Run Rahm, Run!

[n2doc]

Emanuel, Chicago mayor? Sally Quinn
White House says Emanuel '100 percent' focused on his current job.

Posted January 5, 2010 11:15 AM
by Mark Silva

Rahm Emanuel, the irrepressible White House chief of staff and former congressman from Chicago responsible for that "thumpin''' that Republicans took in the House elections of 2006, the one who might have liked to be speaker of the House some day, could have other aspirations back home.

So says Sally Quinn, the veteran columnist of the Washington Post. Other, more knowledgeable handicappers of the Chicago political scene doubt this scenario seriously.



The White House, for its part, maintains that Emanuel is "100 percent focused on the job at hand - serving President Obama as his Chief of Staff.''

Quinn mentioned the Chicago mayoral option today, deep within a look at recent machinations within the Obama White House, where a new general counsel, Bob Bauer, has taken office, following Emanuel's clash with the past counsel, Greg Craig, and where three uninvited guests showed up at a State Dinner.

more:
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2010/01/emanuel_chicago_mayor_sally_qu.html

Anything to get him out of the white house...

[madokie]

1. In her wet dreams maybe

Rahm is fine where he is. The problem is on the other side of the aisle not this side. :grr:

He won't be going anywhere soon and you can bet on that. He'll probably kick the shit out of the first one to try it too. seriously

[JVS]

2. Hmmm?

"responsible for that "thumpin''' that Republicans took in the House elections of 2006"

[Vincardog]

3. The thumpin that was a direct result of Dr. Deans 50 state strategy.

[EFerrari]

4. Which Rahm did his best to tank.

On the other hand, I don't wish him on Chicago, either.

[Vincardog]

6. He did his bes to tank any real progressive or LIBERAL and replace them with blue CROSS dogs.

Chicago can have him.

[laughingliberal]

18. At least the damage would be contained. nt

[ClassWarrior]

13. Yup, the "moderates" that Rahmbo backed went down in flames, and Dean's progressives...

...won handily.

Look it up.

NGU.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. The corporations like having Rahm right where he is.

Mr. Nafta.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Rahm is very good

at taking credit for other peoples' successes.

[JVS]

10. I thought you were going to pull a Triumph the insult comic dog with that one.

[Don Caballero]

8. Rahm would be a breath of fresh air if elected

The corrupt Daley machine has really screwed the city up.

[ieoeja]

9. Rahm might actually be worse.

While Daley has been republicanizing (i.e. privatizing) gov't jobs to non-union companies, he does at least offer some support to unions versus outside private interests such as WalMart. I doubt Rahm would go even that far.

On the other hand, it'd be kind of hard for Rahm to one-up a mayor who privatized both an interstate tollway and city street parking. You know the Republicans had to be wondering why Daley can get away with being such a rightwing fuckwad. Heck, a GOP governor in Indiana was crucified by Democrats for privatizing the Indiana side of that tollway even though he did so *AFTER* Daley privatized our half while the Democrats said nothing.

At least Daley's kid is honest enough to admit being a Republican.

[Don Caballero]

11. Is the parking situation in Chicago the same?

Daley sold the rights to parking meters to a private company who jacked up prices like two or three times? I was reading that there was some sort of revolt and the meters were being ripped out and vandalized.

[WeDidIt]

14. They just jacked up the rates again

$4.25/hour now.

[Don Caballero]

15. That is insane

One of the reasons I visit Chicago once a year. I love the city so much but the price gouging is crazy.

[WeDidIt]

17. Meh, it's not like you can find a spot on the street in the Loop, any way

:shrug:

[ieoeja]

22. You can now!!!

Street parking in the loop is widely available since this shit went into effect. Nobody is parking.

Of course, that might have been part of the motive. They always wanted to reserve downtown street parking for short-term parking for people running in and out. If you're going to spend hours downtown, it is now much cheaper to use a parking garage. So the street parking is now being used as it was intended.

Actually, that I can agree with. I'd bet people on the move, say a salesman making two or three stops downtown, love being able to pull right up to the building now. We could have done that without republicanizing the parking. But that would have taken intestinal fortitude which our pols lack. After the skyway, they probably figured republicanizing parking would be no big deal. So let the private company take the heat for the rate hike.


Despite the hue and cry over this, there are still reports they are actually considering republicanizing water. *THAT* would be insane. But I don't put it past Da' Mayor.

[ieoeja]

21. On the plus side ... I now pay less for parking.

I didn't park where there were meters that often. But when I did have to duck in somewhere for an hour or two, I'd put in the coins. Now I don't because:

1. I'd rather pay my city a $50 ticket than those other bastards $5, and...

2. I'd have to get ticketed more than one time in ten to lose money by not paying. Odds are, I won't get ticketed that often. I'm 0 for 5 so far.

[midnight armadillo]

12. They privatized a highway?

[ieoeja]

20. Yup!

Our "Democratic" mayor actually privatized a highway. Amazing, isn't it?

After that, I was really surprised that everyone went batshit when he privatized the city parking. Nobody cared about him republicanizing the highway. Republicanizing parking meters seemed like no more than an extension of that to me.

I guess that was because all Chicago drivers use parking meters. While 90+% never venture on the tollroad to Indiana (for some reason Chicagoans largely head north to Wisconsin when getting out of town).

[jotsy]

16. I heard Thom Hartmann say Rahm told Obama not to worry about the ire of the liberal base,

because they got nowhere else to go. He's forgotten the ground swell of progressive support that made beating Hilary possible, the big money corporate campaign funders were few and far between until that happened.

I've squealed for over a decade that two party politics are toxic to the people, I'm tired of looking right or left and would like to see us move forward.

[laughingliberal]

19. Yep and he called the ads we mobilized to run in favor of the PO "fucking stupid"

The White House killed the public option cause Rahm (and by extension the president) think the campaign contributions are more important than the electorate.

I, actually, think he wants the left to leave. I think a bigger Republican presence in the House and Senate would play right into his hands. That way they can push their corporate fellating agenda and claim helplessness. Having those 60 votes in the Senate was damned inconvenient for them. They had to push the bill to the left and get Rahm's Blue Cross Dogs to play along and take the heat for it.