Politico’s Mike Allen reports today that Robert Gibbs, communications director in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and a key strategist who “helped plan and package” his “rapid move to the national stage,” will be named as the Obama administration’s White House Press Secretary. Allen adds that the “announcement is likely to be viewed favorably by reporters because Gibbs has unquestioned authority, access and institutional memory.”

After controversy erupted over Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) largely unauthorized spending spree, Palin announced that she would no longer be wearing the expensive clothing: “Those clothes, they are not my property. … I’m not taking them with me.” However, it seems that a few items did make it back to Alaska with her, and the GOP is coming to reclaim them:

Sarah Palin left the national stage Wednesday, but the controversy over her role on the ticket flared as aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession.

A new story in Newsweek reveals that Palin “spent ‘tens of thousands’ more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.”