The Truth About Rahm Emanuel - Sheldon Drobny

[Sapphire Blue]

Sheldon Drobny
The Truth About Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel, the DCCC chairman, was given a lot of credit for the success of the Democratic victory in the House. The credit really belongs to the quality of the candidates and the protest vote against the Republican Congress. The fact is that many of Emanuel's hand picked favorite candidates did poorly in the primaries and in the general election.

Even worse, he failed to support 1 candidate in my district, the 10th Congressional District of Illinois.

Dan Seals, a highly qualified African American, was the Democratic candidate in my district running against 3 term incumbant Mark Kirk. Kirk had a 91% record of voting with Bush's legislation including the war in Iraq and the infamous death legislation to habeas corpus. However, Kirk had a 100% record on votes in favor of Israel. Emanuel is a personal friend of Kirk's and is of Israeli heritage. Furthermore, the 10th District has a high Jewish population. Emanuel did not lift a finger to help Dan Seals and he did not openly support Seals which could have made the difference for Seals who lost by about 7000 votes. Instead, he and the other Democrats in the DCCC poured millions of dollars into the Tammy Duckworth race in Henry Hyde's old district, the 6th of Illinois.

(snip)

The fact is that Emanuel's cause is his own power and control. How could the chair of the DCCC put cronyism before country and party? Emanuel may have fooled the nation and his colleagues in the House, but many of us know him as an old time Chicago party hack which was his prime duty as an advisor to President Clinton. He made millions of dollars as an investment banker after leaving the Clinton adminstration. When he ran for Congress in 2002 he called me for financial support and I gave him the maximum contribution. One year later when I was forming Air America Radio I called him for financial help and I got the cold shoulder. He was not the slightest bit interested in progressive talk radio.

Emanuel has opposed Howard Dean's 50-state strategy for the Democratic party, which again shows his short-sighted approach to politics. The Democrats have an excellent opportunity to influence red state voters and build a lasting foundation for the Democratic party. This falls directly against Emanuel's philosophy of concentrating money and power into proteges of Emanuel's. This policy is inopposite to a sensible 50 state grass roots strategy as suggested by Dean.

I suggest that you look at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=245047 at Democratic Underground for a more detailed analysis of Emanuel's leadership of the DCCC. I would suggest that the Democrats got control of the House not because of Rahm Emanuel, but in spite of him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-drobny/the-truth-about-rahm-eman_b_33795.html

[gully]

1. Yikes, I hate this internal war. They all contributed - we won.

We didn't take long to eat our own did we.

[dchill]

2. They all need to stop buffing their nails...

the credit belongs to Rove and Bush. It's just that simple.

[gully]

6. I think it was a collective effort. Our fund raising surpassed theirs

in the end. That's unheard of.

[Nozebro]

4. If you can't refute, kindly stay mute.

nt

[IndyOp]

5. They all contributed? I disagree. Emmanuel and Carville are drags

on our success. Emmanuel was able to raise such big $$ because he had big donors whose beck and call he is at. The Republican Party has for years provided covert funding to the DLC so that they could control part of the Democratic Party -- and I swear that the GOP has been funnelling some money to the DCCC for the same reason.

Emmanuel wants *nothing* from us except our $$ -- he is not going to listen to us and therefore I do not support him.

The only mistake I made in the past few weeks was donating to the DCCC -- the money was mispent. I am happy with the money I donated to the DNC, MoveOn, Vets for Truth, and lots of individual candidates - including Dan Seals.

:kick:

[gully]

7. $$ talks, and we needed it.

eom

[IndyOp]

10. He mis-spent it. He spent $$$$ on ineffectual TV ad campaigns...

What won the election was feet on the ground - MoveOn phone calls, DNC money that rebuilt the party (I know of what I speak here because Indiana now seems to actually *have* a Democratic Party) so that we could organize and defeat them.

Howard Dean, John Kerry, Wes Clark, MoveOn, grassroots, netroots...

Emmanuel and Carville just wasted our money.

[gully]

16. Sorry ads work.

And all of those who contributed deserve credit.

[pberq]

9. The difference beween Republicans and Democrats

is that Republicans toe the party line, taking orders from above.

Democrats, on the other hand, have an internal debate - sometimes this is a problem, but I say that it is much better than having policy dictated from above.

[gully]

18. True, but I wish they'd keep egos out of it. And, I wish they'd debate

the "so and so sucks" shit in private.

[Zodiak]

17. The opening salvo was theirs

The very night of the election, Emanuel came out to take all of the credit and say it was conservative dems that won the day. The next day, Al From, Vilsack, and Clinton all were rejecting the left of the party.

No-one was giving Dean credit at all, and the power play became obvious.

If the DLC had come out ready to share credit with Dean's obvious input, then there would not be this episode of "eat thine own". As it stands, the debate is necessary and warranted.

[robinlynne]

22. Yes, now how can we get carville and rahm out?

[babylonsister]

3. "Emanuel has opposed Howard Dean's 50-state strategy" -

that, in a nutshell, makes me distrust Rahm. Dean's strategy obviously worked.

[gully]

8. I agree. And, I dislike much of what he has said. Dean is correct when

he says this shit should be aired behind closed doors.

[mopinko]

11. monday morning quarterback opinion

rahm lost il-6. that money behind christine cegelis and we win. piss on a growing local party, lose.

[Wiley50]

12. WOW! Thanks for the DU Plug, Shellie!

I find that the people of Jewish descent that I LOVE MOST

are the ones who are not afraid to speak the truth

Even if it is against the Israeli Party Line

GO SHELLIE!

[cali]

20. Strange post

that you even bring up the author's religious/cultural background, not to mention Israel, is just creepy.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. I do wish the DCCC had sent some money to Alaska..

With no help at all except contributions from individual Alaskans (and friends from Outside) and $10,000 from the state party, our wonderful progressive candidate got 40 percent of the vote in Alaska (a terribly expensive state in which to campaign because of our lack of a road system) against a 17-term Republican incumbent. If the DCCC had thrown even $10,000 Diane Benson's way, I think she could have won. We really are tired of Don Young here, but in the end his campaign war chest, made fat by outside corporate contributions, out-financed her by at least 20-1. It's hard to beat those kinds of odds.

[fooj]

14. Rahm is so busy heaping on his own self-adulation...

he's going to ultimately DROWN in it. It's ALL ABOUT HIM! ALL OF THE TIME! :puke:

Newsflash, asshole. It's ISN'T about YOU! It's about the WILL OF THE PEOPLE! BTW- how did the TN race (DLC funded) go? Here's a piece of advice...pander to the RWers and expect a loss. Period.

[nicknameless]

19. Yes. Rahm = DLC = rethug lite.

Citizens have had it with politicians at the corporate trough.
Anyone who ignores the will of the people in favor of corporate interests is going to risk losing.

Rahm is no greater asset to the Dems than any other corporatist.

:puke: is right.

[PATRICK]

15. Perhaps overdone

The key factor traditionally is that each party is intimidated by a strong incumbent and won't waste the time or money especially, but not solely, if there are other issues. Drobny raises the other issues to spread the tar around on one preening contributor. The SINGLE most important issue though is applying pressure and giving hope to ALL dem candidates everywhere, not stupidly or wastefully of course, but not pragmatically sealing the fate of democratic choice- when the incumbent for AND party affiliation currently requires a direct and serious assault on principle. It is to be noted if the numbers are correct that it is pragmatic bargaining that is the danger and risk more than principle and courage. To brag otherwise is to damn the human race anyway.

Everyone contributed indeed, if only because it was a messy, not ideal national campaign in the first place, mainly affirmed by GOP failure rather than Democratic national spokespersons' success. There is a lot of room for improvement everywhere, believe it or not, but Dean comes off absolutely looking the best.

[femrap]

21. I don't trust Rahm nor Chuck....

I give directly to the candidates that I like.

I've wondered about Repugnant funding of the DLC....the old guard of the moderate repugnants. I've even gone to so far to think that the moderate repugnants were taking over the Dem party.

So how do we go about getting rid of Rahm and Chuck?