Mayor Dailey of Chicago has announced that he will not seek re-election. Rahm Emanuel has been known to state that being Mayor of the Windy City is his dream job.  Dare we hope?

Rahm goes way back in Democratic circles.  He was politically active in college, and worked on a number of campaigns thereafter.  He was an advisor to Bill Clinton’s finance committee and managed to push Clinton into raising buckets of cash (about $72 million, which was an unheard of sum in those days) which came in handy during the rough early days of the campaign.  He was rewarded with a senior position in the Clinton White House, and was instrumental in many objectives, including the doomed healthcare initiative. 

Rahm left the White House in 1998, and embarked upon a career in banking, despite the fact that his undergraduate degree is in liberal arts and his master’s in communication.  He reportedly amassed a considerable personal fortune during this stint.  Clinton appointed him to the Freddie Mac board of directors in 2000, and he served for only one year.  That time period was marked by a number of scandals ranging from accounting irregularities to campaign contribution snafus.  He resigned in order to run for Congress.

Emanuel won his election in Illinois’ 5th District, following Rod Blagojevich.  He rose rapidly, becoming chair of the Democratic Caucus after the 2006 elections.  Many have stated that he was well on his way to following Nancy Pelosi into the Speaker’s chair.  (He also sat on the Finance Committee, which oversees Freddie Mac.  He was absent from the meetings during which the Freddie fiasco was investigated.  He stated that he did not want any appearance of impropriety.)

While he initially declared that he would support Hillary Clinton, he remained neutral during the primaries.  He declared his support for Obama afterwards, and renewed acquaintences with the Chicago-based staffers.  He was tapped for White House Chief of Staff, and the fun really began.

He earned his nickname of “Rahmbo” well.  He further divided the party by referring to the liberal wing as “f$%^ing retarded”, prompting an awkward apology to the Shriver family and the Special Olympics.  He utilized similar adverbs when discussing the unions. 

I cannot blame Emanuel for the President’s policies. (It’s rumored that he pushed internally for more Clinton-esque measures and lost.)  The Chief of Staff is charged with implementing rather than setting policies.  However, the WH slant toward banking and Wall Street may not have begun with Rahm Emanuel, but I somehow doubt that he sat up nights pleading tearfully for the rights of the “little guy”.  There was also a nasty allegation from Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist (the odd couple, to be sure) that the White House was running interference for Rahm in the Freddie Mac fiasco until the statute of limitations expired.  You may remember the petition they sent forth to AG Eric Holder – here’s en excerpt:

“The New York Times reports that the administration is negotiating to double the commitments to Fannie and Freddie for a total of $800 billion by December 31, in order to avoid the congressional approval that would be needed after that date. But there currently is no Inspector General exercising independent oversight of these entities. Acting Inspector General Ed Kelly was stripped of his authority earlier this year by the Justice Department, relying on a loophole in a bill Mr. Emanuel cosponsored and pushed through Congress shortly before he left for the White House. This effectively ended Mr. Kelly’s investigation into what happened at Fannie and Freddie.” 

We’ll never know how much truth was in that.  What we do know is that there need to be some heavy-duty super quick changes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and replacing Rahm would be an excellent start.  (Actually, many of the WH “not quite ready for prime-time” staffers need to go PDQ.) We need someone who can actually get through a week without alienating yet another part of the Democratic base.  I would personally be thrilled if the COS were not such a corporatist.  It would be even nicer if it were someone with a measure of personal accountability.  We need a doer and an achiever, preferably with a modicum of couth.  We don’t need anyone else who will be so offensive that even more of the f-ing base stays home in November. 

Run, Rahm, run.  Oh, and take Gibbs and Axelrod with you.  They’ll be invaluable in setting up your campaign……………………

This is an open thread.