The Week

You just knew His right-hand man would be called “Emanuel.”

It’s said that Barack Obama has chosen to go the good cop/bad cop route in running his White House. Under this scenario, Obama is the good cop. (We’re skeptical, but will wait to see.) The bad cop is his new chief of staff, Illinois Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel, once famously described in the Washington Post as “a wiry-thin, foul-mouthed ballet dancer from Chicago.” There’s no doubt the tough-talking Emanuel will push hard to get things done. The question is whom he will push. There are reasons to feel-well, “hope” seems too strong a word, but perhaps we should indulge a little optimism-that some of Emanuel’s much-discussed toughness will be directed at members of his own party, because in addition to being a to-the-wall partisan, Emanuel is also a bit of a political realist. When he was placed in charge of the Democrats’ effort to win back the House in 2006, he did not insist on leftist ideological purity in every candidate, regardless of region. So the question is, now that Emanuel will be doing Obama’s work in the White House, will he push the left wing of the Democratic party to conform to a moderate agenda, or will he direct all of his attacks at Republicans and the few remaining moderate Democrats?

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You just knew His right-hand man would be called “Emanuel.”

It’s said that Barack Obama has chosen to go the good cop/bad cop route in running his White House. Under this scenario, Obama is the good cop. (We’re skeptical, but will wait to see.) The bad cop is his new chief of staff, Illinois Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel, once famously described in the Washington Post as “a wiry-thin, foul-mouthed ballet dancer from Chicago.” There’s no doubt the tough-talking Emanuel will push hard to get things done. The question is whom he will push. There are reasons to feel-well, “hope” seems too strong a word, but perhaps we should indulge a little optimism-that some of Emanuel’s much-discussed toughness will be directed at members of his own party, because in addition to being a to-the-wall partisan, Emanuel is also a bit of a political realist. When he was placed in charge of the Democrats’ effort to win back the House in 2006, he did not insist on leftist ideological purity in every candidate, regardless of region. So the question is, now that Emanuel will be doing Obama’s work in the White House, will he push the left wing of the Democratic party to conform to a moderate agenda, or will he direct all of his attacks at Republicans and the few remaining moderate Democrats?