The first major personnel announcement of the new Obama Administration is out, and the word is that Congressman Rahm Emanuel has been offered the post of Obama’s chief of staff. The announcement didn’t exactly go off smoothly, as this NBC report shows:
From NBC’s Andrea Mitchell A senior Obama advisor confirms to NBC News that Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of Chief of Staff for the Obama White House.
*** UPDATE *** In an email to NBC News, Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg denies the reporting that Emanuel has accepted the chief of staff job.
If you’re reading tea leaves for what kind of Administration Obama will run, Emanuel does not exactly embody “new politics” and a “post-partisan” future. He’s a Chicago Democrat who worked as a “senior adviser and chief fundraiser” (his words) for Mayor Daley and later worked in the Clinton White House, and he’s known as a hardball-playing scorched-earth arch-partisan in the Tom DeLay mold. He’s been widely seen as a possible future successor to Nancy Pelosi.
Will Emanuel take the job? If his spokesperson is publicly denying that he’s taken it, that’s basically a public slapdown to Obama’s people for jumping the gun in leaking his name, and it’s certainly a sign of initial dysfunction in the naming of what is probably the single most important staff position for a new president who will be facing a sharp learning curve as a new executive.
UPDATE: Allahpundit has more background (with links) on Emanuel.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Call the Dean of Students!
kowalski (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 4:59PM EST (link)“Dude, I thought Rahm was taking the job as RA. I just told Sanjay in Gildersleeve that he was going to be there for orientation, so WTH?!?!?! I know you guys were partying until pretty late last night, but c’mon, man. Is he still going to do the review of the Sexual Harassment and Women’s Center resources for the froshes in Kavanaugh tonight? If he’s not going to do the RA gig I’m going to have to call Dean Wormer.”
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This would be historic
Kevin Groenhagen (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 5:00PM EST (link)We have never had a former ballerina as a White House chief of staff.
On a serious note, the mere consideration of Emanuel for this position gives lie to Obama’s claim that he wants to reach across the aisle. Emanuel is one of the most partisan Democrats on the Hill and lacks the tack to be someone who brings all parties together (this is the punk who told British PM Tony Blair, “This is important. Don’t ** it up” before Blair spoke on the Iraq situation in 1998.
fat, stupid, and liberal are no way to go through life son.
kyle8 (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 5:08PM EST (link)Dean Wormer
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
Can someone photoshop Ramn and
bobbymike (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 5:08PM EST (link)Geobbels together? Beside the stature similarity he is an utra partisan propangandist. He has openly advocated the destruction of the Republican party.
After 2006 he openly said that the DCCC ran conservative Democrats to fool the southern electorate knowing that they would do the bidding of the Libs if they wanted committee seats and future electoral support.
Change
Shayelyn Wednesday, November 5th at 5:26PM EST (link)The millisecond Obama picked Biden as his running mate, all credibility of “change” went out the window as far as I am concerned.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln
The guy's
TBird Wednesday, November 5th at 5:30PM EST (link)a tool.
Darn it.
Mayhem (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 5:36PM EST (link)This is all surreal. I still find it hard to accept that we lost last night and we won’t be in charge anymore. Everyone of these new appointments is going to be a punch in the gut.
Change, change, change.
James Madison, Jim DeMint, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan… You get the picture.
Can't wait to see the new "bipartisan" house that Pelosi promised.
NightTwister (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 5:46PM EST (link)It’ll go along nicely with Obama’s promised change.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Winston Churchill
It'll also fit neatly next to
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Wednesday, November 5th at 6:03PM EST (link)that ‘Corruption-Free House’ we were promised in 2006.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Just announced
jcheney Wednesday, November 5th at 6:38PM EST (link)I just heard Emanuel accepted
First example of nonexistent centrist Obama
Palinpal Wednesday, November 5th at 10:02PM EST (link)Well, it’s just the first example for President-Elect Obama to demonstrate to everyone who thought they were voting for a centrist that they were wrong.
That his transition team is inhabited by several Chicago cronies is not comforting, either: the United States does not need Daleys outside of Chicago! But of course Obama is lining his nest with archliberals and classic leftist illuminati.
It’s what conservatives saw coming, and swing voters chose to ignore.
Why not Dan Axelrod?
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Thursday, November 6th at 6:24AM EST (link)He fits more to Obama’s Administration.
Besides, he knows Michelle Obama well, the real Chief of Staff.