In naming a new White House counsel, President Obama is replacing one Democratic Party insider with another Democratic Party insider.

Despite the Obama administration’s position against the undue influence of lobbying, a good number of lobbyists and trade group execs have been stopping by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

To save on travel expenses, the Harvard Law School Class of 1991 might as well have its reunion this year at the White House.

A setback for the Bush administration came from a Bush appointee and former Kenneth Starr associate today.

Timothy S. Goeglein, until Friday a White House aide and a key contact to the religious right, may go down in journalism history as the person who plagiarized so much for so little.

Like mother, like daughter.

“Her mother found her voice in New Hampshire, and Chelsea Clinton, has found hers too,” wrote Nikki Schwab of U.S. News & World Report in a story posted Tuesday on the magazine’s website.

The emergence of the 27-year-old daughter of presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, and former President Bill Clinton, as a campaign speaker represents a significant shift in the role of the former, and possibly future, first daughter.

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, trained to remain cool in the most stressful of situations, was unflappable during his congressional testimony yesterday.

In an appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he expertly defended his company’s activities in Iraq, where about 1,000 Blackwater guards protect U.S. diplomats and other State Department employees. He described Blackwater as “a team of dedicated professionals” who “risk their lives to protect Americans in harm’s way overseas.”

Prince, a former Navy SEAL, founded Blackwater in 1997. In the early years of operation, the firm did limited business with the U.S. government. However, company fortunes shifted dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the onset of war in Iraq. By last year, federal contracts totalled $600 million, primarily from protection services provided to the State Department.

Relationship map of the Bush dynasty.