Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of Chief of Staff:

The choice of Emanuel sends a signal that Obama is eager to work with Congress and plans a swift launch of an aggressive agenda that will focus on the economy, taxes, energy, education and health care.

Republicans attacked the selection, however. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement: “This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center.”

Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant issued a statement calling Emanuel “a partisan insider” and referring to him by his nickname of “Rahmbo”: “Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides.” The RNC started a new series called “Obama’s Broken Promise,” starting with the naming of “Hyperpartisan” Emanuel.

Emanuel worked for the Clinton administration as a White House aide and then moved on to Wall Street before being elected to Congress in 2002. According to OpenSecrets.org, his Wall Street connections were key to Obama’s fundraising efforts:

A day after being elected president and acknowledging “the worst financial crisis in a century,” Barack Obama asked one of the biggest recipients of Wall Street campaign contributions to be his chief of staff. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who was an aide in the Clinton White House, was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry–not the most popular of industries in the current economy. Since being elected to Congress in 2002, after working as an investment banker, Emanuel has received more money from individuals and PACs in the securities and investment business than any other industry.

Emanuel knows how to raise money for political campaigns, and there aren’t many better places to find it than Wall Street. Fundraising was Emanuel’s job for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, and in 2006 he helped Democrats collect enough cash to retake the House of Representatives when he was head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. For his 2008 re-election, Emanuel raised more than $2.7 million yet faced no serious opposition in his Chicago district. Since being elected to the House six years ago, he has collected $1.5 million from the investment industry , with lawyers and law firms and the entertainment industry coming in at a distant second and third place ($682,900 and $376,100).

As a member of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee–which has jurisdiction over tax legislation, Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs–Emanuel is a popular industry target. Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners has given Emanuel more than any other contributor over his career at $93,600. Emanuel and Obama have more than just Chicago in common; investment bank UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among both men’s lists of top donors.

Emanuel “reported a net worth in 2007 of between $5 million and $13.2 million (lawmakers report their assets and liabilities in ranges). That would make him the 34th wealthiest member of the House.”

Emanuel also helps Obama nail down his pro-Israel credentials:

America’s Jewish community welcomed U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s pick of Rep. Rahm Emanuel for the post of Chief of Staff, saying that the choice demonstrates that Obama has learned from the mistakes of previous Democratic presidents.
[…]
William Daroff, the director of the Washington office of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), an umbrella organization representing 155 Jewish Federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America, said Thursday “Rep. Emanuel is among the smartest political tacticians and policy-makers that is on the scene in Washington.”

“He was singularly responsible for guiding many of the top legislative priorities of the Clinton administration when he was a senior White House aide. He crafted the House Democrats plan to regain the majority when he was their campaign committee chairman,” Daroff went on to say.

“Choosing Rep. Emanuel is a sign that President-elect Obama is learning from the mistakes of the two most recent Democratic Presidents, who brought in Washington outsiders to run the White House, and did so at their own peril — often finding themselves in battles with the Washington Democratic establishment. Emanuel’s selection will avoid such ‘freshman mistakes’,” The UJC official continued.

“Rep. Emanuel is also a good friend of Israel, coming from good Irgun stock, davening [praying] at an Orthodox synagogue, and sending his children to Jewish day schools,” Daroff concluded.

That’s a very right-wing way to define “a good friend of Israel,” by the way. For a more reality-based analysis of where most American Jews stand politically with regard to Israel and other issues, take a look at this piece Glenn Greenwald wrote just under a year ago. Also, Cernig presents another perspective on Irgun, here.

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