New York Times columnist Peter Orszag, who resigned as Director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Obama administration earlier this year, is set to marry ABC News correspondent Bianna Golodryga this weekend, but don't expect any of his former colleagues from the White House to be in attendance.
The New York Post reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, as well as senior Obama advisors David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, were all expected to be at the event; however, at last minute decided against heading to New York City for the ceremony:
The snub comes after Orszag, who resigned as budget director in late July, wrote an op-ed column that clashed with the Obama administration's stance in favor of raising taxes on earners of more than $250,000 a year. "Basically they want to show a unified front, that they are not hanging out with the enemy," a source told The Post's Mark DeCambre.
But the snub is pretty Captain Obvious. Orszag was already hated (suspected of leaking to Jackie Calmes and others). Then the inner circle was livid at his debut N.Y. Times column, which they thought undermined the president's position on a middle-class tax cut. A top official even asked us to run a contest: "Who is the more disloyal former staffer: Peter Orszag or Steven Rattner?" The correct answer was (a).
HuffPost's Sam Stein reported on the matter earlier this month:
Increasingly, there have been whispers within the White House and among the cadre of economic advisers that deal closely with the administration that Orszag was a voice at odds with his colleagues. One Democratic figure who requested anonymity to talk about his personal dealings with White House officials said it was "totally outrageous" that Orszag had earned the reputation of being a progressive voice on economic matters -- a perception largely earned by his fierce advocacy for health care reform as a means of changing the country's fiscal trajectory. "He never was," the official said.
Despite the apparent friction, according to Allen at Politico, Jarrett has an unrelated reason why she will not attend:
Valerie Jarrett is going to Attorney General Eric Holder's mom's memorial service tomorrow, then spending the day with him and his family. Valerie did not know what time Mrs. Holder's service would be, and did not want to cancel on Peter at the last minute if the events overlapped. So she cancelled weeks ago.
Jarrett reportedly said she did not coordinate her last-minute decision to bail on the Orszag wedding with either Emanuel or Axelrod. She said she had no knowledge of whether they planned to attend.