Rahm Emanuel is jumping the sinking Obama ship.
CHICAGO -- White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is set to give up his influential national post Friday to begin a run for Chicago mayor, a job he has long coveted but won't win unless he persuades voters he's still one of them.
People close to Emanuel said he will fly home over the weekend and hit the streets Monday to talk to voters, after announcing his resignation Friday. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says only that President Barack Obama will make a "personnel announcement" Friday morning, but even his vague comments made it eminently clear Emanuel is leaving.
"He intends to run for mayor," one person close to Emanuel told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement.
What a joke!
It's way too late to "avoid pre-empting" the announcement. When Obama makes his "personnel announcement," there will be no suspense.
...Two people close to him said Thursday they did not know when Emanuel would officially declare he was entering the mayoral race, but that he would launch a website with a message to Chicago voters in the near future.
Emanuel has certainly left his mark on Washington, D.C., where his departure, expected by the political world ever since Daley's surprise announcement, remains an unquestioned loss for Obama.
The president has counted on Emanuel's intensity, discipline and congressional relationships to keep the White House focused and aggressive. Holding a job with nearly unrivaled pressure and power, Emanuel has been true to form at the White House — a briskly moving political manager who is prone to profanity and driven to delivering on the president's directives.
It's an understatement to say that Emanuel is "prone to profanity and driven to delivering on the president's directives."
Emanuel is ruthless.
One less thug politician in Washington is a good thing.
Obama's loss is the nation's gain.
Maybe with Emanuel out and the midterm elections likely to alter the balance of power in Washington, there's a chance that finally there may be that new tone Obama promised when he first took office. The administration's "boot on the neck" style of governing might change a bit.
Thug Emanuel is leaving. That has to make some difference.
There's no disputing that Emanuel is a thug. His thuggery is legendary.
Friends and enemies agree that the key to Emanuel's success is his legendary intensity. There's the story about the time he sent a rotting fish to a pollster who had angered him. There's the story about how his right middle finger was blown off by a Syrian tank when he was in the Israeli army. And there's the story of how, the night after Clinton was elected, Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting "Dead! . . . Dead! . . . Dead!" and plunging the knife into the table after every name. "When he was done, the table looked like a lunar landscape," one campaign veteran recalls. "It was like something out of The Godfather. But that's Rahm for you."
Of the three stories, only the second is a myth -- Emanuel lost the finger to a meat slicer as a teenager and never served in the Israeli army.
Creepy.
I'm glad Emanuel's days as Obama's chief of staff are over.
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A Teary Emanuel Gets Dead Fish At White House Send-off
At the 8:30 staff meeting in the Roosevelt Room this morning, departing chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was given a gift by Council of Economic Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee: a dead Asian carp.
This was an allusion to the Emanuel legend of his sending a dead fish to a pollster for whom he didn’t care, replicating the scene from The Godfather when the Corleones were alerted of Luca Brasi’s death with a dead fish wrapped in Brasi’s bullet-proof vest. The specific species was a reference to Emanuel’s focus as a member of Congress and White House chief of staff on the aggressive, invasive Asian carp, bane of the Great Lakes, a plankton-devouring creature heading towards Chicago.
Goolsbee said: “I talked to the policy team and we wanted to give you a going away present—something to show how we feel about you but also shows we understand your new possibilities. I was the natural go between—I voted for you all three times you ran for Congress and even in that first primary. So here is your present.”
Emanuel opened the package, which was wrapped in copies of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
“This is a dead fish!” he said.
Goolsbee: “To most people, it looks like a dead fish. But to a future mayor of Chicago, it looks like a dead Asian Carp. And you’ll be happy to know that it wasn’t easy to find one of these”
Said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs: “In Chicago, this is how friends say goodbye.”
A dead fish -- isn't that sweet?
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This skit wasn't aired on Saturday Night Live. It's a WEB exclusive.
Transcript
DON PARDO: And now message from White House Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel.
ANDY SAMBERG as RAHM EMANUEL: Hello, I'm Rahm Emanuel, one-time congressman of Illinois' 5th District, and now, White House Chief of Staff-designate for President-elect Barack Obama. I believe we are at the dawn of a great new age in American politics. And I am proud and excited to be a part of it. At the same time, I understand that our country is facing great challenges, challenges that are going to require both parties to come together to find solutions.
Now, some on the right, such as minority leader John Baynor, have criticized my appointment as being hyperpartisan and have accused me of being prone to bare-knuckle tactics and profanity-laced tirades in the past. While it is true that my nickname is 'Rahmbo' and it is also true that my brother Ari is the basis for Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage, I want to assure you that I took this job for one reason only -- to support Barack Obama's message of hope and change.
Although I should say to anyone thinking about crossing me, I will f------- end you. You will never even see it coming. One day you will be here, and the next day you will f------ disappear.
And John Boehner? You seriously wanna f--- with me? You're losing seats in Congress like it's a game of f----- Musical Chairs, and you issue a press release about me, you f----- idiot? About me? You pull that s--- to my face, Baynor, and I will send you back to Ohio in a f------ box.
And that goes for Democrats as well as Republicans. You will get in f------ line or I will personally stamp your ticket. None of your f------ b---s--- on my watch, Lieberman. If it was up to me, we wouldn't just strip you of your chairmanship, we would strip you naked and make you walk your McCain-loving a-- back to Connecticut, you f------ turncoat.
You don't believe me? Ask Howard f------ Dean if I'm for real. He s---- himself when he hears me on the radio.
I'm sorry. Did you f------ say something? Are you f------ sure? Yeah, you better be f------ sure.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you tonight. I look forward to the coming months to setting out together on what I promise will be an incredible journey. Seriously, it's gonna be f------ amazing.
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