At 10:40 this morning, Obama will announce the retention of Bob Gates at the Pentagon and the arrival of Hillary Rodham Clinton to the State Department, Jim Jones (ballllllll-lin‘) to the National Security Council, Susan Rice to the United Nations, Eric Holder to the Justice Department and Janet Napolitano to the Department of Homeland Security. There’s no shortage of progressive dissatisfaction over some of these picks — see, most recently, Matthew Yglesias in Abu Dhabi’s The National — but my Washington Independent colleague Laura McGann has a good reported piece today about a more sub-rosa development: the emergence of the White House as the repository for liberals.

Consider the people Obama has selected to be his advisers on domestic policy and national politics, as well as his communications director. Other prominent progressive players, including labor and feminist activists, also will be members of his future White House staff.

In the past two weeks, Obama has tapped Melody Barnes, of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, to serve as his domestic policy director; Patrick Gaspard, a political organizer for the Services Employees International Union, or SEIU, as his politics director; Ellen Moran, of the liberal fund-raising group EMILY’s List, which backs pro-choice women candidates, to run his communications shop; and Phil Schiliro, a former aide to Sen. Tom Daschle, to serve as the White House’s liaison with Congress.

From my perspective, I’ll be looking to who starts getting hired to the NSC staff. Those mid-level positions are critical.