The American Spectator

For example, according to sources at the Security and Exchange Commission, the person recently hired by SEC chairman Mary Schapiro to be that agency’s top lobbyist was nixed by Summers because he didn’t feel comfortable with the hire’s background. “We haven’t seen this much input into hiring at the independent agencies in a long time,” says a career staffer at the Federal Trade Commission. “It makes you wonder what they are up to.”

The Stimulus Election

The White House economic team is getting nervous about the 2010 elections and whether the state of the economy will allow Democrats to build on the majorities they already have in Congress. So nervous that, according to some White House sources, the administration is attempting to come up with a new economic measure for the media to start using to report on economic activity.

“It would be like other government indexes, but take into account job creation by stimulus, spending of stimulus dollars for new projects, that kind of thing. But really it’s about trying to put some kind of good news in front of the American people starting next January, when they will start thinking about 2010 and the election cycles.”

This new economic index is just part of an overall public relations campaign on the economy. For example, the White House daily calendar often includes a meeting between President Obama and Vice President Biden to discuss the implementation of the stimulus and recovery. But White House sources say that if the meeting takes place, the discussion rarely focuses on the stimulus plan’s effectiveness or utility.