I can think of no bigger “f*ck you” statement to Red State America than the choice of Rahm Emanuel as President Obama’s next chief of staff. Senator Hopey-Changey could have sent no clearer message: “I hate you, Red State America.” He isn’t going to change a god-damned thing. The poisonous climate in Washington is a permanent state of affairs, and he knows it and does not care.
That said, the Emanuel choice is a smart move. A chief of staff is an important person. Someone needs to run interference and blockage for the President. Emanuel will be very good at dealing with Congress, and will probably be good at dealing with Cabinet secretaries as well. In the end, our new President chose pragmatism: Emanuel will help get things done. It’s like choosing a Newt Gingrich or a Karl Rove. It’s a smart move. Let’s just not have any more of this nonsense about “change.” The President-elect chose a hyperpartisan attack dog to be his right hand man. We all get it.
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As I wrote in my own post about Emmanuel as chief of staff yesterday, I think it’s more a signal that the 2012 campaign has already begun.
Rahm Emmanuel is a majority whip sort of character–useful for keeping the troops in line.
In my view his appointment as Barack Obama’s chief of staff is an unalloyed good. At least it provides some chance that we here in the Illinois 5th Congressional District will get a representative who’s actually interested in the district and who’s actually lived here.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’s a very smart choice.
Things are gonna get done under this guy. No question.
I think you’re trying to play into your predetermined storyline of how you are going to whine about Obama. Very little of the cable-news hyperventilating on this issue seems informed about what a CoS actually does and what Rahm actually does or is like. People simply want to say that this shows Obama is full of it, but in fact it has little or nothing to do with that subject. They just think Obama is full of it period.
There is no f-you.  First of all, he’s going to spend most of his time beating Democrats into line, not Republicans. Yeah, he fought for Democrats, because he was the head of the D-trip. But look at what that really meant: it meant recruiting lots and lots of good candidates, most of them district-appropriate moderates to take advantage of the Democratic wave. It meant keeping Democrats on message.Â
And anyone that knows Rahm would laugh hysterically at the idea that because he told Republicans to f themselves that this makes him some sort of beyond the pale extreme partisan. The tells most of his buddies to f themselves twenty times before breakfast.  Outside of a podium, he’s a nine-fingered crackup who a heck of a lot of Congressional Republicans like personally.
Bad’s last blog post..Obama-Fan Ruins the Moment
Well it must be nice to be a hyperpartisan who’s won, Bad. Enjoy your victory. Savor it. Just stop kidding yourself that the critics have nothing rational to say.
Your man, Mr. Hopey-Changey, picked the most hyperpartisan bomb-thrower possible to be his right-hand man. That’s just a fact and you’re going to have to deal with it.
You won. As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. You’re in charge now, and whining and bitching about how unfair the world is won’t get you squat. You get to spend 4-8 years defending him and his often-questionable choices. Good luck.
And by the way, you’re right: a lot of congressional Republicans do like the guy.
So what?
Considering that Emanuel was on the board of Directors of Freddie Mac (one of the entities involved in the biggest financial scandal in American history; which decimated the stock market, individual IRAs, and basically threatened to collapse the economy) when it was accused of "campaign contribution and accounting irregularities" by OFHEO, Obama’s choice is a giagantic "F*CK YOU! I DON’T CARE!" to pretty much everyone (Republicans, Americans, human beings…). Of course, his Kool Aid-drinkers will rejoice at the choice, as they are partisan fools, even as they have to work ten extra years before retirements.
I mean, what would Bad had said if Bush had chosen Ken Lay as his Chief of Staff? Heads would have almost literally exploded (meaning burst aneurysms)
So what? So it doesn’t play into your tediously fact-free sing-song about him as nothing more than a hyperpartisan attack dog.
I’m not whining about the world. I’m complaining about your thought free cut-n-paste "analysis" in which every single thing Obama does is just more evidence that, wow, you were right all along!Â
There are critics that have important things to say. Maybe if you’d go off script from time to time, you’d be one of them again.
Rahm Emmanuel is not a staunch partisan who regularly attacks the other side? Rahm Emmanuel does not have extensive ties in the financial sector? Can you back that up?
And what new facts have you even tried to offer, other than some Republicans think he’s an OK guy in private? A lot of them think that about Ted Kennedy too, but that doesn’t mean they think he’s anything but a fierce partisan who’s often highly divisive and rude about it.
You need to look in the mirror, friend, because you sound like you’re describing yourself very well to me. You haven’t offered anything much in terms of facts, and not much more than hyperpartisan ad hominem attacks on anyone who dares disagree with you.
By the way, a whole lot of Democrats thought Newt Gingrich was a pretty swell guy in private and really liked the guy.
That’s just a fact. I guess that means he wasn’t a hyperpartisan attack dog and that he didn’t have any ethical challenges, huh? Heck, maybe we should make Newt our next President, because he’ll give us Hope and Change and make Washington a very different place with his Change and Hope, right? Or maybe Obama should make Newt Chief of Staff, to signal that he really wants to change Washington?
The only thing I suspect you’re finding tedious, Bad, is that you have spent the last few years doing nothing but bitch and moan about the people in charge, but now you actually have to defend your own guy who’s also imperfect and also not going to be all things to all men, and really is nothing but just another politician–and you don’t like it one little bit because you don’t like having your bubble burst. So you get mad at the people who point this out and call them names.
Enjoy that. If you’re still at it in four years, I’ll be a little disappointed because I thought you were a smarter guy than that, but I’ve been wrong about others I thought were smart as well. What I hope you’ll do is mature a little in your politics and learn that politicians are politicians and washington works the way it does no matter what.
Your President-elect (and mine) is an inexperienced naif with a long, long history of being nothing but a typical lefty politician with a record that’s not particularly spotless and not particularly distinguished, and he’s already signaled his real governing intent by picking one of the most hyperpartisan bomb-throwers (and ethically challenged leaders) in Washington. That’s just what you have to live with, and you can stop having temper tantrums at those of us who point these facts out.
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