Rahm Emanuel, su significado

Chris Cillizza en The Fix nos da la lista Ten Things you have to know about Rahm Emanuel.

TIME lo describe así:

Obama may speak beautifully and inspirationally about hope and change, about bipartisan cooperation and a better America. But he clearly understands that you just can't sit around talking about all the good things you want to do when you get to the White House and then expect them to happen all by themselves. Which means you can't hire a staff that's going to gather at work every day, hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
Instead, you bring in a guy like Emanuel, the most hard-headed, no-nonsense, foul-mouthed, smart-as-hell, get-it-done-or-get-out-of-my-way Washington insider of his generation. And you put him in charge of a White House staff whose task it is — and this is putting it conservatively — to conceive, propose, promote and somehow push through Congress the most ambitious agenda any President has carried forth at least since Ronald Reagan rode into town with a lopsided grin in January 1981. "Rahm does not sing Kumbaya," laughs an old friend and colleague. "He barks orders." His hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, calls Emanuel "a brutally effective taskmaster."
Some on both the left and right have criticized Obama's choice of a profane Washington insider for chief of staff as evidence that his promise that he wanted to raise the level of civility in our politics was all talk. But those critics misunderstand the nature of the job and the role Emanuel will be playing. Obama will he the public face and voice of his Administration. He'll set the tone. Emanuel will oversee the hard work of running the White House and pushing the agenda in the halls of Congress. "The job now is to translate the dreams into reality," says Paul Begala, a Clinton White House veteran who knows Emanuel well. "Barack will be the inspiration, Rahm will be the perspiration."
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..he stuck around, worked hard and ended up being the primary force behind some of the biggest legislative successes of Clinton's presidency: the North American Free Trade Agreement, the so-called crime bill and welfare reform.
It's important to note that none of those bills could be defined as part of a liberal agenda. In fact, by pushing for them, Clinton (and Emanuel) angered large numbers of liberal Democrats. And when he ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 cycle, he infuriated some liberals by recruiting conservatives and moderate candidates — people who supported gun rights or opposed abortion — to run in red districts. (That anger faded after Emanuel's recruits helped sweep the Democrats into power in the House two years ago.)
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Does hiring Emanuel mean Obama will be bringing in mostly old Clinton hands to populate offices in the West Wing and Cabinet agencies? Not necessarily. The Democratic bench is deep, but it is deep in large part because so many Democrats earned executive branch experience during the eight years of the Clinton presidency. It would be absurd to imagine Obama bypassing all the experience in the name of bringing in only fresh blood. Undoubtedly, Obama will also bring in loyal campaign staffers and advisers who are not Clinton-era veterans. But installing someone like Emanuel to anchor the White House staff makes eminent sense. As Begala says, "It helps to have someone around who knows where the Situation Room is."

POLITICO así:
The selection of Emanuel, one of the Democratic Party’s most effective operatives over the past two decades, was a powerful signal of Obama’s determination to be effective under the existing rules of the Washington game.
The Chicago Democrat does not share the reflexively liberal views of many of his House colleagues. In the Clinton years, he helped pass the North American Free Trade Agreement and pushed for anti-crime and other centrist measures.Emanuel is a composite of three distinct models of chief of staff: the personal confidant, the prominent public figure and the Washington operative.
“I see Rahm closer to the center, from a policy standpoint, than many of the Democratic Party,” Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), the retiring ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee, told Politico. “He has good instincts when it comes to resolving policy disputes and finding common ground in policy disputes, and that’s going to come in handy as chief of staff.”
--** Republicans immediately attacked Emanuel as a partisan and as a contrast to Obama’s pledge of a “new politics.”“Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides.’ Rahm Emanuel is a partisan insider who played a lead role in breaking Washington,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant, and House Republican leader John A. Boehner called the choice “ironic.”But Emanuel’s will to win, and his years in the ultimate partisan job of leading the Democrats’ House campaigns, masks good relations with members of both parties and a pragmatism that steers him well clear of liberal ideology.
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Emanuel’s arrival will brings a cultural shift to Obama’s circle. The Illinois senator’s campaign staffers took as their motto “no drama” and projected the candidate’s own cool. Emanuel is dramatic, impatient and profane, willing to speak truth to power in the crudest terms and the most difficult moments, as in the heat of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Washington Post así:
Obama's choice of Emanuel -- a veteran of the Clinton years with a quick wit, a legendary temper and a strong grasp of policy -- signaled a potential mood shift away from the serene "no drama" ethos that defined his campaign. It also demonstrated Obama's eagerness to be accompanied by tested allies in navigating his first act in the White House.

En el mismo diario, los Republicanos así:
Republicans pounced on the choice as a partisan pick from an incoming commander in chief who had promised to reach across party lines. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)described it as an "ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center." But other lawmakers, including some who have clashed with Emanuel at times, said they expected him to bring order and energy to the fledgling administration despite his rough edges.

Sobre el Gabinete en general:
With the first indications of who will staff the Cabinet emerging and rumors running rampant inside the Beltway about potential selections, some hints about the kind of administration Obama will attempt to create are surfacing.
"What is beginning to take shape is a group of people that are unified in their purpose but diversified in their perspectives and views," said Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.). "All of them are rooted in pragmatism and reality in the context of accomplishing demonstratable results. He's going to have a group of people that from Day One all know what they're doing, are deeply committed to Senator Obama's philosophy, but isn't a 'yes' group, not at all."

Those around Obama remained tight-lipped about prospective Cabinet nominees, although advisers said he will move quickly to put his national security team in place. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates continues to be the most discussed possibility for a Bush administration holdover, although aides said he has given them no indication of any talks with Obama. Former Navy secretary Richard Danzig, a longtime Obama adviser, also remains among those mentioned for the post.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is said to be interested in becoming secretary of state, although former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and others are also seen as possibilities. With Connecticut Democrat Christopher J. Dodd's announcement yesterday that he will remain as chairman of the Senate banking committee, Kerry is next in line to take over the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee from Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
One high-profile and potentially controversial candidate for a Cabinet post to emerge yesterday was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a possible head of the Environmental Protection Agency, according to sources familiar with the transition process.

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