The new social secretary of the White House is a Washington insider and veteran political fundraiser. Julianna Smoot, who served as finance director for President Obama's 2008 campaign, will replace the outgoing Desiree Rogers, reports the Hill. The move is good news for the president's wealthy donors, says Ben Smith at Politico.
"Smoot, who had been working in the relative obscurity of the US Trade Representative's office, will now be the key gatekeeper to the kind of social functions from which donors have complained that this administration, unlike President Clinton's, has barred them," writes Smith. He thinks the move undercuts Obama's talk of reform and Rogers' talk of making it the "people's house." (More Julianna Smoot stories.)