Robert Gibbs to Leave White House, Will Join “Professional Left”

Robert Gibbs has made it official: he’s leaving the White House. (Applause!!!)

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign.

[snip]

Mr. Gibbs will remain part of the president’s inner circle of political advisers, along with David Axelrod, a senior adviser and Jim Messina, a deputy chief of staff, who also are leaving the White House to focus on the president’s re-election effort. Mr. Gibbs will defend Mr. Obama on television – and will expand his presence on Twitter and other Internet platforms – as well as beginning to define the field of 2012 Republican presidential candidates.

“Stepping back will take some adjusting,” Mr. Gibbs said in an interview Wednesday morning. “But at the same time, I have a feeling that I will keep myself quite busy, not just with speaking, but continuing to help the president.”

He said he has no intention of establishing a political consulting or lobbying business, but he intends to work from the same downtown Washington office where David Plouffe has spent the last two years. Mr. Plouffe, who was Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, will move to the White House and work as a senior adviser to the president.

Mr. Gibbs, who has worked in political campaigns, on Capitol Hill or at the White House for his entire career, said he also plans to try out the speaking circuit this year. [my emphasis]

Back when Gibbs was attacking the Professional Left, he made a distinction between the Progressives outside of DC and those inside DC squawking on the cable programs.

But if Gibbs is going to stay in DC, hanging out on Twitter, and appearing on the speaking circuit, doesn’t that make him a card-carrying member of the Professional Left?

Except the bit about him being so conservative, of course.

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    • nomolos says:

      And with the WH being run by clintonites we have the same old people keeping their fingers in the power pie. I am just loving the change.

    • hazmaq says:

      …I hope he has some fight left in him

      Oh, he has fight left in him, alright. But it’s to protect Obama from us.
      With all due respect, I don’t believe for a second he’s reversing all the the slams against us and now wants to ‘join’ the Left.
      He’s being sent out as the advance man to being the campaign against the Professional Left, who may be seeking another candidate, and the vast numbers of other Dems and Independents unhappy with his performance and sharp lean to the Right.

      To start now means they must fear us…
      As well they should.

  1. Jeff Kaye says:

    Not to mention those speaking fees!

    But, damn, didn’t he work hard for that?

    “But at the same time, I have a feeling that I will keep myself quite busy, not just with speaking, but continuing to help the president.”

  2. donbacon says:

    Gibbs was at the WH salary cap of $172,200. He can probably double or triple that with consulting and speaker fees. Smart move.

  3. BoxTurtle says:

    I’m kinda sorry he’s leaving. He’s the only one who told the truth about how Obama and the rest of the White House feels about us ungrateful DFH’s.

    Boxturtle (granted, he only did it once and he got slapped right down, but still…)

  4. papau says:

    Gibbs leaves Washington and Obama staff to take up residence in Washington on Obama 2012 campaign staff as the East Coast anchor for Axelrod in Chicago.

    This does sound like a change that should get the headline “Gibbs leaves Obama”.

    But Obama is now allowed to pay him 3 times his $172,000 Whitehouse staff pay rate.

    I do like a President into cutting back on costs – by screwing Social Security as he gives money to billionaires via a tax cut they did not need or want.

    Gibbs will continue to advise that Obama give the GOP whatever so as to get legislative “compromise victories” because the main stream media will sell the result as a victory for Obama, and our uninformed voters like to elect “winners” – see Reagan, 1984.

  5. szielinski says:

    But if Gibbs is going to stay in DC, hanging out on Twitter, and appearing on the speaking circuit, doesn’t that make him a card-carrying member of the Professional Left?

    Except the bit about him being so conservative, of course.

    So, as a professional windbag,he’ll now have the unfettered opportunity to attack Obama from the right!

    • BeachPopulist says:

      Haven’t read the WaPo piece but IIRC, wasn’t Sloan the first guy to put Enron in the spotlight as a fraud? And wasn’t he pretty far ahead of the pack on the subprime mortgage debacle. Not sayin his crying in his beer is excusable, just that he may not always be a bad guy.

  6. Shoto says:

    In the meantime…

    Mr. Plouffe, who was Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, will move to the White House and work as a senior adviser Plouffer to the president.

    Fixed it.

  7. marcos says:

    What would make any of you all come to the conclusion that Gibbs had anything to do with “the left” after the pro-corporate record of this administration and their pro-corporate response to corporate whining?

    Used to be said, by Will Rogers, that “I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat.”

    But closer to fact, despite Obama and Gibb’s claims to the contrary, there is no organized left to speak of.

  8. SirLurksAlot says:

    maybe he’ll get drug tested at his new job !

    with such contempt for liberal ideas, he’s going to be hot item on the DC job market and cocktail weenie circuit.

  9. reallib says:

    Gibbs’ previous attacks on the PL were just his way of playing hard to get. He’s such a tease.

  10. mgloraine says:

    Okay, so now Rahm is gone, Summers is gone, and Gibbs is gone. That’s pretty good. Now if we can just get rid of Obama.

  11. tmstreet says:

    Buh bye Gibbs. Thanks for telling us what you and Obama really think about those who maniacally supported you during the campaign. Gibbs has done permanent damage to the base but gets paid regardless, of course, win or lose. That’s what professional campaign consultants are all about. If Daly is appointed Chief of Staff, we will know we are just changing the personnel but not the basic position that the banking/financial moguls can do no wrong.

  12. oldtree says:

    Well, that convinces me. If fascism is “professional left”, then we must have come full circle. Can’t someone put this lying twit up against a wall and reduce the national disgrace?

  13. domenicpowell says:

    I almost never voted again because of this guy. The first thing he ought to do in his new position is go door-to-door apologizing to all of the people who went door-to-door to get him a job. Jerk.