen as a sign that Obama wanted to repair fractured ties to big business and move to the political center.
But the president has recently campaigned vigorously on making the richest Americans pay more of a share for creating jobs, as heartland Americans suffer and Wall Street piles up huge profits.
As Obama faces a tough 2012 reelection fight, the lines of authority in a still disciplined White House have blurred.
Several key players, including Obama's political guru David Axelrod have decamped to Chicago to fire up the election machine.
Obama's 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe, meanwhile, has moved into the West Wing and is playing a powerful role as Obama's senior advisor and is setting the rhetorical ground for the campaign.
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