Emanuel likely to accept Obama job

[tekisui]

In his first major move as president-elect, Barack Obama has asked Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a tough-minded tactician with West Wing experience, to serve as his White House chief of staff, Democratic sources tell Politico.

Emanuel has said to friends that he wants and will take the job, but aides said it was not a done deal as of late Wednesday — despite cable news reports that Emanuel had accepted.

Emanuel is “in the process of trying to decide” if he will take the chief of staff post, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told MSNBC.

Obama plans to move swiftly with his transition announcement and could name Emanuel this week, the sources said. He then plans rapid-fire announcements on his economic and national security teams.

If Emanuel — a member of the House Democratic leadership with ambitions to one day be speaker — were to turn it down, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) would likely get the nod, the sources said.

Some Democrats have warned that Emanuel’s take-no-prisoners style could hurt Obama. But the president-elect wants to move fast to push his legislative agenda through the Democratic-controlled Congress — and Emanuel knows the Hill and power politics as well as anyone in town.

“Obama wants a bad cop so he can be good cop 90 percent of the time,” an adviser said.

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/emanuel_likely_to_accept_obama.html