by Jack Lee
Yes, the First Lady has a small staff. Times have changed since Mary Todd Lincoln was chastized for buying China for White House dinners!
Even though Mrs. Obama is not an elected official she does a lot of ceremonial things on our behalf and so I can’t fault her for having a personal secretary to arrange her schedule and a few other misc. employees to help sort out the details and such. That seems perfectly reasonable. Her number one helper makes $172,000 a year. Her name is Susan Sher and I am told she is a wonder and worth every cent of your tax dollars. Heck, Laura Bush had 15 assistants with a yearly salary of over 1 million! Boy those Bush’s, they sure acted like royalty didn’t they?
Oh, wait, there is another on the Obama staff and like I said, this is a big job with lots of people to coordinate with so as good as Susan may be, she can’t handle everything by herself. This is where Joycelyn C. Frye comes in, she is the Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady and she is paid $140,000 a year.
Oops…there’s, er, one more…Desiree G. Rogers, social secretary $113,000. Well, okay, so this is a bit steep for 3 secretaries, but it’s really only a little over $340,000 a year, but we can afford it right? The First Lady has very important job to do fund raising and garnering support for the President’s policies! I know what you are thinking, that even in the corporate world these kind of wages might seem a bit excessive for secretaries! Maybe so, but they had to move to D.C. and things cost a lot in Washington so lets not be penny pinchers.
Oh, there are couple of other minor bit- players involved with staffing, nothing major. Do you want to see who they are and how much they earn? Then go to page two.
04. $102,000 – Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
05. $100,000 – Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
06. $90,000 – Medina, David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
07. $84,000 – Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
08. $75,000 – Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
09. $70,000 – Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10. $65,000 – Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11. $64,000 – Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12. $62,000 – Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 – Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
14. $57,500 – Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15. $52,500 – Mustaphi, Semonti M… (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 – Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 – Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
18. $43,000 – Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 – Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 – Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $35,000 – Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $35,000 – Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
This totals $1,591,200 in wages alone.
There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady’s social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President’s own pocket.
Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and “First Hairstylist” Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe with her.
Copyright 2009 Canada Free Press.Com
canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12652
Yeah, I know, The Canadian Free Press has to publish this because the USA media is too scared they might be considered racist. Sorry America!