Rahm Emanuel: 'No czars in White House'

[babylonsister]

Rahm Emanuel: 'No czars in White House'

Posted April 28, 2009 3:45 PM


There may not have been any "czars'' around, but a king was in the house -- King Abdullah II of Jordan -- in this picture of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the Oval Office, by Gerald Herbert / AP)

by Mark Silva


Rahm Emanuel was "a big shot'' before President Barack Obama made him chief of staff - so notes the interviewer today.

Emanuel, financially set after a stint on Wall Street, congressman from Illinois and architect of the Democratic Party's takeover of the House, had his eyes on the speaker's office. And he was a friend of Obama's from Chicago - so how has the relationship changed, in the White House?

"I work for him,'' Emanuel says of Obama, in an interview with John Harwood of CNBC that airs today - segments on Street Signs and Closing Bell today and the entire interview on CNBC Reports at 8 pm EDT and at cnbc.com.

"It's a lot different,'' Emanuel says. "And in the sense that it's his presidency, it's his agenda. My job is to see it through. I give him, as we were as friends as well as colleagues, the best advice.''

But still friends?

"Friendship requires a dual sense of loyalty,'' the chief of staff says. "And I do feel a sense of his own loyalty. But I -- ultimately it's 100 percent loyalty from me to him. And so I think it's smarter, where we are friends and we are friendly....

"One of your jobs as chief of staff is to manage all of the people around him, people from Chicago who have long relationships with him, you've got the czars in the White House, you've got Cabinet secretaries,'' Emanuel says, adding: "You know, first of all, as I joke in the White House, nobody's a czar. The reason is czars weren't good to my people, so I really don't like the title anyway.''

Here, courtesy of CNBC, is a transcript (at link):

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/04/rahm_emanuel_no_czars_in_white.html#more

[HereSince1628]

1. True, now we see them as high priests.

[babylonsister]

2. You might. I don't. nt

[BlooInBloo]

4. Fail.

[rocktivity]

3. "architect of the Democratic Party's takeover of the House"

thanks to the foundation of stone Howard Dean laid with the 50-state strategy.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[babylonsister]

5. Emanuel did this in 2006, or gets credit for it...

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

Ultimately the Democratic Party enjoyed considerable success in the 2006 elections, gaining 30 seats in the House. Emanuel has received considerable praise for his stewardship of the DCCC during this election cycle, even from Illinois Republican Rep. Ray LaHood who said "He legitimately can be called the golden boy of the Democratic Party today. He recruited the right candidates, found the money and funded them, and provided issues for them. Rahm did what no one else could do in seven cycles."<40>

[rocktivity]

8. In the interest of fairness and balance, Wikipedia also says

As chairman of the party, Dean created and employed the "50 State Strategy" that attempted to make Democrats competitive in normally conservative states often dismissed in the past as "solid red". The success of the strategy became apparent after the 2006 midterm elections, where Democrats took back the House and picked up seats in the Senate from normally Republican states such as Missouri and Montana. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama used "The 50 state strategy" as the backbone of his candidacy, targeting voters across the country rather than primarily focusing on traditional battleground states. This led to the expansion of the battleground states from just Ohio and Florida to also include New Mexico, Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Virginia, and Colorado...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean

Can't we all just get along?

:headbang:
rocktivity

[wyldwolf]

7. It's an absolutely correct statement

... and the 50 state strategy didn't accomplish much at all until 2008.

[lunatica]

6. Who took the photograph? A Republican?

It's a great shot as far as photographic saavy, but it reminds me of the hard-nosed all white male structure of the Republican Executive Unitary GOP. That could be Cheney standing there instead of Emanuel. It definitely has a deliberate sinister aura about it.

:scared: