I think this is easily one of the most over-played stories in recent months. It’s attributable to the fact that lots of people inside the beltway find Rahm fascinating and hilarious. The problem is that most of the people outside the beltway either have no clue who he is or have a vague sense that he curses a lot, doesn’t like letting crises to go to waste, and — maybe, if they’ve really been paying attention — that he is politically pragmatic. It’s just not that interesting a news story. Heck, it’s not even news yet. He’s just thinking about the job.

All that said, for a Democrat, he might well make a good Chicago mayor. I don’t know enough about Chicago’s problems, but if they’re like other big-city problems, I think Democrats could do a lot worse than Rahm. I think lots of big cities could use cutthroat mayors. And Rahm is nothing if not cutthroat. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prefer to see a Republican. But as someone who has only lived in cities where Republicans are outnumbered at least 5-to-1 (New York, Baltimore and DC — if you don’t count a brief sojourn in Prague), I’m used to differentiating between bad Democrats, awful Democrats, and tolerable Democrats.