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(CNN) — Rep. Rahm Emanuel has accepted Barack Obama’s offer to be White House chief of staff, according to a Democratic aide.

Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel will be Obama’s White House chief of staff, an aide says.

The Office of the Chief of Staff oversees and coordinates activities and communication among various departments of the administration.

Emanuel helped lead Democrats to majority control of the House in 2006. He was elected to the House in 2002 and is the fourth-highest-ranking member of the chamber’s Democratic leadership.

He also worked on President Clinton’s first presidential campaign and served as a White House adviser to Clinton.

Emanuel had earlier said that he was honored to be considered for the position, but had a lot to think about on a personal level.

“I have a lot to weigh: the basis of public service, which I’ve given my life to, a career choice. But, most importantly, what I want to do as a parent,” he told Chicago’s WLS-TV in an interview that aired Wednesday.

Obama is also expected to announce his press secretary pick, as early as Thursday afternoon, and observers believe it will be Robert Gibbs, the communications director for his presidential campaign. Possible appointees for Obama’s administration »

Gibbs said to say he has been offered the job is a report “ahead of itself.”

Obama will hold a news conference Friday, his first since winning the election Tuesday, an Obama transition official said.

He may announce key administrative appointments, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing Obama’s plans. Obama also is expected to take questions from reporters, the official said.

Obama was considering who will be on his transition team long before Tuesday’s election declared him the nation’s leader, and several Republicans were on the short list.

Obama is thinking about bringing GOP Sens. Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar on board, according to sources close to the president-elect.

Hagel, R-Nebraska, is a Vietnam War veteran and fierce critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war.

Lugar, R-Indiana, is minority leader of the Foreign Relations Committee and worked with Obama last year to expand a program aimed at destroying weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union.

Also, the sources say Obama is considering adding Robert Gates — Bush’s defense secretary — to his national security team.

It is common for presidential candidates to begin setting up a transition team before they are elected. The 10 weeks between the election and the inauguration isn’t enough time to assemble a team to lead the country. Watch Obama’s acceptance speech »

CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger said that it’s important to take steps quickly to set the right tone, referring to President Clinton, who waited weeks to fill Cabinet positions and announced many of his top staffers just five days before he was sworn in.

“Everything you do early on in a presidency gets magnified. You don’t want to make the same mistakes that Bill Clinton made,” Borger said. iReport.com: What’s Obama’s biggest challenge?

Obama did not hold a news conference Wednesday, though he is expected to hold one by the end of the week.

Obama met with key advisers and began making decisions about his transition team.

President Bush and Obama will meet “early next week,” the president said Thursday. The meeting will be face-to-face, deputy White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. He would not confirm the exact date of the talks.

John Podesta, a former chief of staff under Clinton, is among those leading Obama’s transition team. Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s top advisers, and Peter Rouse, Obama’s Senate chief of staff, are also involved in the effort.

Obama will begin publicizing “the steps that he’ll be taking to get prepared to lead on January 20,” Jarrett said shortly after Obama gave his victory speech.

Filling out his economic team is a top priority for Obama as he begins to implement a strategy to quell the economic crisis. See the candidates

“This is one of the first times that I can remember that the secretary of the treasury is going to be almost as important as the secretary of state,” said CNN senior political analyst David Gergen, who served in the Reagan and Clinton administrations.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that he looks forward to a “smooth” transition.

“I congratulate Sen. Obama on the election and look forward to working with his team to ensure that there is a smooth and effective transition. A methodical and orderly transition is in the best interests of the financial markets and Treasury is committed to making sure that the incoming team can hit the ground running in January,” he said in a statement.

Names circulating for the secretary of the treasury position include Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers and Paul Volcker, among others.

Geithner helped deal with Wall Street’s financial meltdown earlier this year, overseeing the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase and the bailouts of AIG and Lehman Brothers. He was appointed president of the New York Federal Reserve in November 2003.

Summers was appointed treasury secretary in July 1999 and served as the chief economist of the World Bank from 1991 through 1993. Before his career in government, he taught economics at Harvard.

Volcker is a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, serving under Presidents Carter and Reagan. He also worked in the private sector as an investment banker and headed the investigation into the United Nations’ oil-for-food program for Iraq.

The White House is holding an economic summit November 15. Obama could delay naming his economic team to avoid interfering with the G-20 summit.

Obama’s national security team is another priority as the country fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could also be an area where he goes outside his party for an appointee.

Hagel and Gates are both being considered.

Gates has served in Bush’s cabinet for almost two years. He worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 27 years, serving as its director from 1991 through 1993. He also served as deputy national security adviser under President George H. W. Bush.

“What Barack Obama has to do in the transition time is set the tone,” Borger said. “If he reaches out to Republicans in the cabinet — if he decided to keep Bob Gates at Defense — that’s really, really important.”

Resource link: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/06/obama.transition/index.html

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