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Friday, November 14, 2008
Law - Hoosier native named as Biden's top aid
From the Washington Post, a story by Ceci Connolly. Some quotes:
Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. turned to one of the most experienced Democratic staffers in Washington yesterday in naming as his chief of staff Ronald A. Klain, a longtime trusted adviser with an intimate knowledge of how the White House operates.Klain, a Harvard-trained lawyer who first worked for Biden on Capitol Hill in 1987, will be reprising a role he played in the later years of the Clinton administration, when he was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore. * * *
In the course of his career, Klain has advised several Democratic presidential nominees, clerked at the Supreme Court, held a top position at the Justice Department, been a partner in a Washington law firm and advised Obama confidant and former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle. He now serves as general counsel at Revolution Health, an online wellness company started by AOL founder Steve Case.
After being passed over for a prominent role in Gore's presidential campaign, Klain left the Clinton administration in July 1999. A year later, he returned to run the campaign's Tennessee command center, known as the "boiler room," and then spearheaded Gore's post-election recount efforts in Florida. Kevin Spacey portrayed Klain in the HBO movie "Recount," the dramatization of the 36-day court battle over the results of the 2000 presidential election.
"Every time I heard him talk about [the movie], it was in a humorous way," said Lisa Brown, a friend of Klain's who was Gore's counsel. "It was just this fun thing, like 'Holy cow!' "
The pull of politics has been a constant throughout Klain's life. As a student at Georgetown University, the Indiana native took time off to work on the campaign of his home-state Democratic Sen. Birch Bayh. Between graduation and law school, he again deferred his studies to work for Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who was considering a run for the Senate.
"Ron's an extraordinary multitasker," said John Barrett, a professor at St. John's University School of Law, who has been a friend since college. "He reads fast, writes fast and is a fast typist."
After finishing first in his class at Harvard Law School, Klain was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White. Biden then hired him as the youngest chief counsel ever for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 14, 2008 01:34 PM
Posted to General Law Related