"That One" Won

(Patrck Moberg)

Pretty. Friggin. Cool.

Now the real work begins. Even though President-Elect Barack H. Obama does not get sworn in until Jan. 20th his transition into this nation’s highest office starts today.

First order of business is selecting and naming his first Chief-of Staff. Front runner for the position is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the 4th highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, Chair of the Democratic Caucus, and the man mostly responsible for the Democrats huge success in the 2006 elections.

I LOVE this choice. Emanuel is widely regarded as an enforcer and pit-bull (no lipstick). He was one of the principles that helped get Bill Clinton elected and was for a long time considered “the brains” of the Clinton White House. He was the staffer that took on the projects everyone viewed as unwinnable…and won. He was responsible for things like the ban on assault weapons and squaring off with Republicans on Clinton Impeachment. In a 2005 feature about Emanuel in Rolling Stone magazine the politician from Chicago was described as:

He's got this big old pair of brass balls, and you can just hear 'em clanking
when he walks down the halls of Congress," says Paul Begala, who served with
Emanuel on Clinton's staff. "The Democratic Party is full of Rhodes scholars --
Rahm is a road warrior. He's just what the Democrats need to fight back."

More importantly, he was the basis for the character Joshua Lyman on The West Wing. (Interesting note: His brother Ari is a Hollywood agent and the basis for Ari on Entourage).

My favorite story about Emanuel that I have heard though is about the night after Clinton won the election. While at a celebratory dinner with his colleagues, he became so enraged about the newly elected president’s enemies that he stood up and starting listing off their names, shouting “Dead…dead…dead” after each name and stabbing the table with a steak knife.

This guy is my kind of lunatic!