I'm of mixed feelings on Rahm Emanuel's selection as Obama's White House chief of staff. Emanuel is a brawler. He's legendarily tough and effective and ruthless. Hes the type of guy who makes enemies, then makes lists of his enemies, then makes lists of his enemies' friends, then makes lists of how they'll pay. If you thought the Obama administration would be all about bringing people together and would simply make sad faces when stubborn congressmen refused to come to the table, this is a clear sign otherwise. If good feelings don't suffice, bareknuckle politics will happily be employed. But part of Emanuel's job will be to advise on what is politically possible. And he has always portrayed himself as a hard-headed realist on such matters, with a late-term Clintonite's allergy to ambition. In his book The Plan, Emanuel warns Democrats away from attempting universal health insurance or comprehensive reform, and suggests they content themselves with expanding S-CHIP (he also gives a plug to his brother, Ezekiel Emanuel's, health care plan, but says his "plan is well beyond Washington's current reach."). That's not change we can believe in. Of course, Emanuel won't be setting priorities. He'll simply be advising President Obama while he sets priorities, then working to carry them out. If Obama says the administration should do universal health care, then Emanuel will do it. And he's probably exactly the sort of ruthless political fighter you'd want in service of that project. But it's also possible he'll work to persuade Obama not to do universal health care, and instead to take a dimmer view of the potential for change, reform, and improvement. By contrast, the other leading candidate for the job, Tom Daschle, was obsessed with passing health reform, but didn't have much of a reputation for toughness. This is a selection that suggests Obama is taking the politics of congressional persuasion extremely seriously, and in that sense, it's heartening. What we don't know is whether he's also signaling agreement with the play-it-safe governance that Emanuel has long championed. RAHM EMANUEL.
I'm of mixed feelings on Rahm Emanuel's selection as Obama's White House chief of staff. Emanuel is a brawler. He's legendarily tough and effective and ruthless. Hes the type of guy who makes enemies, then makes lists of his enemies, then makes lists of his enemies' friends, then makes lists of how they'll pay. If you thought the Obama administration would be all about bringing people together and would simply make sad faces when stubborn congressmen refused to come to the table, this is a clear sign otherwise. If good feelings don't suffice, bareknuckle politics will happily be employed. But part of Emanuel's job will be to advise on what is politically possible. And he has always portrayed himself as a hard-headed realist on such matters, with a late-term Clintonite's allergy to ambition. In his book The Plan, Emanuel warns Democrats away from attempting universal health insurance or comprehensive reform, and suggests they content themselves with expanding S-CHIP (he also gives a plug to his brother, Ezekiel Emanuel's, health care plan, but says his "plan is well beyond Washington's current reach."). That's not change we can believe in. Of course, Emanuel won't be setting priorities. He'll simply be advising President Obama while he sets priorities, then working to carry them out. If Obama says the administration should do universal health care, then Emanuel will do it. And he's probably exactly the sort of ruthless political fighter you'd want in service of that project. But it's also possible he'll work to persuade Obama not to do universal health care, and instead to take a dimmer view of the potential for change, reform, and improvement. By contrast, the other leading candidate for the job, Tom Daschle, was obsessed with passing health reform, but didn't have much of a reputation for toughness. This is a selection that suggests Obama is taking the politics of congressional persuasion extremely seriously, and in that sense, it's heartening. What we don't know is whether he's also signaling agreement with the play-it-safe governance that Emanuel has long championed. 
