Per Josh Marshall -- who is rarely wrong -- Rahm Emmanuel has been offered job of "Chief of Staff"
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...
We didn't work this hard, and donate this much money for Rahm Emmanuel?
Power doesn't concede easily -- indeed!!
Reports vary as to whether he will "accept" this position.
Part of me doesn't want Emmanuel to be fourth in line for house speakership (behind 3 congress people in their late 60s -- Pelosi, Hoyer & Clybourn).
But being Chief of staff in an Obama administration is way more powerful than being 4th in line for Speakership.
I'm not happy about this. I tried to start up a group on my.barackobama.com but got a message that this feature is now disabled (I guess they learned their lesson from the FISA debacle).
Don't get me wrong -- I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama.
I have knocked on a hundred plus doors even though I don't do well with social interactions. I called hundreds of people in swing states though I have a bad voice box which requires me to practically yell so that people can understand me. I risked my health popping caffeine pills to keep up till 11 so I could call western swing states.
I donated hundreds of dollars even though I got a 15% pay cut this year, despite increased costs of living.
Why? Because I wanted change.
Change is not selecting a former Clinton Staffers -- Especially someone who is a quintessential part of the neo-liberal militaristic pro-corporate power structure -- for important posts in his new administration.
If you are not happy with this move, add a comment to this diary, and rec it. The Obama team needs to know how displeased we are about it.
UPDATE: Some people are asking for more info on Mr. Emmanuel. Some general points; He has non-progressive and dead wrong political instincts.
- He was against Howard Dean's 50 state strategy -- more focused on Rove/Penn Style poll driven politics
- He was wrong on engaging latinos -- a population that really helped deliver this victory to us today ( by kos: http://www.dailykos.com/...
- He has spent tons of time and real money fighting turf battles within the democratic party, specifically putting up establishment democrat challengers against grass-roots congressional candidates
- While he himself isn't part of the anti-progressive/conservative "Blue Dog" democrats coalition in the house, many of the people he recruited professed to be Blue Dogs