Deck Chair Shifting Aboard HMS Titanic

They are moving out at an accelerating rate. As the election debacle looms, the power elite from the administration is seeing handwriting writ large upon the public walls. Summers, Romer, Axelrod, Emmanuel and more are exiting stage left, right and center. Announcing early gives them the cover of not being fired, replaced, embarrassed or rendered impotent by the voters. Emmanuel is going for the lifetime sinecure of Chicago royalty rather than the few months of Washington stress and a big book contract in the future.

So, who is going to replace Twinkle-Toes as the strong arm of the administration? Who is going to intimidate in the showers of the Congressional gym? How about Valerie Jarrett? That's the take of the WaPo:

First Name Basis Grounds For Advancement

That's great. The Bamster "trusts" her. The Bamster has confidence. She's can call him "honey" and give him advice that he believes. The examples which the Post offers of her performance makes that really a reinforcement of what convoluted criteria the Messiah has for his policies.

As the senior adviser in charge of "public engagement," she has been the White House official responsible for maintaining relationships with the business community and with liberal interest groups -- two of the most conspicuous areas of failure for the White House during Obama's first two years.

Conspicuous failure in the two areas of her primary responsibility? Check!

She's also the one who arranged the hiring of social secretary Desiree Rogers, only to cut her friend loose when Rogers was tarnished by the party-crashing Salahis at a state dinner in November.

Staffing advice for incompetence in office? Check!

Consider the recent hiring of Harvard's Elizabeth Warren as the White House official in charge of setting up the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Emanuel and others had opposed the appointment on grounds that Warren is difficult to work with and politically radioactive. But Jarrett, arguing for the need for more senior women in the White House, got Obama to overrule Warren's detractors. "Elizabeth Warren is in the administration because of Valerie," one of those involved in the appointment told me.

More staffing advice supporting "hard to work with and politically radioactive" appointments? Check!

Jarrett made a similar intervention months earlier, when some senior White House officials were losing confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder. His job appeared to be in jeopardy over the decision to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammad on trial in New York, but Jarrett made sure that Holder, a friend, would remain in good standing.

Cover for DOJ's incredible and continuing series of blunders? Check!

I understand having friends and people you trust man your senior staff positions. But when the evidence mounts over time that the judgment and performance is damaging your office, then you've got to stop promoting those friends and start making some hard choices. At least that's what successful leaders usually do.