Obama continues to put together his incoming administration. Robert Gibbs, a senior aide who served as his Senate communications director, has been named White House press secretary. Chief political strategist David Axelrod has been named a senior White House adviser. Meanwhile, Democratic Congress member Rahm Emanuel has formally accepted the offer to become Obama’s White House Chief of Staff. Earlier in the day, Emanuel spoke to reporters about his future.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel: “My parents are alive to see their middle son have a choice in his career between being a congressman with one chance, one opportunity down the road, of maybe rising in the leadership, and being the Chief of Staff to a historic presidency at a historic time. I’m very fortunate that my parents are alive to see that, whatever choice I make.”

Emanuel is thought to be on the hawkish end of the Democratic Party. He voted for the 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq war and has vocally backed Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its 2006 attack on Lebanon. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Emanuel was the top recipient of donations from “hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry” in the 2008 election cycle.