Email: "1st Lady Needs Help!!"

1^st Lady Needs Help!!

[note - all mistakes below are original to the text]

From: XXXXXXX@yahoo.com
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX@hotmail.com
Date: October 2, 2009
Subj: FW: 1^st Lady Needs Help!!

First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants

July 7, 2009

Dr. Paul L. Williams

      "In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she said. "See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service," Michelle Obama.

      No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties. But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession. Just think, Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And, Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary.

      How things have changed! If you're one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Miz Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by John Q. Public:

1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for th e First Lady)
5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9. $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)

      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.

Response

Wow.  It would be so nice to have a staff of people to handle all the details of life, wouldn't it? 

But whoever sent this to you (and whoever wrote it in the first place) is wrong.  Are you familiar with FactCheck.org?  It's this great website that checks both Democrats and Republicans and they looked into Mrs. Obama's staff because someone sent them this email too.

It turns out that "according to the 2009 White House report to Congress, there are 16 people with a title specifically indicating they work for Michelle Obama's office. In other words, there are 16 people with 'first lady' somewhere in their title, such as Jocelyn Frye, deputy assistant to the president and director of policy and projects for the first lady."

The site also says that Michelle Obama's press secretary (Katie McCormick Lelyveld) told them "that Michelle Obama's staff was actually no different than that of her predecessor, Laura Bush. '[W]e have exactly the same staff number as Mrs. Bush and our office organization reflects a similar staffing model, so insinuations otherwise are wrong,' she said. Lelyveld said that the White House's 'personnel records indicate' that there were 24 staffers for Laura Bush at some point. We were able to verify at least 18 staffers for Laura Bush, as of June 30, 2008, via the 2008 White House staff list published in The Washington Post's White House Watch column. Sixteen people were specifically referred to as a 'first lady' staffer, and Amy Zantzinger and Dorothy Thornton served as White House social secretary and deputy social secretary, respectively. It's possible that someone with the title of 'staff assistant' was assigned to the Office of First Lady as well, as is the case with Michelle Obama's staff."

Mrs. Bush had 24 people working for her at one time!  Mrs. Obama's staff list isn't unprecedented.

You can read the whole article here: http://m.factcheck.org/2009/08/michelle-obamas-staff/

I also found a news article on Yahoo that talked about why First Ladies need a staff -

"So just what does a staff of 24 do for Michelle Obama? Well, for starters there are the 32,000 pieces of mail that have flooded the East Wing since Michelle Obama took occupancy in January, but the main official duty of the first lady is to tend to the care and maintenance of the White House and its seemingly endless social functions. Of course some first ladies, like Michelle Obama, maintain a higher profile than others, and with that comes the need for people to help write speeches, arrange travel and security details, handle media inquiries, etc. About the myriad tasks and responsibilities handled by White House staffers, Anita McBride, Laura Bush's former chief of staff, recently said, 'There's never enough people to do the amount of work that has to get done.'"

If you want to read the rest of the article, it's here - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl944

Seeing that initial list of staff people was a little shocking, but Mrs. Obama is a busy woman with more on her plate than most people.  No person could be expected to manage all the details of international travel, making speeches and appearances, literally tons of mail, and the planning of official events, all on top of being a wife and mother as well.

If you think about the staff list as the staff list of a company, no one's salary is outrageous.  You might not know it, but people who work at the White House work 60-70 hours a week and often on weekends.  It's not like they've got an easy or normal job.

I also thought it was funny that this email mocks the number of people employed at the White House during the "Great Recession."  I mean, are they pushing for more people to be laid off? 

Anyway, I think it's fine if you don't agree with everything President Obama is doing - but it would be better if you disagreed with the truth instead of rumors like this.

Talk to you soon.