Barack Obama, White House Staffing | featured news

President Obama has taken some flack for the lack of women among his early high-profile appointments to his administration as he sets up for his second term.

FoxNews.com confirms Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has resigned. In an e-mail to colleagues, Solis says she submitted her resignation letter to President Obama on Wednesday afternoon. She says she made the decision to leave after discussing it with her family and close friends.

White House chief of staff Jack Lew is President Barack Obama's expected pick to lead the Treasury Department, with an announcement possible before the end of the week.

The nomination of Chuck Hagel, which could come as early as Monday, is already encountering opposition because of his stand on Israel and his comments about an ambassador who was gay.

President Obama is expected to nominate Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator and Vietnam veteran, to be secretary of Defense, officials said, setting up a confirmation battle with lawmakers and interest groups critical of his views on Israel and Iran.

Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, possibly President Obama's top choice for Defense secretary, is drawing fire for his positions on Israel, Iraq and gay rights.

Roger Ailes, the longtime Republican media guru, founder of Fox News and its current chairman, had some advice last year for then-Gen. David H. Petraeus. So in spring 2011, Ailes asked a Fox News analyst headed to Afghanistan to pass on his thoughts to Petraeus, who was then the commander of U.S. and coalition forces there. Petraeus, Ailes advised, should turn down an expected offer from President Obama to become CIA director and accept nothing less than the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military post. If Obama did not offer the Joint Chiefs post, Petraeus should resign from the military and run for president, Ailes suggested.

The top Republican leading the fight against Susan Rice as the new secretary of State softened his opposition and said Sunday he was open to hearing her explain why she declared the burning of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was part of a protest rather than a terrorist

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to step off the "high wire of American politics" after two decades and is again tamping down speculation that she might stay in government if President Barack Obama wins a second term.

First Read: The Senate failed to muster the necessary votes to confirm Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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