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The Enforcer( Rep. Rahm Emanuel is leading the Democratic charge to retake the House next year)
Washington Monthly ^ | (Posted Oct 20, 2005) | By JOSHUA GREEN

Posted on 10/22/2005 10:57:57 AM PDT by NixonsAngryGhost

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Emmanuel epitomizes two traits- agressiveness and psychological intensity:

"He's got this big old pair of brass balls, and you can just hear 'em clanking when he walks down the halls of Congress," says Paul Begala, who served with Emanuel on Clinton's staff. "The Democratic Party is full of Rhodes scholars -- Rahm is a road warrior. He's just what the Democrats need to fight back."

Friends and enemies agree that the key to Emanuel's success is his legendary intensity. There's the story about the time he sent a rotting fish to a pollster who had angered him. There's the story about how his right middle finger was blown off by a Syrian tank when he was in the Israeli army. And there's the story of how, the night after Clinton was elected, Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting "Dead! . . . Dead! . . . Dead!" and plunging the knife into the table after every name. "When he was done, the table looked like a lunar landscape," one campaign veteran recalls. "It was like something out of The Godfather. But that's Rahm for you." . . .

In person, Emanuel projects the hyperactivity of an attack dog straining at the leash. Although he swims and works out several mornings each week before most of his colleagues are out of bed, the exercise evidently does little to drain his energy -- he is constantly fidgeting, gesturing, spinning, always on the move. He's notorious for driving those around him mercilessly: When he joined Clinton's campaign team, he reportedly introduced himself by standing on a table and yelling at the staff for forty-five minutes. "We joke that someone should open a special trauma ward in Washington for people who've worked for Rahm," says Jose Cerda, a veteran staffer. Emanuel, who was reared in the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics, makes no apologies for his style. "If I got worried about that, I'd sit beneath my desk all day," he says. "I don't."

1 posted on 10/22/2005 10:58:00 AM PDT by NixonsAngryGhost
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To: NixonsAngryGhost

Only Paul Begala would fantasize about a ballet dancer's balls.


2 posted on 10/22/2005 11:06:32 AM PDT by paddles
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To: NixonsAngryGhost

Gee, sure doesn't sound like the Emmanuel I knew at the '92 Clinton campaign. Back then we all snickered over him being a ballet dancer.


3 posted on 10/22/2005 11:08:11 AM PDT by joey'smom
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
he was known for taking on the most daunting tasks

Yea, drafting lies, spreading disinformation, destroying those who came forward with truth and showing off his tutu to Democrat media allies.

4 posted on 10/22/2005 11:12:20 AM PDT by A message ( Being a "Progressive" means never having to be truthful to yourself)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost

Funny how big and bad he "supposedly is" when DeLay isn't hammering his @ss! I've seen Emmanuel too many times on Hannity and Colmes. You should see how big and bad he is when Sean confronts him on his own partys corruption! Wimp!


5 posted on 10/22/2005 11:16:37 AM PDT by Bommer
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
... he is constantly fidgeting, gesturing, spinning, always on the move.

That's it! He should be president, he's gotit all! Take the White House an convert it back to Klintoon Whore House.

6 posted on 10/22/2005 11:19:39 AM PDT by Leo Carpathian (FReeeePeee!)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
The dems will pick up seats in 2006, history and the numbers are simply in their favor this election cycle.

Will it make a big difference?

Look for the MSM to pound this theme daily in the coming 2006 election cycle.

The folks at MSNBC should haul in an extra load of paper towels to wipe up the slobber off Chris Mathews desk every night from him drooling at the thought of a dem sweep of the house.

Also remember Peter Jennings telling us in Newt's 1994 sweep into power that Americans had thrown a temper tantrum???

Think that will happen again if the dems win 10 seats???

7 posted on 10/22/2005 11:20:25 AM PDT by Popman (In politics, ideas are more important than individuals.)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
universal college education, universal health care for anyone who works, bringing down the national debt and cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil in half within a decade.

Gee, how about a $25/hr minimum wage too?

8 posted on 10/22/2005 11:20:37 AM PDT by siunevada
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To: NixonsAngryGhost

did Emanuel amass alot of personal wealth with some "special favor" financial services job that he "fell into" after leaving the Clinton administration?


9 posted on 10/22/2005 11:23:03 AM PDT by oceanview
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
Unlike others in the Democratic leadership who seem reluctant to criticize the president....

Where in the world did this come from? That is all they do, 24/7/365.

10 posted on 10/22/2005 11:23:05 AM PDT by Bahbah (Tony Schaffer is a hero)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
---Emanuel got his political education working as a fund-raiser for Mayor Richard Daley's re-election campaign in Chicago---

---yep, just what we need--- the Chicago mob in charge of the House--

11 posted on 10/22/2005 11:25:29 AM PDT by rellimpank (urbanites don' t understand the cultural deprivation of not being raised on a farm:NRABenefactor)
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To: Popman

Considering how poorly the GOP Congress is treating its base, I would not be surprised if the lost the House outright.

I can find no compelling reason to vote for them, other than "they aren't Democrats" (but they ACT like Big SPending Democrats, so what's the difference?)


12 posted on 10/22/2005 11:25:54 AM PDT by Panic in the Streets ("Mayor, I've confirmed the data: the hippies ARE planning a massive jam band concert!"- Eric Cartman)
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To: Leo Carpathian

With all that energy and fidgeting I would suspect he has a meth problem.


13 posted on 10/22/2005 11:30:39 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost

Emanuel is a LOSER.

He operates in the same dying lib media.

He must deal with the insane anti-American kooks in his party.

2006 is another GOP victory.

The overwhelming majority of Conservatives and Republicans will vote in 2006 to maintain the House.

To stay home and allow liberals to take over the House at a time of WAR would be un-American. We can keep the GOP in line with our words, but to stay home makes you no better than a liberal.


14 posted on 10/22/2005 11:30:57 AM PDT by new yorker 77 (FAKE POLLS DO NOT TRANSLATE INTO REAL VOTERS!)
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To: Panic in the Streets

To stay home and allow liberals to take over the House at a time of WAR would be un-American. We can keep the GOP in line with our words, but to stay home makes you no better than a liberal.


15 posted on 10/22/2005 11:32:00 AM PDT by new yorker 77 (FAKE POLLS DO NOT TRANSLATE INTO REAL VOTERS!)
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To: NixonsAngryGhost
"...the agenda he believes Democrats should run on in 2006: universal college education, universal health care for anyone who works, bringing down the national debt and cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil in half within a decade. If expanded, such policies could form the basis of a Democratic version of the Contract With America,...

Gee, Rahm, how much will all this cost and who will pay? Oh, and how do we do all this AND bring down the national debt? Oh wait, I know! We can disband the military entirely and use that money to pay for the giveaways. Amazing, the left works on pure emotion and "feel goodism". As long as it sounds good they think no one will look past the idea to the nuts and bolts of how we actually get all these social programs to come about. These people live in their own little fairyland where all things can be if only you wish for them hard enough.

16 posted on 10/22/2005 11:35:39 AM PDT by Eagles Talon IV
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To: Panic in the Streets
Between now and Nov 2006 you will see lots of "conservative" issues being pushed to get the base placated, docile and in line.

Politics as usual in DC.

Republicans speaking conservative, acting conservative, walking conservative: Voting RINO

Quite frankly, you are right, They are losing me to a protest vote.

17 posted on 10/22/2005 11:36:31 AM PDT by Popman (In politics, ideas are more important than individuals.)
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To: new yorker 77
"To stay home and allow liberals to take over the House at a time of WAR would be un-American. We can keep the GOP in line with our words, but to stay home makes you no better than a liberal."

I agree but tell that to the folks on this forum who are in a snit because they are not getting everything they want..

Sort of reminds me of a kid who threatens to take his football and go home because he can't call every play.

18 posted on 10/22/2005 11:40:13 AM PDT by Eagles Talon IV
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To: Eagles Talon IV

In Nov of 2006 conservatives will vote for the rightward most candidate who is viable. The exclamations of pain that spending is too high and Miers is not extremely rightwing enough will not diminish, and will not affect numbers at all.

It's always, no exceptions, always a question of who is least bad. Never ever who is best.


19 posted on 10/22/2005 11:43:27 AM PDT by Owen
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To: Eagles Talon IV

WE ARE AT WAR

Handing the fight over to liberals by staying home on election day would be a shame any conservative non-voter would carry to their grave. You might as well not be an American at all.


20 posted on 10/22/2005 11:45:22 AM PDT by new yorker 77 (FAKE POLLS DO NOT TRANSLATE INTO REAL VOTERS!)
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