Obama's main man in the White House, Rahm Emanuel: A ultra-rich conservative Wall Street operative

[Better Believe It]

A man of the people .... some people .... the richest people .... the top 1% people .... the top 1/10th of 1% of the people.

A man who represents and fights for the haves and have-mores.

Screw everyone else.

Emanuels sordid resume:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#Career_in_finance

[jefferson_dem]

1. Emanual as an "ultra-rich conservative..."

Goodness. You live in a funny world.

[Cant trust em]

2. He had a 4 year career in finance! Oh no! nt

[Better Believe It]

3. 16 million bucks for corporate deal making and $350,000 for attending 6 meetings in 2000. Not bad!

And when serving on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) the agency was "plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities." How shocking! Who would have thunk?

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention."

So ya think Mr. Emanuel will be heading back to Wall Street to cash in on his four year "job" as White House Chief of Staff? You can count on it!


----------------------------



After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel resigned from his position in the Clinton administration and became an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002.<28> In 1999, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office. Emanuel made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, according to Congressional disclosures.<28><29> At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.<28>

Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton in 2000. His position earned him at least $320,000, including later stock sales.<30><31> He was not assigned to any of the board's working committees, and the Board met no more than six times per year.<31>

During his time on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities.<31><32> The Obama Administration rejected a request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel's time as a director.<31>

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for Congress.<33>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#Career_in_finance

[Undercurrent]

23. Wealth alone

is not the only determinative factor. It's what's in the heart, and mind of a person.

In American politics, for example, FDR, JFK, RFK, and Ted were all rich.

[Thrill]

4. Nothing in Rahm's voting record in the House backs up your claims

Just because he is rich doesn't mean he's for the rich. Your logic is twisted.

[Better Believe It]

9. You're right. He has been a strong fighter for the working class and a leader

of progressive causes from day one.

And if you believe that, can I interest you in buying the Brooklyn Bridge?

[Thrill]

26. Back your claims up with a voting record?

If not, stop talking out of your ass

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. What evidence do you have that he is conservative?

:shrug:

[Better Believe It]

11. I was being polite when I wrote conservative. I meant reactionary.

Check his voting record and actual political positions out.

And check out how he tried to sabotage the election campaigns of liberals in Democratic primaries.

Now don't pretend that's news to you.

[cali]

14. his voting record is hardly reactionary. it's pretty solidly dem

and so are the majority of his political positions.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. A reactionary? You mean the guy who voted with Democrats 98.5% during his last term?

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/house/party-voters/

[saltpoint]

31. A lot of folks live in districts where a far more conservative Democrat or

a Republican represents them in the Congress and would LOVE to have someone with Emanuel's almost-100% liberal voting record in there instead.

Your claim is baseless.

[pink-o]

33. Well, we know he went all-out for Sherrod Brown to run in Ohio.

A guy who's done a good job promoting progressive causes, may I add.

As for the rest of your screed: Rahm is further to the right than I am, that's for sure. But then so is Obama, so are Bill and Hilary Clinton. The Clintons gave the DLC legitimacy, yet they don't provoke the same outrage as Rahm Emanuel.

I wonder what the difference is? Let me see...if you cut him, does he not bleed...?

[nemo137]

41. careful there.

Some criticisms of Mr. Emmanuel do have a slight tinge to them, but this one seems to be garden variety party infighting and not secret hand of shadowy advisers.

[pink-o]

49. I don't know...the "Ultra Rich" thing kinda trips my wires n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. He had a job that didn't pay him in wampum?

:wow:

[invictus]

7. K&R

[wyldwolf]

8. President Obama makes more than you do, too.

[Better Believe It]

10. But he didn't get rich working for the Wall Street or La Salle Street banksters.

So do you think Emanual will actually finish four years in the White House or do you think he'll head back to LaSalle Street or graduate to Wall Street in New York in order to cash in on his White House services to the banksters and corporate crooks?

[wyldwolf]

15. So?

:shrug: When it becomes illegal, or you can prove some wrongdoing, come back.

[SIMPLYB1980]

12. Rahm thanks you for your concern.

[Better Believe It]

18. Rahm Emanuel's Political History. Nothing to be proud of.

Is that a photo of him gesturing to members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus?


-----------------------------------------

Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?
By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet
Noebmer 7, 2008


Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel is a member of the so-called New Democrat Coalition (NDC), of group of center-right pro-business Congressional Democrats affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Conference, which is dedicated to moving the Democratic Party away from its more liberal and progressive base. Numbering only 58 members out of 236 Democrats in the current House of Representatives, the NDC has worked closely with its Republican colleagues in pushing through and passing such legislation as those providing President Bush with "fast-track" trade authority in order to bypass efforts by labor, environmentalists and other public interest groups to promote fairer trade policy.

Emanuel began his political career as a senior adviser and chief fundraiser for the successful 1989 Chicago mayoral campaign of Richard M. Daley to seize back City Hall from reformists who had challenged the corrupt political machine of this father, Richard J. Daley. Emanuel later became a senior adviser to Bill Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998, serving as Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy, and was credited with playing a major role in shifting the Clinton administration's foreign and domestic policy agenda to the right. Emanuel was the single most important official involved in pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the bill ending Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and Clinton's draconian crime bill, among other legislation.

Leaving the administration in 1998, Emanuel worked as an investment banker in Chicago, where he amassed an $18 million fortune in less than three years prior to being elected to Congress.

As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since 2004, Emanuel has promoted pro-war and pro-business center-right candidates against anti-war and pro-labor candidates in the primaries, pouring millions of dollars of donations from Democrats across the country into the campaigns of his favored conservative minions to defeat more progressive challengers.

Emanuel was a major supporter of the Iraq War resolution that authorized the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, he was the only one of nine Democratic members of Congress from Illinois who backed granting Bush this unprecedented authority to invade a country on the far side of the world that was no threat to the United States at the time. Even more disturbingly, when asked by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" whether he would have voted to authorize the invasion "knowing that there are no weapons of mass destruction," Emanuel answered that he indeed would have done so, effectively acknowledging that his support for the war was not about national security, but about oil and empire. Not surprisingly, he has also voted with the Republicans in support of unconditional funding to continue the Iraq War and has consistently opposed efforts by other Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from that country and related Congressional efforts to end the war.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.alternet.org/election08/106189/is_obama_screwing_his_base_with_rahm_emanuel_selection/

[SIMPLYB1980]

19. OHH NOOEESS!!11! ELEVENS!!11!

[invictus]

27. "Emanuel was a major supporter of the Iraq War resolution"

He is a neo-con asshole.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CakeGrrl]

16. And how much are the Clintons and John Edwards worth?

More than Emanuel, I believe.

And he worked for the Clintons. Apart from Clinton's and Edwards' sexual peccadilloes, people were praising their Democratic bona fides.

[Better Believe It]

20. What do you think a "bona fide Democrat" is?

Explain what you mean .... what makes some politician an authentic Democrat outside of that person calling themself a Democrat?

I would expect you to lay out some basic principals and stands on important issues that qualifies one to be a bona fide Democrat.

Can you do that?

[CakeGrrl]

24. That's "PRINCIPLES", and my point

is that it isn't necessarily about net worth.

There is no operational definition of a Democrat, and good luck trying to establish one around here.

Apart from that, there's a larger debate about who's got more control, the President who is less wealthy than his Chief of Staff, or the Chief of Staff himself. Are you inferring that Emanuel is the shot-caller and the kingmaker of this administration?

Otherwise, what's the point of your OP?

[Better Believe It]

25. Obama put him in charge and is calling the shots with Obama's approval

[phleshdef]

35. His point is to ignore Rahm's extremely Liberal voting record and troll people for a reaction.

[Better Believe It]

21. Duplicate

Deleted duplicate

[WeekendWarrior]

17. The word is "an" nt

[dionysus]

29. couldnt find any smear pieces today, so this is your fallback? rahm is a douche but yet you fail...

:rofl:

[saltpoint]

30. Perhaps you should move to Bolivia or Taiwan or someplace far, far

away from the United States, where, currently, Barack Obama is President, having won an impressive victory last November in the general election.

Mr. Emanuel was Mr. Obama's selection for Chief of Staff.

Deal with it.

[Romulox]

38. "Love it or leave it!"

:eyes:

[saltpoint]

50. Star Trek? Distant worlds?

I could love them, I suppose. Why not?

[VMI Dem]

32. I think you have the world record for unrecs.

[phleshdef]

34. His voting record and issue stances make the original post and epic fail.

http://www.ontheissues.org/IL/Rahm_Emanuel.htm

Stances that are widely regarded as Liberal:

Highly Pro-Choice
Huge on Civil Rights
Pro-Gay Marriage
Pro-Gun Control
Highly favors Progressive Taxation
Strongly Favors a path to citizenship for Illegal Immigrants
Opposes more Military Expansion
Favors more string limits on campaign finance
Strongly favored ending the Iraq War
Strongly favors alternative energy

Stances that are widely regarded as Conservative:

Supporter of Free Trade


All other stances could pretty much go either way. His record shows him to be a strong environmentalist, an advocate for civil rights and a progressive in just about every major issue of the day. Thats his RECORD, those are his VOTES. His ACTIONS show him to be a LIBERAL and there is nothing you can do to refute that. NOTHING.

Conservative my ass.

[saltpoint]

36. Part of politics is ya gotta have some tough guys under the basket who

aren't afraid to throw an elbow or two.

Rahm's worldly. He's tough, he's street-smart, and he knows how the game is played.

When Democrats wimp out we assail them without mercy; now when one is in there who can shove back, the OP is squawking.

Sorry. You make no sense berating Emanuel when he's an excellent choice for a tough job.

[Jennicut]

37. Wealth can have nothing to do with where you fall on the political spectrum.

Poorer people can be total Rethugs and the very rich can be liberals. You need something else in your argument besides how much money a person has made.

[Romulox]

39. LOL. nt

[dionysus]

42. so the kennedy brothers were frauds or fake liberals because they were rich? FDR?

har dee har har. :eyes:

[Romulox]

44. Why are most of your posts an attempt to get someone to agree with an outrageous proposition

that YOU have made up? :shrug:

[dionysus]

45. uh... jennicut said wealth doesn't make one conservative or liberal, you threw an obvious sarcastic

LOL... i pointed out some rich liberals.

what don't you understand, or did i miss the meaning of your statement?

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blogslut]

43. Sigh

First time I visit GD-P today and one of your oh-so-predictable posts is at the top of the page.

I will admit that this time you didn't make your usual attempt to cite someone else's article as a reflection of your never-ending contempt for Obama.

Getting weary?

[dionysus]

47. i give him points for sheer persistance in the face of futility.

[Hippo_Tron]

46. The constitution doesn't endow Rahm with the authority to do anything

If your problem is with the President and his policies then your problem is with the President and his policies. Rahm serves at the pleasure of the President.

[anonymous171]

48. Um sorry to break it to you, but all of our politicians are like this.

You need money to win, and so you need to either be part of the moneyed class or kiss their asses in order to get elected.

[boppers]

51. In related news, Obama is not Che. eom