Thread: OBAMA CHOOSES EBOLA CZAR

BREAKING NEWS

OBAMA CHOOSES EBOLA CZAR





Klain to oversee U.S. response, sources tell CNN

The former chief of staff for Vice Presidents Biden and Gore will coordinate the federal response to Ebola in the U.S., CNN's Jake Tapper reports. FULL STORY

• Quarantine on cruise ship
• Microbiologist: Ebola's faster than us
• Video of nurse in hospital bed

First on CNN: Obama will name Ron Klain as Ebola Czar

By Jake Tapper, Chief Washington Correspondent
updated 10:33 AM EDT, Fri October 17, 2014



Source: Obama to name Ebola czar
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• President Obama will name Ron Klain as "Ebola Czar"
• The president had opposed the creation of such a position
• Klain works for an investment group, but has worked for Vice President Joe Biden

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain his "Ebola czar," knowledgeable sources tell CNN.

The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea to have one individual coordinating the entire federal response to any threat of an outbreak in the United States.

Ronald Klain preps Obama for a foreign policy debate in Nevada in 2012
Democrat: Appointing Ebola czar a good idea
McCain: Obama needs to appoint Ebola czar
"It may make sense for us to have one person ... so that after this initial surge of activity, we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we're crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's going forward," Obama said.

The administration has been criticized for its response to the incidents of Ebola in the United States, in terms of how prepared hospitals have been for potential Ebola patients and also how prepared healthcare workers were in terms of their personal protective gear. Some lawmakers have called for a travel ban on individuals coming from West Africa where the outbreak is most serious but the administration has so far not embraced that idea.

Klain is highly regarded at the White House as a good manager with excellent relationships both in the administration and on Capitol Hill. His supervision of the allocation of funds in the stimulus act -- at the time and incredible and complicated government undertaking -- is respected in Washington. He does not have any extensive background in health care but the job is regarded as a managerial challenge.

He will report to both White House homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, according to a White House official.

A former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and also to then-Vice President Al Gore, Klain is currently President of Case Holdings and General Counsel of Revolution, an investment group. He has clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court and headed up Gore's effort during the 2000 Florida recount. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-czar-ron-klain/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

I told Obama to find someone over 70 or 75 who was around in the 1940's or 50's when we still put meaningful quarantines in place, in other words get some experience on this team. Again, we did not get what we needed, so I will keep my expectations low.

Conservatives: Obama's New Ebola Czar Incompetent Political Hack With No Medical Experience

by Matthew Boyle 17 Oct 2014, 10:43 AM PDT
breitbart

While President Barack Obama has finally caved to one demand from congressional Republicans on Ebola—appointing a single point person, or Ebola Czar, to handle the response—the person he appointed, conservatives say, is an incompetent political hack.

Obama’s new Ebola Czar is Ron Klain, the former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and to former Vice President Al Gore.

“Leave it to President Obama to put a liberal political activist in charge of the administration’s Ebola response,” Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) said in a statement on Friday. “If reports are true, his so-called Ebola Czar will be someone with no medical background, but who was responsible for administering the failed 2009 Obama stimulus program. Yet again, this president is more concerned with ideology than competence.”

Fleming went on to call for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Tom Frieden to resign.

“If the Obama Administration wants to gain the faith of the American people in the face of a serious public health threat, they should start with a travel ban on people coming from Ebola hot zones, and a CDC Director who will ensure that there are select medical centers that are fully-equipped and trained to handle Ebola patients. The testimony we heard yesterday from Dr. Tom Frieden added to my existing concerns about his ability to handle the crisis. The time has come for the CDC Director to resign.”

Radio’s Rush Limbaugh lit into Obama for the decision to appoint someone like Klain, too, saying on Friday that Klain was "in charge of who got what in the porkulus bill” and "in charge of political payoffs,” adding that this is "pure 100 percent politics.”

Obama’s decision to finally appoint someone to handle the crisis comes weeks after many congressional Republicans demanded that he do so—calls to action Obama originally ignored until after Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. after lying to immigration agents to get into America, infected two American nurses who cared for him. Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, the two nurses infected by Duncan, contracted the deadly virus while caring for Duncan using arbitrary CDC “standards" for care while Duncan was in Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

In addition to helping advise who got what money as part of the 2009 Obama stimulus bill, Klain also helped Obama with the Solyndra scandal—approving the president for a visit to the failed energy company before the 2012 election.

"The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012,” Klain wrote in an email to Valerie Jarrett ahead of Obama’s May 2010 visit to Solyndra headquarters.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...cal-Experience

Democracy Alliance-Linked Drug Company Lobbyist Made Ebola Czar

Ron Klain appointed despite no medical background

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
October 17, 2014 3:40 pm

The new Ebola czar has ties to a secret liberal dark money group and once worked as a lobbyist for a prescription drug company that denied experimental drugs to dying cancer patients.

Ron Klain, a former adviser to former Vice President Al Gore, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Barack Obama, currently is president of Case Holdings and is general counsel to the investment firm Revolution LLC.

Klain is also a trustee for Third Way. Claiming to be the voice for the “vital center,” Third Way is a progressive think tank that advocates for immigration reform, gun control, and a “credible alternative to neoconservative security policy.”

Third Way is also listed on the Democracy Alliance’s “Progressive Infrastructure Map.”

The map, which is detailed in a report by Politico’s Kenneth Vogel, includes organizations that are “politically active and progressive” and “strategically significant.” Third Way is one of the groups listed with a note of special appreciation for playing “instrumental roles in building a stronger, more integrated progressive infrastructure.”

The Democracy Alliance solicits contributions from liberal millionaires and billionaires and serves as a “pass through” between those donors and top liberal advocacy groups, including the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, and Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA.

Klain is also on the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

He will be in charge of the administration’s emergency response efforts to Ebola, despite having no medical or health care background.

Klain did lobby on behalf of a prescription drug company that was accused of withholding life-saving drugs from dying patients.

While working at O’Melveny & Myers after he left the Clinton administration, Klain helped ImClone push back on a congressional investigation into the company’s procedures for granting cancer patients experimental drugs.

The company only granted 30 so-called “compassionate use” supplies out of more than 10,000 requests, according to Politico. Klain and his team lobbied House members on the Oversight committee for ImClone before a hearing that featured family members of cancer patients who died while waiting for the company to grant them use of an experimental drug.
Klain and his firm were paid $40,000 to lobby for ImClone for two weeks.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...de-ebola-czar/