[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/23/art.wolfson.gi.jpg caption="Wolfson was one of Hillary Clinton’s top advisors."](CNN) - Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton’s former communications director, will be a top strategist for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election effort.
Bloomberg, who was first elected as a Republican, is now a registered Independent.
"As a New Yorker, I am very excited at the prospect of helping the Mayor at this very critical time in our city's history," Wolfson wrote in an Tuesday e-mail. "It is quite clear to me that the mayor's strong record provides a compelling case for his reelection - and that he will provide the proven leadership we need to guide the city through the unprecedented fiscal challenges we face."
Wolfson, a former advisor to New York’s Democratic Party and a long-time Bloomberg critic, downplayed his earlier assessments of his boss as an “out-of-touch billionaire.”
“That was my evil twin,” he told NY1 Tuesday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/23/art.getty.obama.blago.jpg caption="Internal report states no inappropriate contacts were made between Obama aides and Blagojevich."]
(CNN) - An internal report compiled by the Obama transition team concludes that neither President-elect Obama nor his aides - including incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel - had any "inappropriate" contacts with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich or Blagojevich's staff.
The report states that there is "no indication of inappropriate discussions with the governor or anyone from his office about a 'deal' or a quid pro quo arrangement in which he would receive a personal benefit in return for any specific appointment to fill the vacancy."
The report states that Obama himself had no "contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich or members of his staff about the Senate seat."
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/23/art.getty.prop.8.jpg caption="Public opinion on California's controversial Proposition 8 remains unchanged."]
(CNN) - How have the aftershocks of California’s Proposition 8 - the legal challenges to the states same-sex marriage ban, the protests and boycotts, the controversy that greeted President-elect Obama’s decision to invite evangelical minister Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration –- affected national public opinion on the issue?
Not at all, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday.
In June, 44 percent of those surveyed said that gay marriages should be recognized by law as valid, and a slim majority – 53 percent – said they should not. Six months later, public opinion seems frozen in place, at least for the moment: support for gay marriage remains at 44 percent. So does the opposition –- at 55 percent, it’s statistically unchanged from the summer result, given the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/23/art.getty.biden.obama.jpg caption="The VP-elect says there will be no earmarks in the economic recovery plan."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Vice President-elect Joe Biden pledged Tuesday that there would be no earmarks in the stimulus plan that he and President-elect Barack Obama are proposing to jump-start the economy.
"It’s important for the American taxpayer to know that it’s not -– and I want emphasize this having served many years in the Senate –- this is not going to be politics as usual," Biden told reporters, after meeting with the transition team's economic advisers.
"...There will be - I will say it again - there will be no earmarks in this economic recovery plan. I know it’s Christmas. I know it’s the Christmas season. But President-elect Obama and I are absolutely determined that this economic recovery package will not become a Christmas tree," said Biden, who said the administration would "spend what we need to turn this economy around, and no more."
CNN reported over the weekend that Obama transition aides were hinting that no pork or earmarks would be in the package.
[cnn-photo-caption image=
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/21/art.bidenpresser.gi.jpg caption="Vice President-elect Joe Biden will head a new task force on working families on Jaunary 20, 2009."](CNN) - Vice President-elect Joe Biden said a report expected later today detailing contact between the Obama transition team and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would show there had been "no inappropriate contact" between the two camps.
“I don’t think there’s anything to exonerate,” Biden told reporters following a Tuesday morning economic briefing in Chicago.
Blagojevich has been accused of trying to sell the Senate seat that had been held by President-elect Barack Obama, and was arrested earlier this month. The president-elect had ordered his team to compile a report listing all conversations between the transition office and the Illinois governor. Obama said several days ago that the public release of the list had been delayed at the request of federal investigators.
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