Word: emanuel
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...both the left and right have criticized Obama's choice of a profane Washington insider for chief of staff as evidence that his promise to raise the level of civility in U.S. politics was all talk. But those critics misunderstand the nature of the job and the role Emanuel will be playing. Obama will be the public face and voice of his Administration. He'll set the tone. Emanuel will oversee the hard work of running the White House and pushing the agenda in the halls of Congress. "The job now is to translate the dreams into reality," says Paul...
...everyone in Congress, or in Washington, particularly likes Emanuel, 49, the former senior Clinton White House official who just won his fourth term in Congress representing a portion of Chicago and who serves as the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House. Even some members of his own party (including members of the black and Latino caucuses) bear no affection for him, especially those who feel he has run roughshod over their prerogatives in pursuit of some greater goal - like wresting control of the House from the Republicans in 2006, a project Emanuel spearheaded. Others simply fear him. But few people...
...Instead, you bring in a guy like Emanuel, the most hardheaded, no-nonsense, foul-mouthed, smart-as-hell, get-it-done-or-get-out-of-my-way Washington insider of his generation. And you put him in charge of a White House staff whose task it is - and this is putting it conservatively - to conceive, propose, promote and somehow push through Congress the most ambitious agenda any President has carried forth at least since Ronald Reagan rode into town with a lopsided grin in January 1981. "Rahm does not sing 'Kumbaya,' " says an old friend and colleague with a laugh...
...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...