Obama Fills More Key Positions

Transition Trail Mix (Sunday Edition)

It may be Sunday morning but with only 65 days left before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president, his transition team continues to move with all "deliberate haste" to fill key senior jobs in the White House.

To wit:

• The transition announced this morning that Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate chief of staff, will become a senior adviser to the president. Rouse is a longtime senior to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for whom he worked on Capitol Hill for nearly two decades.

• Jim Messina, another Hill veteran, will serve as a deputy chief of staff in the Obama Administration. Prior to joining the Obama campaign in mid-June, Messina served as chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.); Messina also has run a number of campaigns including Baucus reelection bids in 1996 and 2002. Messina is currently the director of personnel for the transition.

• Mona Sutphen was also named a deputy chief of staff this morning -- bringing a long and deep foreign policy r&eaccutte;sum&eaccutte; to the new administration. Sutphen was a foreign service officer during the 1990s and served on the White House Security Council from 1998 to 2000.

• Rumors swirled Saturday night that Greg Craig, a longtime Washington lawyer, has been chosen as White House counsel. Mike Allen of Politico had the news first; the Obama transition team was not commenting on or confirming the report as of late last night.