Hotheaded Emanuel may be White House voice of reason - washingtonpost.com

Mira

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Mar-02-10 11:13 AM
Original message

Hotheaded Emanuel may be White House voice of reason - washingtonpost.com

IMG]

By Jason Horowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 2, 2010; A01

Hotheaded Emanuel may be White House voice of reason

Some Democrats are blaming the president for not listening more to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. (Bill O'leary/the Washington Post)

But a contrarian narrative is emerging: Emanuel is a force of political reason within the White House and could have helped the administration avoid its current bind if the president had heeded his advice on some of the most sensitive subjects of the year: health-care reform, jobs and trying alleged terrorists in civilian courts.

It is a view propounded by lawmakers and early supporters of President Obama who are frustrated because they think the administration has gone for the perfect at the expense of the plausible. They believe Emanuel, the town's leading purveyor of four-letter words, a former Israeli army volunteer and a product of a famously argumentative family, was not aggressive enough in trying to persuade a singularly self-assured president and a coterie of true-believer advisers that "change you can believe in" is best pursued through accomplishments you can pass.

---------------------
Listening to Emanuel would serve "all our overall goals," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). "I think that Rahm's considerable legislative experience translates into advice that the president should heed."
Instead, Obama went for the historically far-reaching, but more legislatively difficult, achievements that he and his campaign-forged inner circle believe they were sent to Washington to deliver.
'Gut instincts'

In December 2008, Obama, Emanuel and Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) met in Obama's transition headquarters in Chicago to discuss detainee policy. According to Graham, Obama turned to him at one point and said, " 'I'm going to need your help closing Guantanamo Bay. . . . I want you and Rahm to start talking.' " They did, and as the discussions progressed, Emanuel grew wary that closing the U.S. military prison in Cuba was possible without opening a slew of other politically sensitive national security problems " 'This stuff is like flypaper,' " Graham recalled Emanuel saying. " 'It will stick to you.' "

----------------------------
'Ally in the effort'
What makes Emanuel's position so difficult is that his job requires him to bridge the competing interests of the White House and Congress.
"All our members are up for election this year, and the president is not up for election until 2012," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "Sometimes there are tensions because of the different timetables."

Van Hollen, who is Emanuel's successor as DCCC chairman and is charged with protecting the House majority Emanuel helped win, said: "There has been some frustration with the administration," especially in the slow pace of tackling unemployment. "From my discussions with Rahm, he has been an ally in the effort to get these things moving quickly and understands it's important that there be progress."
Asked about that tension, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said: "I'm sure there were discussions back and forth, and Rahm, being the operational guy in the room, said, 'Look, this is what we can get, let's get this now, we can pare it down, et cetera.' And I'm sure there were those in the room who said, 'Look, we said during the campaign we were going to do this; we need to get the whole ball of wax.' "

Another senior member of the House Democratic caucus put it more bluntly. "I don't think the White House has listened to him enough," said the member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss frustration with the White House. "There is this growing sense in the House that this White House is tone-deaf and doesn't care about 2010, that it is sacrificing members for 2012 and that the president thinks he doesn't need to get engaged, or that he thinks politics don't matter and that he could care less about what is happening on the streets of our districts. That's not Rahm."

-------------------------------
As health-care negotiations inched along at the end of last year, Emanuel grew impatient about addressing national joblessness concerns. One Democratic senator who wanted to pivot to unemployment said Emanuel shared his thinking. " 'I understand, I understand. We have to get to jobs,' " the senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, recalled Emanuel commiserating. In a meeting with the president and chief of staff, the senator stated his case, but Obama decided the priority was seeing health-care reform through.
"It was the president's call," said the senator, who added that Emanuel showed no trace of objection. "A play was called, and he was running the play."

more at link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030103934.html?wpisrc=nl_politics

Hotheaded Emanuel may be White House voice of reason - washingtonpost.com

Rahm "gut you like a fish" Emmanuel the voice of political reason?:rofl: