Chief of staff exerts quiet power at center of White House
>> It's been called the worst job in Washington. The gatekeeper to the most powerful leader on earth. The president's alter ego or the chief javelin catcher.
The job of White House chief of staff is at the fulcrum of the federal government, yet it's a role that remains largely opaque outside of Washington circles. The newest person to assume the title is Jeff Zients, a longtime Washington hand with a reputation as a managerial whiz who became President Joe Biden's second chief of staff last week.
Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah, said the White House chief of staff is a kind of a “chief operating officer of the country.”
“He's not the biggest problem solver. He shouldn't have to do the analysis and he's got all sorts of other people that will do that,” said Romney, who pondered his own chief of staff picks when he was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012. “But he's got to run the government, and that's a task which very few chiefs of staff have had real experience in doing.”
So what does a White House chief of staff actually do?
Zients is literally the chief of the West Wing staff, ensuring that trains run on time and that the president is well served by aides. Zients is the one who presents options to the president on any number of executive decisions.
The chief of staff controls access to the president and is charged with turning the administration's ambitions into reality. The president's top aide is part of the Cabinet and must maintain good relationships with the heads of other agencies to ensure they are all on the same page. The job means juggling countless competing constituencies and often being the person who has to say “no” to them.
In a 2005 Washington Post article, Andy Card, who served President George W. Bush for nearly six years, likened his approach to managing a kitchen. Top priority items were on the front and back burners of the stove and longer-term tasks got stashed into the freezer.