Valentine's Day for Rahm Emanuel

Written by: CorinneAM on Feb 22, 2009 10:08 PM EST

Valentine's Day arrived a little late for Rahm Emanuel.  It arrived in the form of a love letter by Ryan Lizza in the upcoming issue of New Yorker (or what Jane Hamsher referred to as a "5200 word lap dance").

The story is filled with many laudatory anecdotes about Rahm, such as:

As Emanuel spoke about the complications of the legislation, he was quick to credit colleagues for shepherding the bill to victory—Peter Orszag, the budget director; Phil Schiliro, the legislative-affairs director; Jason Furman, the deputy director of the National Economic Council––but, in fact, nearly everyone in official Washington acknowledges that, besides Obama himself, Emanuel had done the most to coax and bully the bill out of Congress and onto the President’s desk for signing. (emphasis mine)

He is a political John McEnroe, known for both his mercurial temperament and his tactical brilliance.

There's nothing brilliant about Rahm.  He was hired for his unquestioned loyalty to the president, because he thinks like a Chicagaoan and because he's not squeamish about using bare-knuckle tactics.  His problem is that he has no concern whatsoever whether he is sticking the shiv into his adversaries or into his allies, whichever serves his purpose.

There are only two critics are identified by name in the story. Here's one:

In Granma, the Cuban government’s leading propaganda organ, Fidel Castro wrote of Emanuel, “Never in my life have I heard or read about any student or compatriot with that name, among tens of thousands.” After a rambling meditation on the similarities between the chief of staff and Immanuel Kant, the retired jefe concluded that “Obama, Emanuel and all of the brilliant politicians and economists who have come together would not suffice to solve the growing problems of U.S. capitalist society.”

And then there is the "some say" criticism, as in,  "Some liberal Democrats said that Emanuel and his team had made too many concessions to House Republicans, all of whom voted against the legislation."

Gosh, I wonder who those DFHs could be?

“They have never worked the legislative process,” Emanuel said of critics like the Times columnist Paul Krugman, who argued that Obama’s concessions to Senate Republicans—in particular, the tax cuts, which will do little to stimulate the economy—produced a package that wasn’t large enough to respond to the magnitude of the recession. “How many bills has he passed?”

I'd like to amend that paragraph, if I may:

“They have never worked the legislative process,” Emanuel said of critics like the Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who argued that Obama’s concessions to Senate Republicans—in particular, the tax cuts, which will do little to stimulate the economy—produced a package that wasn’t large enough to respond to the magnitude of the recession. “How many bills has he passed?”

Rahm also seems to forget that Krugman was also a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors under Ronald Reagan.  Rahm's own Nobel Prize must have been tucked away in a drawer to make room for the “Undersecretary for Go Fuck Yourself” nameplate his brothers gave him as a birthday gift.

Because this is about Rahm, the first thing I did was search for any mention of Howard.  Thankfully, there is none.  Curiously, though, there are many references to Rahm's "outsized personality," how his "antics have been integral to his success," that  he's an "efficient manager" and "In the same conversation, he can be wonkish and thoughtful, blunt and profane." But most of all

...he’s willing to step beyond the normal bounds, that he’s willing to be outrageous and he doesn’t suffer fools. He doesn’t mind bad publicity. It’s part of his cachet, it’s part of why he’s able to be effective.

And this is the same town that claims Howard Dean is an inappropriate choice for HHS because of his perceived "inability to work with Republicans" on health care reform, yet Rahm is considered "one of the more colorful Beltway celebrities."

Some of what you won't see in this elaborate display of ass-kissing:

*No mention of Rahm's role in the Blagojevich scandal.

*No mention of how Rahm bungled the Judd Gregg, Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle vettings.  (Rahm blamed Harry Reid for Gregg and John Podesta for Geithner and Daschle.)

*No mention of how a president who is committed to bipartisanship has a Chief of Staff who is not.

*How his incompetent leadership of DCCC led voters to bypass it and contribute directly to progressive candidates.

For someone whose job it is to be the gatekeeper for the President, Rahm Emanuel is a greater obstacle to good governance: he controls who gets to see the President, what information gets to the President, and how that information is framed and filtered.

I do not trust Rahm’s judgement, or his motivations.

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