The Washington Free Beacon’s Ellison Barber appeared on Fox News Tuesday to discuss the White House’s recent hire of the Center for American Progress’ President and Founder John Podesta as a special counsel to the president.
"He is very well connected. He’s a very good strategist and very well respected throughout D.C.," Barber said. "I think it's pretty obvious that the Obama administration realizes they've had some big problems in the rollout, and they need someone to help them clean up shop."
Barber also noted that Podesta’s ties to big lobbying firms – his brother Tony is the president of the influential Podesta Group – and organizations that don’t disclose donors, such as the Center for American Progress, pose problems for the administration as the president has been a vocal critic of those groups’ involvement in politics.
"So there are questions for the administration for someone who claimed to be against that type of secret big money – CAP doesn’t put out their donors – that he has hired someone who is affiliated with an organization like that which the president has been very critical of. So it's a bit ideologically inconsistent for the president to bring him on at this stage," Barber said.