The tubes and news channels (even the BBC) is all a twitter about a report that Obama's campaign approached Rahm Emanuel to be Obama's Chief of Staff.see TPM If there is any truth to this - Obama deflected the report by saying Plouffe was his chief of staff - then - IF OBAMA WINS - there will definitely be a lot of work for the netroots to do to keep the Obama Administration focussed on policies that benefit the majority of Americans. For now, lets get Democrats elected to office at all levels of government. But keep your powder dry for the battles ahead. My reasons for thinking Rahm the Ruthless is not suitable for the White House are below the fold.
I hope this report is misinformation unless it is a rare lapse in the Obama campaign's discipline with the consequence that someone loses his or her job. Tom Daschle certainly beats Rahm for this job even though he allowed his genuine patriotism and decency to be used by W to push a horrible agenda in the post 9/11 world.
Rahm is my Congressman. He was foisted on this District by the Daley machine for whom Rahm had raised lots of money. He does nothing in the way of constituent services and abandoned all pretense of representing this District when he failed to endorse Obama, despite an 80 percent vote for Obama in the District in the Illinois primary, until days after the last primaries were over. As a Congressman, Rahm has caved on (or does not care about) most issues which progressives hold dear and as a leader advised Democrats to steer clear of immigration as the new third rail of American politics - meaning Democrats should support fences and barriers before putting together a path to citizenship and legalization. This triangulation follows upon Rahm's self-regard as the man who helped Clinton get reelected by pushing welfare reform - a Republican outgrowth of Reagan's welfare queen myth which has served to make poor people more invisible. And then we have Rahm the insider, who in two short years between the White House and the House, made a cool $7 million as an "investment banker" - greasing the skids for utility mergers. Convince me Rahm is a change agent. Convince me he is some sort of modern day Talleyrand who can help push the changes Obama says he wants to bring about despite his experiences under the old system. I don't think so... Rahm may be a son of bitch but he is not our son of a bitch. A case in point was his public dispute with Governor Dean in 2006 - railing against the 50 state strategy while pouring millions into a failed effort to foist a carpetbagger (a very good person but still a carpetbagger)in retiring congressman Henry Hyde's district. If Rahm had prevailed in 2006 against Dean, Democratic prospects for 2008 would be a lot different.