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Rahm pick 'refutes' call for bipartisanship

By Andrea Billups (Contact) | Sunday, November 16, 2008

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President-elect Barack Obama promised daughters Malia and Sasha a new puppy when they move into the White House in January.

But with the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, some are speculating that Mr. Obama already will have a political pit bull to occupy a watchdog place of power right outside the Oval Office.

Mr. Emanuel, the brash Illinois congressman and Chicago political operative known for his fundraising prowess, brings a bracing partisan edge to the thoughtful and chill public personality projected by Mr. Obama, whose campaign pledge was to move far from politics as usual in Washington.

"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long," Mr. Obama said at his emotional and historic election night rally in Chicago's Grant Park.

And yet, with the Emanuel pick, political opponents say they are left to wonder if those words were simply empty, gassy "come together" rhetoric, far removed from the new president's intention to govern as the president of all the people once he takes office.

"Rahm Emanuel is clearly a hyperpartisan whose naming undermines the very premise of Obama's candidacy," says Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz. "Obama said he was going to be someone who exhibited change and who would reach across the aisle, and yet he chooses one of the most partisan political insiders in Washington to run his White House."

True, Mr. Emanuel's Democratic legacy is the stuff of Hollywood, the oft-recounted anecdotes of his political life at once humorous, vicious and theatrical. He is reported to have inspired the Josh Lyman character on television's "West Wing," and one of his two brothers, Ariel, served as the inspiration for Hollywood uber-agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage" show. His own mother reportedly calls him by his nickname: Rahmbo.

As ruthless people go, he's an 11 on a scale of 10; one political friend jokingly called him "a cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache." He was a ballet dancer growing up, and some have speculated that the rigors, pain and intense discipline of the dance helped shape his inner-moxie and drive to plow ahead in politics.

Among the better stories from his past: Mr. Emanuel once employed "Godfather"-style tactics and sent a political operative a stinking, dead fish to signal his disapproval. During his days in Little Rock working on former President Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, Mr. Emanuel shook up a dinner meeting by stabbing a steak knife into a table and screeching "Dead!" - a la "Animal House" - after reciting the names of a list of political detractors.

He also seems well aware of his public image as aggressive and not exactly lovable. At a Washington Press Club dinner in February, where he was among the guest speakers, Mr. Emanuel tried to make fun of his infamy, noting that he was much different from his congressional colleague, Sen. John Cornyn, who was also a speaker.