Rachel Card Kahler to be Director of 2008 Republican National Convention

Maria Cino is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the 2008 Republican National Convention. As CEO of the Committee on Arrangements (COA), the RNC body responsible for planning the convention, Cino is charged with organizing, managing and producing the Republican Party’s 39th quadrennial convention. Cino brings to the position more than 25 years of experience in senior level positions in the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as the private sector. She has a proven record of managing and leading field-based organizations, developing and adhering to complex budgets, setting short-term and long-term strategic goals, building coalitions and developing, motivating, and mentoring staffs.

Convention Veteran Tapped to Lead Official Proceedings Kahler's 'veteran leadership' will be asset, says convention CEO (SAINT PAUL, Minn.) - Adding 20 years of experience to a key position, 2008 Republican National Convention President and CEO Maria Cino today announced the appointment of Rachel Card Kahler as the Director of Official Proceedings. This is Kahler's fifth GOP convention, having served in various operations roles in the Houston (1992), San Diego (1996), and Philadelphia (2000) conventions; and as Deputy Director of Operations at the New York convention in 2004. "Rachel's veteran leadership will be an asset to our convention planning, as we prepare for the most exciting and energetic convention in Republican history," Cino said. "The official proceedings of our convention are key to presenting Sen. John McCain's vision to the world, and successfully launching him on to the White House." Kahler's responsibilities include the line-by-line production of the convention, including the scheduling of participants and working with the convention's executive producer to run the official program. Kahler will manage a staff of more than 50 people who will ensure the proper following of parliamentary procedures in the nomination of Sen. McCain and the Republican vice-presidential candidate, and the adoption of the rules and platform of the Republican National Committee for the next four years.

"Our convention will be the center of the political universe, and I am honored to have a role in helping nominate Sen. McCain," Kahler said. "I am very proud to be a Republican, and very proud to do my part in presenting our party, and our presidential nominee, to the people of America and the world."

A lifelong Republican, Kahler began her career in politics at the age of four, gathering signatures for her father, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, in his run for the Massachusetts State House of Representatives. She has also worked on political campaigns at the local, state and federal levels in Massachusetts, Virginia, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and California. In addition, she has spent time on Capitol Hill serving in several roles for former Rep. Peter Blute (R-MA)

MORE INFORMATION: Official Providers || Minneapolis Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee || Republican National Committee

Scott McClellan Biography

Scott McClellan (born February 14, 1968) is a former White House Press Secretary (2003-2006) for President George W. Bush. Born in Austin, Texas, McClellan is the youngest son of Carole Keeton Strayhorn, former Texas state comptroller and former 2006 independent Texas gubernatorial candidate, and attorney Barr McClellan.

McClellan's brother Mark McClellan headed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and formerly was Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration. McClellan is the grandson of the late W. Page Keeton, longtime Dean of the University of Texas School of Law and renowned expert in tort law.

Mr. McClellan graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Texas Alpha Chapter. He received his bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas.

McClellan was the three-time campaign manager for his mother. In addition, he worked on political grassroots efforts and was the Chief of Staff to a Texas State Senator.

Mr. McClellan began working as a gubernatorial spokesman for then-Governor Bush in early 1999 and he served as the traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.

Karen Hughes, Governor Bush's communications director, hired McClellan to be Bush's deputy press secretary. McClellan served as Governor Bush's traveling press secretary during the 2000 Presidential election. McClellan became White House Deputy Press Secretary in 2003. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, who stepped down as White House Press Secretary on July 15, 2003.

McClellan announced his resignation as Press Secretary on April 19, 2006. Many newspapers at the time reported that McClellan was forced to resign due to the Valerie Plame issue. On April 26, it was announced that Fox News pundit Tony Snow would succeed him in the position.

At a press briefing on October 10, 2003, McClellan asserted that the allegations of Karl Rove's and Scooter Libby's involvement in the leak of CIA Valerie Plame's identity were false. However, in excerpts from his book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, published in the spring of 2008 by Public Affairs Books, McClellan alledged that the statements were untrue.

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. There was one problem.

It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself.”

— Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, 2008.

McClellan unexpectedly and harshly criticizes the Bush administration in his memoir What Happened. He accuses Bush of "self-deception" and of maintaining a "permanent campaign approach" to governing rather than making the best choices.

McClellan stops short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that the administration was not "employing out-and-out deception" to make the case for war in 2002, though he does write that the administration relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war. The book is also critical of the press corps for being too accepting of the administration's "propaganda" on the Iraq War and of Condoleeza Rice for being "too accommodating" and being very careful about protecting her own reputation.

The Bush administration responded through Press Secretary Dana Perino, who said,

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House. We are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew."

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article, Scott McClellan