Who is John Podesta

In an effort to better understand the members of the new administration, I have put together a bit of a profile of the man in charge of the Transition Board.

 

 

 

PODESTA, John David

· Jul2003: Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Center for American Progress, reportedly hand-picked for the job by CAP founders George Soros and Morton H. Halperin, according to a March 1, 2004 report in The Nation by Robert Dreyfuss. CAP was originally established as a spring-board for the H. Clinton presidential campaign for 2008.

· Member of the Constitution Project’s bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.

· Currently a Visiting Professor of Law on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, a position he also held from January 1995 to 1997. He has taught courses on technology policy, congressional investigations, legislation, copyright and public interest law.

· 2008: Authored The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country, Basically a document for B. Obama as to how to administer the country when elected president.

· Mar2006: Became Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society.

· Formed Coalition for Freedom Information group, through Podesta Associates to free-up government UFO documents.

· Member of the board of The James Madison Project, a non-profit organization established in 1998, committed to “promoting government accountability and reduction of secrecy.”

· Oct1998-Jan2001: Served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton; responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House.

· 1997-1998: Served as Assistant to the President (Clinton) and Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, where he helped suppress numerous federal investigations into Clinton wrongdoing, and helped short-circuit the Clinton impeachment proceedings through backroom deals.

· 1995-1996: Served as Counselor to Senator Thomas A. Daschle

· Jan 1993-1995: Served as Assistant to the President (Clinton), Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy.

· 1988: Served as opposition research director for the Michael Dukakis 1988 presidential campaign.

· 1988: Founded, with his brother Tony, Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. government relations and public affairs firm.

· 1987-1988: Served as Chief Counsel for the Senate Agricultural Committee

· 1981-1988: Served on the staff of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), assisting in pioneering the indiscriminate smearing and filibustering of any and all Republican judicial.

· 1979-1981: Served as Chief Minority Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

· 1978-1979: Worked as Special Assistant to the Director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency.

· 1976-1977: Worked as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Honors Program in the Land and Natural Resources Division

· He has served as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and the United States Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

· 1976 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center

· 1971 graduate of Knox College.

· 1972: Worked on the George McGovern presidential campaign.

· 1970: First met Bill Clinton in 1970, when he and Clinton worked together on anti-war candidate Joseph Duffy’s unsuccessful Senate campaign in Connecticut.

· 1968 Worked on the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaigns in 1968.

· Born 1949, to an Italian-American blue-collar father and Greek-American mother on January 15 in Chicago, IL. Podesta spent most of his early years in Chicago.

Position and Views Summary

· With Robert McChesney advocates a government overhaul of the internet communication policy administered by the FCC.

· Obsessed with the TV program, The X-Files, and an avid believer in extra-terrestrials and UFOs, to the point of obsession. The Sci-Fi Channel hired Podesta Associates to help get the US government to open up documents on the subject of UFO secrecy.

· Progressive Democrat; a player preferring to work behind the scenes in politics.

· Holds “openness in government” in high regard.

· A staunch defender of the Clinton Administration. Very good at “scandal” suppression and cleanup as well as digging up dirt on opposition.

· In his book, he articulates a vision of progressive values based on four core lessons: 1) Progressives stand with people, not privilege; 2) Progressives believe in the Common Good and a government that offers a hand up; 3) Progressives hold that all people are equal in the eyes of God and under the law; and 4) Progressives stand for universal human rights and cooperative global security.

· Over the years, Podesta has made campaign contributions to numerous Democratic candidates, including Al Franken, Edward Kennedy, Richard Gephardt, Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Richard Durbin, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Tammy Duckworth, Rosa DeLauro, Paul Wellstone, Maurice Hinchey, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Charles Rangel, and Al Gore. In 2002 Podesta also made a $1,000 contribution to the League of Conservation Voters.

· IAW the Washington Post, “encryption technology, the declassification of government documents, agricultural policy, and the impact of the Internet as Podesta’s main focuses at the White House.

· Podesta’s most lasting contribution to the leftist cause came through his promotion of a strategy that White House aides dubbed “Project Podesta.” This was a system that enabled the Clintons to push through unpopular policies that neither Congress nor the American people wanted. Project Podesta enabled the President to bypass Congress through the use of executive orders, presidential decision directives, White-House-sponsored lawsuits, and vacancy appointments to high federal office, selective regulatory actions against targeted corporations, and a host of other extra-constitutional tactics. In short, Podesta showed the Clintons that they could gain by force what they might fail to achieve through legislation. Project Podesta’s most ambitious exercise was the war on Yugoslavia which Clinton launched by executive order on April 13, 1999, in defiance of the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. When US News and World Report first revealed the existence of Project Podesta on November 1, 1999, two Congressional hearings convened to investigate the Clintons’ abuse of executive power. But the investigators issued no reports and took no action. Project Podesta reached its logical conclusion in Al Gore’s effort to litigate his way into the White House in 2000. During the infamous 36-day, post-election stand-off, Podesta worked behind the scenes with Gore’s legal team even as the Clinton White House publicly declared its neutrality. Podesta bears personal responsibility for forcing the election into the U.S. Supreme Court.

Notes

· Beyond politics, can we expect Mr. Podesta to initiate a UFO and Alien hunt once Barack takes office? This may be something to hammer.

· Another target on Podesta’s radar is Conservative Talk Radio and the implementation of the Fairness Doctrine designed to silence opposition in the name of equality.

Affiliations

Personal Relations:

Anthony T. Podesta – brother

Other Current Relationships:

Center for a New American Security – director

Center for American Progress – president & CEO

Century Foundation – trustee

Knox College – trustee

League of Conservation Voters – director

Podesta Associates Inc. – co-founder

Women’s Voices. Women Vote. – director

Past Relationships:

2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign – transition coordinator

William J. Clinton – chief of staff

Tom Daschle – counselor

Links

Facebook Page for Power of Progress