There has been some speculation that Heather Higginbottom, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, may get the top job, as her boss, Jack Lew, leaves to become President Obama’s chief of staff.

Before Ms. Higginbottom is considered for one of the key posts in the U.S. government, maybe she should be asked to explain a photo from October 30, 2001. The photo depicts Heather Higginbottom, then working for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, addressing a Boston Democratic Socialists of America organized forum, “Welfare, Children and Families: The Impact of Welfare Reform,” with panelists William Julius Wilson, Dottie Stevens, Jack Clark and Bob Haynes.

Jack Clark, at the time, was Boston D.S.A. Chair, William Julius Wilson was a long time D.S.A. member and Bob Haynes was President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, with which D.S.A worked “frequently.”

The Boston D.S.A. logo can be seen on the wall in the center right of the picture.

Despite its relatively innocuous name, Democratic Socialists of America is a radical Marxist organization that believes, according to Democratic Left, Spring 2007, page 9:

“Our goal as socialists is to abolish private ownership of the means of production.”

One of the panelists in the Boston forum, William Julius Wilson, incidentally addressed another D.S.A. forum in Chicago, 5 years before.

Over three hundred people attended the first of two Town Meetings on Economic Insecurity on February 25. in Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago. Entitled: “Employment and Survival in Urban America,” the meeting was sponsored by the UofC DSA Youth Section, Chicago DSA and University Democrats.

The panelists on that occasion were Toni Preckwinkle, Alderman of Chicago’s 4th Ward, Barack Obama, candidate for the 13th Illinois Senate District, Professor, Center for the Study of Urban Inequality at the University of Chicago, Professor Michael Dawson, University of Chicago and Professor Joseph Schwartz, Temple University and a member of D.S.A.’s National Political Committee.

That is the only confirmed incident of Obama’s direct involvement with D.S.A. per se, while he lived in Chicago.

Obama was at the time however close to several known D.S.A, members in Chicago, including his personal physician and mentor in socialized healthcare Quentin Young, his neighbor and friend Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, his friend and political mentor Timuel Black and his political allies Saul Mendelson and Reps Jan Schakowsky and Danny Davis.

Since entering office, President Obama has appointed several D.S.A. connected individuals to influential positions in his administration, including:

• Ron Bloom, former Manufacturing Czar.
• David Bonior, member of the Obama Economic Transition Team.
• Rosa Brooks, senior advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy.
• Carol Browner, former Energy Czar/Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.
• Eliseo Medina, served on Obama’s Latino Advisory Council.
• Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor.
• Cornel West, served on Obama’s National Black Advisory Council.

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Editor's Note: Um, um, um...Barack Hussein Obama...