If Emanuel departs for Chicago, forget the compromises -- remember the fights.

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_rahm_goodbye

The Rahm Goodbye

If Emanuel departs for Chicago, forget the compromises -- remember the fights.
Tim Fernholz | September 29, 2010 | web only

snip//

There's little reason to believe Emanuel's departure will lead to changes in White House policy, because it's not his leadership that creates the conflict between the White House and its political base. The source of conflict is Obama's post-partisan nature, and the demographics: Progressives are the smaller chunk of the electorate, conservatives the larger one, and business interests pour money into only one of those two sectors. Moving policy in a progressive direction is a game of inches, but with Emanuel at the helm, the current administration has pulled off landmark victories in health care, financial regulation, and the stimulus bill.

In replacing his fireplug prime minister, President Obama appears likely to tap Pete Rouse, his old Senate chief of staff and a longtime, low-key Washington hand. Rouse doesn't bring Emanuel's profile, nor does he seem likely to seek it, but it might signal a return to a more original Obama. The ascension of Rouse, and economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, favors a mix of advisers from the president's days as a senator. Meanwhile, post-election hires like Emanuel, National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, and perhaps National Security Adviser James Jones are leaving the building.

Emanuel's most significant contribution to the Democratic Party as a staffer, legislator, and operative wasn't his pragmatism but his will to win and his organizational capacity. Some forget it now, but after years of stereotypical Democratic fecklessness, Emanuel brought a ruthless, programmatic partisanship to Democratic politics that, early in his tenure as DCCC chair, even won him begrudging respect among the netroots. He's the only Democratic operative -- aside, perhaps from Michael Whouley -- who has ever made Republicans nervous.

The promise and tragedy of Emanuel's electoral coalition were clear last week, when Democrats announced they would not vote to extend broad-based tax cuts while moderately increasing taxes on the wealthy. It's a popular policy, and many liberals saw the vote as an opportunity go on the offensive, but skittish members facing tough elections panicked as Republicans promised to attack them as tax raisers. It was the kind of collective flop that characterized the pre-2005 Democratic Party. Maybe that's simply because there aren't enough real progressives in office, but even California's Barbara Boxer demurred on the vote.

Emanuel was never, according to a source familiar with his thinking, able to convince the president to be a party leader as well as an officeholder, someone who had to be a partisan and a pragmatist at the same time; the frustration, shared with the left, is part of the reason he may leave early. The president's post-partisan emphasis hurt his clout and that of his staffers, so there's no one to play "Rahmbo," to knock heads together and get Democrats on the same page. It's doubtful that Emanuel's successors will be more effective until Obama decides he's a politician as well as a president. While progressives may not miss his policy advice, we'll come to miss Rahm's politics.

[w4rma]

1. Goodbye! (nt)