Rahm Emanuel : Massachusetts race was winnable (interview with Katie Couric)

Politico ^ | January 27, 2010 | MIKE ALLEN

[maggief]

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” that he has “no doubt” the race for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat was winnable by Democrat Martha Coakley, but the White House was informed of her political peril too late.

Couric, who was in Washington for the State of the Union address, asked Emanuel how “a master political operative” could have let Massachusetts go “down in flames for the Democrats?”

“I, was here at the White House,” Emanuel replied. “As soon as it was brought to my attention, or the White House's attention, we immediately got involved in it — and was very active in it. Any phone call made or any opportunity made, we were involved. …

[maggief]

[Carling]

Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts being “winnable” for a Democrat? Gee, ya think so, Rahm? What a shocker!

[noblejones]

I want some of the pills he must be taking.

[ColdOne]

Rahm No it was not winnable for you or yours, we are MAD, it is just the beginning!

[BlessedBeGod]

Delusional. He thinks the White House could have saved her?

[goodnesswins]

SSSHHHHHHHHH......everyone....let him live in his little bubble!

[Tribune7]

What’s he saying? That some actually think a senate seat in Massachusetts was not winnable for a Dem?

[IamConservative]

Again with the bull squeeze. It has now gone the level of condescension. Real Americans won’t like that.

[Snickering Hound]

Dems didn't want to spend the money on polling until it was way too late. The election was just a formality, there is no way Mass. voters would do the unspeakable and let the martyred Kennedy seat go to anyone else.

[freekitty]

They are just in their own little world. I have never seen such denial.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

huh??? weren’t they just spinning the Dem loss in MassachusettEs as a victory for Obama? Wha’ happened? (snicker)

[bvw]

The political meme that Rahm is putting into play is that the Brown victory was not an Obama defeat, not an Obama rejection — it was a a matter of a bad candidate picked by incompetent state level party officials and a horrible LOCAL campaign.

[shield]

They didn’t have the voter fraud machine in place...they had no time to do that. That’s what he is saying.....

[maggief]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/politics/katie_couric_walks_into_cnn_live_shot_after_wh_lunch_150235.asp

Katie Couric Walks into CNN Live Shot After WH Lunch
By Kevin Allocca on Jan 27, 2010 05:56 PM

Awaiting President Obama’s State of the Union, CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry kept himself entertained between reporting today by ambush-interviewing Wolf Blitzer and John King as they came out of their off-the-record lunch with the president. He also spoke to CBS’ Bob Schieffer and NBC’s Brian Williams.

But maybe the most amusing moment in this clip is when CBS’ Katie Couric walks into the briefing room as Henry is reporting live during “CNN Newsroom.”

(snip - video at link)

[Carling]

They can’t spin reality. Brown ran against the Obama agenda. I’m not sure who Rahm is trying to spin this to ... his boss, perhaps?

[alloysteel]

Well, it WAS winnable.

Sorry, no do-overs. The results were pretty conclusive, “Marcia” Coakley was just not the warmest, most decent human being on the planet. And the election results stand, of such overwhelming margins that it cannot be overturned, even by fiat of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

The long reign of the Kennedy family was successfully challenged, and they have been driven from the throne.

But to quote the Shakespearian play, Julius Caesar, ‘The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.’

[pyx]

From a previous post;

They point out that “to our sorrow” during the last year, President Barak Obama’s tenure in the White House, “You have worked against the State of Israel and the Jewish People”. They remind Emanuel of his recent comment to Israel’s consul general to Los Angeles, in which he is quoted as saying “I have had it with the Israelis”.

“You are not the first Jew in history trying to advance himself at the expense of his people. There were traitors before you such as Josephus Flavius and others, who in all likelihood also celebrated their bar mitzvah but we remember them as traitors, seeking riches and honor, at the expense of their people."

Its astonishing that Rahm Emanuel is deservedly on the receiving end of public condemnation. Rahm and his family being publically branded as traitors, is a very serious public repudiation and in my opinion, its the equivalent of public shunning within the Jewish community.

[HenpeckedCon]

Of course it was winnable for the Rats, all they had to do was nominate Steve Lynch and they would have kept the seat in the Senate, but the unions and moonbats didn't want him to run against their stooge Marcia Croakley.

[Wee-Weed Up]

Well, Rhambo Emmanuelle and Obama have a head start on the midterms. Can’t wait to hear what they say at the end of november.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Rahm sounds a lot like he feels guilty and thinks he’s being blamed and might lose his job. He’s trying to divert blame wherever he thinks it might stick. The truth is that if he and his boss were not in power in the White House, the Democrats might very well have won in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Obama’s campaigning earlier and harder for Coakley would have brought her an even greater defeat.