A Teary Emanuel Gets Dead Fish At White House Send-off

[sonomak]

Source: ABC News

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 it. “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.” Emanuel, who got teary during the staff meeting, told staffers that he knows that he pushed staffers “very hard. But I did it in service to the president. And I believe that our whole country is better off for it.”


Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/10/a-teary-emanuel-gets-dead-fish-at-white-house-send-off.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Rahm, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

[Dr.Phool]

22. No, please! Let it hit him in the ass!

It might knock some teeth out.

[orleans]

2. ugh. good luck chicago. n/t

[Myrina]

3. 'our whole country is better off' ...

... because of how Rahm alienated the base?

Does he really think what he did during his tenure as COS made this country better???


:wtf:

[bvar22]

32. Rahm DID make the country better...

..for the Top 1%,
the Wall Street Banksters,
the Upper Management of Health Insurance Corporations....
you know, the DLC Base.
Mission Accomplished!


The DLC New Team
Liberal Democrats need NOT Apply

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254886&kaid=86&subid=85

[Pirate Smile]

4. I love Goolsbee.

I'm glad he is going to be a bigger presence on TV in his new job.

[mikelgb]

11. +1

[_ed_]

5. Anyone in Chicago

that votes for this man is an idiot.

[BlueDemKev]

6. Take Care, Buddy.....

President Obama couldn't have found a better person to head up his White House staff. Rahm Emmanuel was instrumental in helping Democrats retake Congress back in 2006 as well as helping to get health insurance reform passed. A real fighter with a passion for doing good, but smart enough to know when to be assertive and when to compromise.

Rahm, thank you for a job well done. You will be enormously missed. :cry:

[Le Taz Hot]

9. Oh, fer crissakes, he was not.

That was Howard Dean, his 50-state-stratety and the Party Base, but congratulations for saying that with a straight face.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Yeah. I kind of thought there must be a typo in that post. I remember it being Dr Dean whose

50 state policies were instrumental in winning the election...

:thumbsup: :hi:

I cannot recall one thing that Rahm did that was beneficial for anyone but Rahm.
Even his so-called "ability to get things done" with Congress proved to be pretty lame...

I remember Lyndon Johnson and Rahm Emanuel is no Lyndon Johnson

[CoffeeCat]

13. There is NO health-insurance reform!

You actually believe that health-insurance reform was passed?

Oh for the love of Pete.

There's wishful thinking, and then there's just flat out delusion...

I understand that many like some of the changes in the new healthcare bill. There are some good things. Kudos to Obama
for getting the crumbs that he did get. And unlike many, I don't' completely fault Obama. Corporations like the
health-insurance companies have their talons firmly gripped on our government and it's going to take Obama and
all of us to rid our system of this malignancy.

However, to even SUGGEST that health insurance was REFORMED is grossly incorrect and practically offensive--especially
to those of us who want real, meaningful reform.

The health-insurance companies wrote this bill. That is a fact. They are still at the epicenter of our health-care
system--putting profits before the health and well being of United States citizens. The health-insurance companies
wrote it--knowing that they could circumvent most of the positive changes in this bill.

For example, the President touts that children with pre-existing conditions can not be denied health insurance. There
was a big story on CBS news last week about the top four health-insurance companies. The night before this "pre-existing
conditions" rule was to take effect, those top health-insurance companies STOPPED OFFERING CHILD-ONLY HEALTH INSURANCE
POLICIES. Parents who have children with pre-existing conditions often get a child-only policy--because it is all
they can afford. The insurance companies said, "Fine. You want us to cover all kids with pre-existing conditions. We've
decided that this isn't profitable. So we're not offering that product."

We do NOT have reform. We cannot have reform when profit-takers are calling the shots; and when they choose profits
over people every damn time.

THAT is not reform. Please.

[Raster]

18. I could not agree more. The health care bill was carefully calculated to LOOK as good as possible

for being as odious as it is. It's what we call a "resume enhancer."

[wordpix]

20. I just went to health.gov to get info about plans & found links straight to corporate websites

so much for "health.GOV" ----Should be "health.corporations"

Supposedly "health.gov" is a site where you can compare health insurance costs and plans. But you can only do so by going to each corporate site separately, and comparing them there.

I will need a full day to compare costs and plans with this system. Thanks, Congress and admin! What a "reform." :puke:

[dflprincess]

44. Oh, there was some health INSURANCE reform

like adding adult kids to policies and (eventually) not disallowing preexisting conditions.

But what we needed was reform that gave us access to health CARE. Instead we got a scam that requires we keep shoveling money at the crooks who caused the problems and no guarantees that we'll be able to see a doctor when we need to.

[tavalon]

15. He'll be fine. Unfortunately, shit often floats

You are in quite a minority with regards to appreciating his "work". I personally found it fucking retarded.

[Raster]

17. Oh, talk about revisionist history.... wait, is this a post from The Onion?

"Rahm, thank you for a job well done. You will be enormously missed." No. No he won't. He should have been out the door years ago.

[AlbertCat]

19. Take Care, Buddy.....

You're not gonna start stalking him now, like that creepy guy in Michigan....are you? :eyes:


Good riddance Rahm!

[Dappleganger]

23. Nice bit of revisionist history, there.

[EFerrari]

26. We took back Congress in 2006 because of Howard Dean,

and in spite of Rahm Emmanuel.

[Doremus]

30. What a crock. nt

[ProudDad]

31. Howard Dean's 50 state strategy

along with the republican's incredible policies...

briefly brought the Dems back into power...

Rahm FOUGHT the policy while bringing a bunch of f*ckin' blue-dogs into the mix!

And it's Obama/Rahm's brilliant policies of pandering to corporate interests and courting republicans (while pissing on the Progressives who worked their asses off to get Democrats elected) that are going to (probably) lose one or both houses...

As for "health insurance reform", do you mean the "Health Insurance Corporation and Big PhRMA Stimulus Act of 2010"? The GREAT give-away of personal and tax dollars to the worst elements of the USAmerican "Sick Care" system???

As for "compromise" that corporate piece of shit compromised BEFORE the debate on "reforming health care" even began!!!

Jesus, what color is the sky on your planet?

[FiveGoodMen]

36. Wish I could put you on ignore more than once!

Fucking idiot!

[TheWatcher]

39. Some of the supposed "left" is beginning to sound just as delusional as the Bush supporters were.

What Irony.

:crazy:

[Lorien]

45. "Passion for doing good"???

You're either among the richest 0.5% or you're f*cking delusional.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

[mahina]

46. I'm sure he will be missed, but not by me.

The day I heard he was going to be named chief of staff was a sad day.

Na na na na, nananana, hey hey hey, good bye!

[hlthe2b]

7. how convoluted; so, a symbol of contempt or bizarre support?

Honestly, I couldn't tell.

[Kolesar]

24. "It's deep" ... eom

[EFerrari]

27. It's a joke built around a boulder of truth.

lol

[wordpix]

28. Asian carp are wreaking env'l havoc in the Gt Lakes but if that's what Rahm's been focused on

for two yrs., his priorities are indeed local and regional, not national or international on behalf of the president.

[No Elephants]

35. "It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." Chicago, home of Al Capone.

"In The Godfather, Luca Brasi is one of Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcers. Brasi is portrayed as slow-witted and brutish, but his ruthlessness and his unwavering loyalty to Don Corleone means he is both feared and respected. Fluent in Italian and able to handle himself in any fight, he has a dark reputation among the underworld as a savage killer. Vito Corleone describes Luca Brasi (and later Al Neri) as a "man who goes around life with a sign that says 'kill me' painted on, this makes everyone want to kill him, but yet no one can. Eventually this man finds someone who he doesn't want to kill and fears that this man will be the one to kill him".

In the novel
In The Godfather, Luca Brasi is one of Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcers. Brasi is portrayed as slow-witted and brutish, but his ruthlessness and his unwavering loyalty to Don Corleone means he is both feared and respected. Fluent in Italian and able to handle himself in any fight, he has a dark reputation among the underworld as a savage killer. Vito Corleone describes Luca Brasi (and later Al Neri) as a "man who goes around life with a sign that says 'kill me' painted on, this makes everyone want to kill him, but yet no one can. Eventually this man finds someone who he doesn't want to kill and fears that this man will be the one to kill him".

At his sister's wedding, Michael Corleone tells his then girlfriend Kay Adams the story of how Don Corleone helped his godson Johnny Fontane. Michael explains that his father went to convince Les Halley, the bandleader, to release Johnny from a personal service contract that was holding back Johnny's singing career. Halley refuses the initial offer of $20,000. In a scene of intense coercion, Don Corleone returns the next day with Genco Abbandando, his consigliere, and Luca Brasi. Don Corleone holds a gun to the bandleader's head while telling him that either his brains or his signature will be on the contract. The terrified bandleader signs a release for only $10,000 within an hour.

“ Don Corleone entered the negotiations personally. He offered Les Halley twenty thousand dollars to release Johnny Fontane from the personal services contract. Halley offered to take only fifty percent of Johnny’s earnings. Don Corleone was amused. He dropped his offer from twenty thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars. The band leader, obviously not a man of the world outside his beloved show business, completely missed the significance of this lower offer. He refused.
The next day Don Corleone went to see the band leader personally. He brought with him his two best friends, Genco Abbandando, who was his Consigliere, and Luca Brasi. With no other witnesses Don Corleone persuaded Les Halley to sign a document giving up all rights to all services from Johnny Fontane upon payment of a certified check to the amount of ten thousand dollars. Don Corleone did this by putting a pistol to the forehead of the band leader and assuring him with the utmost seriousness that either his signature or his brains would rest on that document in exactly one minute. Les Halley signed. Don Corleone pocketed his pistol and handed over the certified check.
”

Shortly before Vito Corleone is shot, Brasi (on Vito Corleone's instructions) intends to draw out drug lord Virgil Sollozzo and the rest of the Don's enemies. Brasi then meets with Bruno Tattaglia, the son of one of the Don's rival bosses, Philip Tattaglia. Sollozzo shows up, and after promises of friendship and a job offer, grabs one of Luca's hands while Bruno Tattaglia holds the other one (in the film, Sollozzo rams a knife into Luca's hand, pinning it to the bar). An assassin then garrotes him from behind. Brasi's body is thrown into the sea.

A Sicilian message is later sent to the Corleone family: a fish wrapped in Brasi's bulletproof vest. The meaning is made clear to the Corleones.

In the book, the text reads: “Sonny lit a cigar and took a shot of whiskey. Michael, bewildered, said. 'What the hell does that fish mean?' It was Tom Hagen the Irisher, the Consigliere, who answered him. 'The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping on the bottom of the ocean,' he said. 'It’s an old Sicilian message.'”

In the movie, this was slightly changed to the more well known version. Corleone's caporegime Clemenza explains: "It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." Sollozzo has Brasi killed as it is the best way of ensuring Vito Corleone's vulnerability. When Hagen is kidnapped by Sollozzo, Hagen, not knowing that Luca had been killed, warns of reprisals from Brasi in response to Vito's death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Brasi

[hlthe2b]

42. I know the history: asking how it translates to being given to Rahm

Did they hate him? Or was it a joke?

[No Elephants]

47. You know when someone you hang with snarks at you. But, if you express

displeasure, they say, "oh, you have no sense of humor. I was only kidding." But somewhere inside, you are 100% sure they meant every word? If I had to bet, I think it was like that.

I don't think you compare anyone you really love and admire to a dumbass brute whose only redeeming quality was his loyal willingness to murder for da boss, or "say goodbye" in a way that implies your friend is a dead man. But you laugh a lot when you do it, so it's "clear" it's "just" a joke--no offense intended.

But I never met anyone involved and I'm not a mind reader. I'm going by my own observations of human behavior and a common sense inteerpretation of the literary reference as it compares with what they did.

[Lint Head]

8. please go away

[tavalon]

12. Appropriate - a stinker for a stinker

I'm really surprised they did this as part of the Friday news dump. Wanna energize the base? Dump Emanuel and do it with lots of flair and lots of news cycles. I'm happy, happy, happy.

[tavalon]

14. Sorry, Chicago, you have to take one for the team

Vote early, vote often.

[leveymg]

16. Looks like Rahm was just as popular among the WH staff as he is here. Have another Carp, from us.

[Octafish]

41. Got a few friends here at Trikini Atoll to bring some cheer.

Edit: Have you met my minders?

[glitch]

43. See what happens when you feed them Octafish?

Talk about an invasive species! :hi:

[wordpix]

21. OUCH! Does not look popular with the staff based on his "gift"

[Crowman1979]

25. Of course if I was Obama, I would have thrown Rahm out like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvJeATp31dw

[SoapBox]

29. yawn...don't let the dead fish hit you in the back of the head, when you go out the door...

I've never liked this guy...he feels super-sleazy.

[mzmolly]

33. Good luck to Mr. Emanuel.

I hope he'll win his Mayoral bid and enjoy serving Chicago in that position.

[independent_voter]

34. talk about getting 'fish slapped' nt

[Odin2005]

37. LOL!

[suffragette]

38. Here's a nice song from Blondie to go with that fish

"just Go Away"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-KH2WI4Gzw

[mistertrickster]

40. If he has a primary challenger, we support that candidate to the hilt!

See how he likes Dirty F-ing Hippies then . . .