could this be true?

[GRIMJIM]

Subject:  Replacing  Michelle in Chicago

At  the top right hand corner of Page 17 of the New  York Post of January
24th, 2009, was a  short column entitled "Replacing Michelle" in  the
National Review’s "The Week" column.  Here it is, word for word, as it  appeared:

Some employees are simply  irreplaceable. Take Michelle Obama: The
University of Chicago Medical center hired her  in 2002 to run "programs for
community  relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer  recruitment, staff
diversity and minority  contracting."

In  2005, the hospital raised her salary from  $120,000 to $317, 000,
nearly twice what  her husband made as a  senator.

Oh,  did we mention that her husband had just become  a US senator? He sure
had.  And that  he immediately requested a $1 million earmark  for the UC
Medical Center, in fact?   You betcha, by golly!  He surely  did.  Way to
network  Michelle!

But now that Mrs. Obama has  resigned, the hospital says her  position will
remain unfilled. How can that  possibly be? Especially if the work  she
did  was vital enough to be worth  $317,000?

Oh, by  the way, let me add that Michelle's  position was a part time,
20-hour-a-week job at  $317,000.00 per year! And to think they were  critical of
Blagoyovich's wife for taking  $100,000 in fuzzy  real estate commission.

The real question  is: How did this bit of quid pro quo corruption  escape
the sharp reporters that dug through  Sarah Palin's garbage and kindergarten
 files?

[blind ear]

Ya know, It might be quicker to straighten out US politics by starting first with media persons in the clean out rather than politicians.

[ms]

They went after Palin because they don't want people focus on obama.

[Foxxtrot]

This is about twice of Barbara Bush staffers.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/06/what-michelle-obamas-staffers-earn/

The Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, on the shores of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago, brings together local politicians, floats -- I loved the klezmer band on the back of a flatbed truck -- and marchers from different government agencies. (My favorite, the "Yes, you can afford to live here" banner carried by fellows from the upscale suburb's community land trust office.)

I ran into Herbie, who I've known since kindergarten, and we chatted about our upcoming Von Steuben High School reunion (I'm on the committee, of course). Then I caught up with my cousins' cousin, whom I spot lined up on the parade route.

This "small world" kind of a morning continued when I fell into conversation with a woman who must have seen my column in the Chicago Sun-Times about a just-released list of White House salaries, and she started talking about how her friend Joey is doing.

Joey, she said, is seriously underpaid.

Joey is Joseph Reinstein, a former Highland Park resident who left his job as a marketing executive to join the Obama White House as a Deputy Social Secretary.

His boss is Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary. Reinstein met Rogers when she was running the Illinois Lottery in 1992. Reinstein was in advertising then, and the lottery was one of the accounts for his agency; Rogers recruited Reinstein to be a deputy director in her office. His salary is $65,000 a year.

My sister finds it distasteful that the salaries of White House staffers are made public; then everyone compares them, and just how productive can that be? But Congress ordered the annual disclosure, and since 1995 the White House has been required to report to Congress details of most of the West Wing payroll.

The president makes $400,000, and there is a big gap between that and the highest paid staffer -- $172,200.

The salaries for staffers in the Office of First Lady are also on the newest list. The highest paid is Chief of Staff Susan Sher, who gets the top $172,200. Here are the rest:

$140,000
Frye, Jocelyn C. (DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PROJECTS FOR THE FIRST LADY)

$113,000
Rogers, Desiree G. (SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL SECRETARY)

$102,000
Johnston, Camille Y. (SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE FIRST LADY)
Winter, Melissa E. (SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE FIRST LADY)

$90,000
Medina, David S. (DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE FIRST LADY)

$84,000
Lelyveld, Catherine M. (DIRECTOR AND PRESS SECRETARY TO THE FIRST LADY)

$75,000
Starkey, Frances M. (DIRECTOR OF SCHEDULING AND ADVANCE FOR THE FIRST LADY)

$70,000
Sanders, Trooper (DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PROJECTS FOR THE FIRST LADY)

$65,000
Burnough, Erinn J. (DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY SOCIAL SECRETARY)
Reinstein, Joseph B. (DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY SOCIAL SECRETARY)

$62,000
Goodman, Jennifer R. (DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF SCHEDULING AND EVENTS COORDINATOR FOR THE FIRST LADY)

$60,000
Fitts, Alan O. (DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ADVANCE AND TRIP DIRECTOR FOR THE FIRST LADY)
Lewis, Dana M. (SPECIAL ASSISTANT AND PERSONAL AIDE TO THE FIRST LADY)

$52,500
Mustaphi, Semonti M. (ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY TO THE FIRST LADY)

$50,000
Jarvis, Kristen E. (SPECIAL ASSISTANT FOR SCHEDULING AND TRAVELING AIDE TO THE FIRST LADY)

$45,000
Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE FIRST LADY)
Tubman, Samantha (DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,SOCIAL OFFICE)

$40,000
Boswell, Joseph J. (EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE FIRST LADY)

$36,000
Armbruster, Sally M. (STAFF ASSISTANT TO THE SOCIAL SECRETARY)
Bookey, Natalie (STAFF ASSISTANT)
Jackson, Deilia A. (DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE FIRST LADY)

[rockbilly]

Overpaid no doubt, but I don't trust any of the news agencies............they will do anything to sell a paper.

[Rustyinfla]

 It must be true... it's on the internet.

[Datil]

 Yes But who put it there Rusty?

 Datil