Word: clintone
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Does hiring Emanuel mean Obama will be bringing in mostly old Clinton hands to populate offices in the West Wing and Cabinet agencies? Not necessarily. The Democratic bench is deep, but it is deep in large part because so many Democrats earned Executive Branch experience during the eight years of the Clinton presidency. It would be absurd to imagine Obama bypassing all of that experience in the name of bringing in only fresh blood. Undoubtedly, Obama will also bring in loyal campaign staffers and advisers who are not Clinton-era veterans. But installing someone like Emanuel to anchor the White...
...That Obama made Emanuel his first White House pick shows how dramatically different he wants his transition to be from the disastrous one of the last incoming Democratic President. In 1992, Bill Clinton took his time choosing his staff, and he focused much of that time on the Cabinet, believing the White House staff to be secondary. His eventual selection of personal friends from Arkansas, like his first chief of staff, Mack McLarty, proved that Washington outsiders aren't so good at running Washington...
...Emanuel started out with Clinton in the 1992 campaign as a fundraiser. He was relentless and successful. By January 1993, he'd moved up the ladder in Clinton's world to the point at which he was named White House political director. In that job, he offended enough people - in particular Hillary Clinton - that he was demoted and almost fired. But he stuck around, worked hard and ended up being the primary force behind some of the biggest legislative successes of Clinton's presidency: the North American Free Trade Agreement, the so-called crime bill and welfare reform...
...important to note that none of those bills could be defined as part of a liberal agenda. In fact, by pushing for them, Clinton (and Emanuel) angered large numbers of liberal Democrats. And when he ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 cycle, he infuriated some liberals by recruiting conservative and moderate candidates - people who supported gun rights or opposed abortion - to run in red districts. (That anger faded after Emanuel's recruits helped sweep the Democrats into power in the House two years...
...reluctant to do it. In the end, Emanuel said yes. "A new President, a person you know well and respect immensely, asks you to be White House chief of staff for the most historic presidency of your lifetime?" says an Emanuel friend who worked with him in the Clinton White House. "And you say no? In the end, I don't think...