White House Staff

Dana Power
Assistant to the President for Communications

Dennis Athey
Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff

Dan O'Sullivan
Deputy Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President

Mary Nemeth
Assistant to the President for Speechwriting and Policy Advisor

Ed Petzold
Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff

Drew O'Brien
Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary

Judith Kanheman
Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary

Karen Lawn
Assistant to the President and White House Counsel

Marcia Mandi
Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs

Colleen Ryan
Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady

Sonny Yocius
Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary

Helen Doster
Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications

Eric Corbin
Deputy Assistant to the President, Assistant to the Vice President

Chris Varga
Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs

Matt Flaig
Assistant to the Vice President and Chief of Staff

Salvatore Lawless
Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel

Brett Newbanks
Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy

Tom Wadsworth
Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Public Liaison

Background Sheets
Gameplay and Theory
Who's Who
Overview
Details
Political Background
Legal Background
PR Background

Links
The West Wing
The Real Whitehouse

Political Background

Political Initiatives

CHILD*First Initiative
CHILD*First is a complex series of Social and Educational initiatives. It is tied to the Protection of Literacy Act, but CHILD*First has its own logo, office, promotions, etc. It is the showpiece of the President's domestic policy and the masterpiece of the Office for Strategic Initiatives (OSI).

Middle Eastern Peace
Middle Eastern Peace is always a risky undertaking. President Kent has used all the diplomatic resources of the Clinton and Carter Administrations to try and forge ties with moderate Shiite and Sunni leaders in Iraq and Iran, and with moderates in Hammas like Ismail Haniyeh. The goal of the administration has been cease-fires, demilitarization, and cessation of Civil War.

Legislative Initiatives

Protection of Literacy Act
A showpiece education bill. It may or may not be a good education bill, but it generally gives more money to schools. However some of it's showpiece elements are being eroded – the act moves away from the Bush Era standardized test model (though in practice only minimally, and that largely by giving funding for anything else rather than changing existing programs), and that has GOP hardliners saying it "erodes education." In order to make it interesting enough to get public attention, it has to have some component somebody might disagree with. There is little doubt that it will pass, however one showcase element is in danger. A very large funding grant for After School Reading Programs is being challenged aggressively in the House by Mark Connor who says it "erodes family values," by promoting the "nanny state."

Pacific-American Free Trade Agreement (PAFTA)
The strongest opposition faced by PAFTA is from the President's own Party.

This broader Free Trade Agreement faces a tremendous uphill battle in Congress. While strongly supported by Trade groups as a way to break high tariffs from Japan, which will probably be forced to sign if the U.S. does, and generally recognized as raising wages and standard of living in the Pacific Rim, and helping promote democracy in China, this measure is often called the "Wal Mart Agreement" because it threatens to dump a slew of cheap foreign goods onto the U.S. Market, further undercutting the U.S. manufacturing industry. Support for PAFTA is confused, and does not fall along traditional party lines. Democrats from industrial states oppose it bitterly, while some Free Trade Republicans support it.

International Environmental Accords Ratification
The IEA is a successor to the Kyoto Accords, broadening the scope of existing environmental accords. The Legislation is favored by liberal and green Democrats, and avidly opposed by the GOP with some support from manufacturing state Democrats. In general the IEA is an uphill battle, but it is seen as likely to pass if PAFTA passes, as the Democrats exchange votes on the IEA for votes on PAFTA

Social Security Reform
This is the big bugbear of every U.S. Administration. Everyone agrees Social Security should be reformed, nobody agrees on how. It's becoming increasingly urgent to do something to fix Social Security. The Kent Administration has a proposition – much as might be expected it's generally upheld by Democrats, reviled by the GOP, and has enough centrist support to maybe squeak by.