Accidental moment of candor: Rahm Emanuel adviser reveals what is wrong with Democratic politics.

[pa28]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/us/chicago-mayors-race-is-cast-as-a-test-of-liberalism.html

“Unless they get the crazy lefty money machine going nationally, it’s not going to matter that there’s a resurgent left,” said an adviser to Mr. Emanuel who did not want to speak publicly about strategy. “The liberals at Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park can think great thoughts and read poetry for Chuy, but nothing else will happen.”

By "crazy left" he means what was the "moderate left" 20 years ago. AKA people who have been "right" about just about everything ranging from the Iraq war to tax policy, trade policy and more.

It seems to me that this election is one battleground for the future of the Democratic party and Chuy has won something by just forcing a runoff.

Worth a read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/us/chicago-mayors-race-is-cast-as-a-test-of-liberalism.html

[merrily]

1. The lefty money machine? Surely, he jests.

[Man from Pickens]

2. sounds like a confession

that Rahm's political operation is effectively a bribery machine

If you got to pay to play, there's no getting around that.

Also that is outrageously anti-democratic to the core. Plutocratic would be a good adjective, and I would not rule out the use of the term Fascist either.

[pa28]

8. Correct. Here's another case of this corporate Democrat selling out the interests of working people.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Tries To Exempt Financial Firms From Ethics Laws

http://www.ibtimes.com/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-tries-exempt-financial-firms-ethics-laws-1763018

On its face, Chicago’s municipal pension system is an integral part of the Chicago city government. The system is included in the city’s budget, it is directly funded by the city and its board of trustees includes city officials and mayoral appointees. Yet when it comes to enforcing the city’s anti-corruption laws, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is now arguing that the pension funds are not part of the city government at all.

The counterintuitive declaration came this week from the mayor-appointed ethics commission, responding to Chicago aldermen’s request for an investigation of campaign contributions to Emanuel from the financial industry. The request followed disclosures that executives at firms managing Chicago pension money have made more than $600,000 worth of donations to Emanuel. The contributions flowed to the mayor despite a city ordinance -- and an executive order by Emanuel himself -- restricting mayoral campaign contributions from city contractors.

http://www.ibtimes.com/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-tries-exempt-financial-firms-ethics-laws-1763018

[Ed Suspicious]

3. I hate these condescending and dismissive fucks.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. People that don't have money and power don't matter to people like Emanuel and his

staff.

[Binkie The Clown]

5. People without money and power don't seem to matter...

...to most of those people who do have both. They got theirs, why should they give a crap about the rest of us?

[Sherman A1]

6. Agreed

I for one have no plans to contribute to any candidate in the coming election. Not that I have a great deal to offer in cash, but I am done giving it to politicians.

[DRoseDARs]

7. Surprised he didn't drop the "fucking retarded" on us again like his boss did.

[pa28]

9. Same attitude, more discretion.

This guy will probably go far.

[captainarizona]

10. people with out money or power can do this

In arizona undocumented dreamers and american latinos under 18 went door to door trying to get latino voters out to defeat sheriff arpaio. The election authority tried to give latino citizens provisional ballots and tried to drive latinos out of line waiting to vote. Even with this vote suppression arpaio only got 50.7% of the vote. The young people without power or money can still get their relatives and neighbors to the polls. If they can't discourage you from voting they lose as a large turnout stops them. Young people should hold street demonstrations to get free media attention in support of change. Give people hope not despair.

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. Rahm Emanuel jumps on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon

Emanuel, a former political adviser to President Bill Clinton and White House chief of staff to President Obama, has signed up with Ready for Hillary and will host two Chicago fundraisers for the pro-Clinton superPAC on June 5.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/05/09/rahm-emanuel-jumps-on-the-hillary-clinton-bandwagon/

[tularetom]

17. Doesn't that tell you all you need to know about Clinton?

My mom always said if you wanted to know if you could trust a politician, look at who their friends are. She was in many ways a bit of a libertarian wing nut, but over the years I've come to realize she was right on about this.

So when I see pictures of Hillary Clinton hugging Kissinger, read accounts of gazillion dollar speeches to Goldman Sachs, praising bush jr for "bipartisanship", and now rubbing elbows with Rahm Emanuel for a few mil, I'm starting to get a picture of what a Clinton administration might look like.

And it doesn't look very pretty.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Dissing the heartland cafe? THEY GO TOO FAR!

Seriously.

[delrem]

13. Rahm Emanuel is a totally sleazy fuck. That's easy to see. So why does he always win? nt

[nikto]

14. Rahm sucks

[MisterP]

15. "crazy left" is Nixon on trade, Reagan on SS, and Weicker on war

[ND-Dem]

16. rahm is what's wrong with democratic politics. he's the real face of the new democratic party.

[KG]

18. making rahm his CoS told me all i needed to know about obama.

[pa28]

22. Naming Rahm as COS was a clear message.

You knew exactly whose interests were going to be served.

[HereSince1628]

19. They say things trying to convince themselves their 'prevailing wisdom' exists

as a good thing

The aura of genius surrounding Rahm is supposed to glow gold, because he turned on Bill Clinton to the quintessential importance of money and that alone carried a minor Arkansas governor to victory. Well it is if you read bios of Emanuel, edited by Emanuel staff.

Belief in the political branding, and faithfulness to it, is a common feature of professional and amateur sycophants.

Like most myths, there is a hint of truth that lies within...there is no doubt among campaign managers that payments must be made for indebtedness incurred. That fact was nothing new in 1991 and it's been known by all whose age made them voting eligible for longer than now living memory.

Unfortunately despite it's appearance as a jeweled beauty, it's swung as a cudgel, and it is carried with the pride of a mace of regal authority.

The truth is the treasure hoards of Rahmwellian power represent not glorious gold rewards from a citizenry grateful for wise stewardship, but rather are mountains of the same old sort of brass and copper payola that have accumulated to debase politics throughout American history.

What is really different with this version of corruption?? Perhaps only that it was enshrined as a core belief in those controlling the national democratic playbook as The Golden Rule: Those with the Gold Rule.

[Art_from_Ark]

20. I wouldn't exactly call Clinton a "minor" governor

He was the longest-serving governor in Arkansas's history (actually, a record he shares with Orval Faubus, which can never be equalled now), the chairman of the Democratic Governor's Association, and the keynote speaker at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

[HereSince1628]

21. All true... yet he was little known to the public

and the state he governed, with due respect, wasn't at the center of nation policy debates or news during Clinton's governorship. So people outside Arkansas had quite little familiarity with the context and accomplishments of his governorship

[mucifer]

23. Chuy is sinking pretty bad in the polls.

rahm is ahead by 16 points.