Posted on 03/01/2010 1:16:15 PM PST by STARWISE
Rahm Emanuel regularly swims at 5:30 a.m., sometimes with his children in tow, so that he can get to the office about 7. Lindsey Graham doesnt do business in the morning. Nothing good happens before 9:30, he declares.
Emanuel, a fast-talking Chicago native, made his name as a top aide to President Bill Clinton. Graham, raised in small-town South Carolina, helped manage the Republican effort to remove Clinton from office.
Emanuel is an observant Jew who volunteered at a military supply depot in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. Graham is a churchgoing Southern Baptist who became an Air Force lawyer.
And yet, at a time when voters are clamoring for bipartisan cooperation in Washington, this unlikely pairing of White House chief of staff and Southern senator represents one of the highest-level conduits between the polarized political parties.
Graham has had more in-person meetings with Emanuel than any other Republican lawmaker, roughly eight or 10 since Obama took office, aides said. The two men also talk regularly by phone.
The main topic these days is Guantanamo Bay how to close the military prison on the U.S. Navy base there. But their conversations are broader than that, embracing a wide-ranging deal pitched by Graham that would shut down the prison; provide funding to move detainees to Thomson, Ill.; keep the Sept. 11 trials out of civilian courts; and create broad new powers to hold terror suspects indefinitely.
If their odd-couple conversations come to fruition, the two men could chart a course for U.S. detainee policy for years to come. And it starts with two guys who clearly see a little of themselves in each other.
There are differences between Chicago and South Carolina, but you know there are some similarities, too. Hes pretty good at throwing elbows, Graham said of Emanuel. I think hes smart. ... Everything hes ever told me about what the administration would do, they did. When he tells me something about where the president stands, Ive found it to be solid and accurate.
I just like Lindsey. I just like him, but it doesnt blind me to our differences, Emanuel said in an interview with POLITICO. What I knew about him and read about him is only half the story. Hes just a very honorable person to work with. Hes easygoing, but clear-eyed about his objectives. Even when you disagree, he doesnt make it personal.
Emanuel says the cultural chasm between the two men isnt much of an obstacle, though he sometimes needles Graham about it, saying, Senator, a doughnut is not a bagel, even though they both look the same.
Thus far, Emanuel and the administration have publicly neither endorsed nor rejected Grahams proposed deal. But Emanuel has been unusually public in declaring Graham to be the linchpin for Obamas hopes of closing Guantanamo. You cant close Guantanamo without Sen. Graham, Emanuel told The New York Times last month.
Some observers think Graham can ultimately deliver the votes of a bipartisan bloc of centrist senators who have qualms about aspects of Obamas terrorism policies but also believe the Bush administration snubbed Congress and was too extreme.
Emanuel is reportedly simpatico with Graham on the Guantanamo issue, but others in the Obama administration, such as Attorney General Eric Holder, are not. Where the president will ultimately come down is unknown.
I think the Guantanamo issue is one where [Emanuel] understands what Im trying to do, Graham said. There are things that I want to do that require the administrations buy-in. There are things they want to do that require my buy-in. ... He understands you can only go so far by yourself.
Aides to Graham and Emanuel said the two men had their first substantive dealings during the 2008 presidential campaign, when they were tapped by Obama and the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, to hammer out the rules and formats for the debates.
They got it done in a very expeditious way, said GOP lobbyist Charlie Black, who was a top adviser to McCain. Compared to the way some of these things go, it came out very satisfactory to both campaigns.
I just found [Emanuel] good to deal with. ... We formed a relationship that allows us to just pick up the phone, Graham said.
But Emanuel remembers their first interactions taking place years ago on Capitol Hill. When I was in the House, Id walk over to my caucus office building and a lot of times hed be walking to the Senate and wed walk and talk for 200, 300, 400 feet, the Obama aide said.
The chief of staff said the rancor between the parties is near an all-time high at the moment but there are still some exchanges like that taking place. Theres more of it that goes on than you think and not enough to meet whats necessary, he said.
Graham also represents a more centrist voice when it comes to climate change, another topic of his chats with Emanuel. Former presidential adviser David Gergen said some of Emanuels dealings with Graham may be more about gathering information about Republicans positions than hammering out actual legislation.
Rahm has a large social network that includes Republicans, and hes been that way as long as Ive known him. ... Rahms realistic enough to know it also doesnt lead necessarily to productive legislative outcomes [and] to know a friendship with Lindsey Graham isnt going to change that, Gergen said.
It seems a bit odd at first blush, but its really not that mysterious, said John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Clinton. Emanuel and Graham are both no-BS kinds of guys, one with a South Carolina accent, one with a Chicago accent.
Podesta noted that when Obama met McCain in Chicago after the election, Graham and Emanuel flanked the two principals. As it turns out, the two consiglieri seem to have gotten along better than the presidential contenders.
The outreach to McCain was genuine. I think McCain sort of decided to go on a different track. I dont begrudge that. Its just what it is, Podesta said.
That has led some to wonder whether Graham has stepped into a vacuum left by McCain. It used to be obviously, in some ways, that McCain played this role on the Republican side, said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) Clearly, for whatever reason, including Im sure his Republican primary challenge, McCain has done a 180 on a lot of these issues.
Nearly every report of dealings between Graham and Emanuel elicits scorn and suspicion from liberal observers. Meet Lindsey Graham, our new attorney general, liberal blogger and defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt wrote. Scott Horton of Harpers Magazine slammed Emanuels dealings with Graham as appeasement.
Conservatives are none too happy with Graham, either. Republican committees in Charleston and Lexington, S.C., have criticized him in recent months for his efforts to make common cause with the White House on climate change and immigration.
While Graham hasnt been shy about drawing attention to his dealings with the White House, he has continued to join in some of his partys sharpest attacks on the Obama administrations national security team including calling for the depature of Obamas top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan. He has lost my confidence, Graham said on Fox.
One longtime friend and colleague of Emanuels, Bruce Reed of the Democratic Leadership Council, said the Obama adviser is such a unique character that any friendship or negotiation Emanuel enters into is certain to involve sharp contrasts.
If Rahm could only deal with people on the basis of identity politics, who would he talk to? Reed quipped.
My husband couldn’t sit like that....
;)
Whenever Graham does something to tick you off, send a little donation to JD Hayworth.
~~~
Which reminds me: I won’t be surprised at the
filthy and curious attacks on JD coming from
‘interesting’ places. Rahm/-0/lamestreams are
probably plotting his crucifixion campaign now
with all their nasty lawyers and operatives.
If we can catch them in the act, McCain is toast.
South Carolina needs to be encouraged to de-elect Graham.
I really, REALLY wish we could, but SC has no recall law. We have to wait until 2014 to toss his ass out on the sidewalk.
Uber RINO Lindsey Ping
"Republican by day, Democrat by night."
Want on or off this ping list?
Just FReepmail me.
Gramnesty must have a convention going on in his closet....
No, he is not. Visiting Israel does not make one "an observant Jew."
Yet another reason to dislike this RINO! Lindsey is a national discrace.....I hate that South Carolina sent such a person to DC
Must be Butt Bros.
Birther Conspiracy Roils GOP Campaigns
*snip*
... the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a memo to campaign managers suggesting a few ways to prevent their candidates from becoming the next Martha Coakley.
Create sufficient pressure for your moderate opponents to be forced to weigh in on the positions of your far right opponents, argued the memo writers.
The memo set up a hypothetical scenario in which a front-running candidate would have to respond to someone who questioned whether President Barack Obama was a natural-born citizen of the United States. The so-called birther question, they argued, could trip up Republicans just as well as questions about the gold standard or nullification of federal laws.
I love it when Mark Levin calls Graham... “Goober Graham.” A perfect label.
It’s hard to determine who’s the Bottom in that relationship. They’re both such flaming queens.
I have been blocked from posting at that site. I tried posting as a guest.
Wonder who informed them to look for me...
Ah, but I’m just a conspiracy nut, seeing stuff where there’s really nothing.
(sigh)
If somebody could post my Red Flags link there I’d be glad. I wonder if it’s the IP address they’re blocking... Maybe I’ll check on my daughter’s computer later.
Anyway, the link is http://butterdezillion.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/red-flags-in-hawaii-2/
posted the link...
Some very evil people inhabit our nations capital these days, this nation needs a house call from Orkin.
Now is the picture that gives the American people their hope!
All SC people know about Lindsey is that Strom endorsed him.
Thank you.
Now I’m going to see what all variables make a difference as to whether I can post comments there...
Now they let me post. I wonder what that means.
Barack Obama has said Rahm Emanuel tells him all he needs to know about Israel. Emanuel's closenesss to the Jewish community was seen as "a tiny factor, if at all" in his hiring as Obama's chief of staff.
November 9, 2008, By Ron Kampeas, JTA
Rahm Emanuel: attack dog, policy wonk, committed Jew
WASHINGTON (JTA) Political insight, killer in a fight, Yiddishkeit its an inseparable package when it comes to Rahm Emanuel, say those who know President-elect Barack Obamas pick for White House chief of staff.
Since his days as a fund-raiser and then a "political adviser" read: enforcer for President Clinton, Emanuel has earned notoriety as a no-holds-barred politico. Accept the good with the bad because its of a piece, said Steve Rabinowitz, who worked with Emanuel in the Clinton White House. "He can be a mamzer, but hes our mamzer," said Rabinowitz, using the Yiddish term for "bastard," speaking both as a Democrat and a Jew. "Sometimes thats what you need."
The apocrypha is legendary, if somewhat hard to pin down: Jabbing a knife into a table screaming "Dead!" as colleagues shout out the names of political enemies, sending a dead fish to a rival, screaming at friends and enemies alike for no good reason.
Even his allies acknowledge that Emanuel, 48, can be on edge at times. "Hes not running for Miss Congeniality, ever," said US Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill), who has known Emanuel since they worked at Illinois Public Action, a public interest group, in the early 1980s. "He is relentless, he doesnt give up, but in a strategic way. Hes good at figuring out other peoples self interest and negotiating in a way that comes out in his favor."
Emanuel, an Illinois congressman who boasts strong ties to his local Jewish community and the Jewish state, also can be seen as embodying Obamas stated commitment to Israeli security and diplomacy: During the first Iraq war, Emanuel flew to Israel as a volunteer to help maintain military vehicles. Two years later he was an aide to Clinton, helping to push along the newly launched Oslo process. Within four months of joining the US House of Representatives in 2003, Emanuel had an impressive command of the issues, said Michael Kotzin, the director of the Chicago Jewish Community Relations Council.
"He gave a thorough and insightful analysis of issues on our agenda," said Kotzin, adding that Emanuel was responsive to his Jewish constituents. Obama chose Emanuel to escort him to a closed-door meeting with leaders of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in June, a day after the final Democratic primaries. One thing Emanuel is not, all agree, is the president-elects conciliatory signal to the Jewish community after a campaign fraught with worries that Obama would tip toward even-handedness in dealing with the Middle East.
Emanuel was chosen strictly for his political skills and his closeness to Obama, said Rabinowitz, whose public relations firms does work with both Jewish groups and the Democratic Party and its affiliates. His closeness to the Jewish community "would be a tiny factor, if at all" in the hiring, Rabinowitz said. The Arab and pro-Arab media have made much of the fact that Emanuels father is Israeli, and Benjamin Emanuel didnt improve matters in an interview with Maariv.
"Obviously," the senior Emanuel told the Israeli daily, "hell influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldnt he? What is he, an Arab? Hes not going to be mopping floors at the White House." By the time JTA reached the elder Emanuel, a physician, it was clear his son had asked him to keep away from reporters. Picking up the phone, he said, "This is Benjamin Emanuel, the plumber," and asked a reporter to call back in a week, after hed spoken in person to Rahm "if Im still alive then."
In truth, some observers say, Obamas Jewish supporters and Emanuels Arab critics are oversimplifying by painting the new chief of staff as a guardian of Israeli interests. Emanuel will be a strong voice for Israeli security but also one with the standing to cast a skeptical eye on some Israeli claims.
"Rahm, precisely because hes a lover of Israel, will not have much patience with Israeli excuse-making, Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The Atlantic, suggested on his blog. So when the next prime minister tells President Obama that as much as hed love to, he cant dismantle the Neve Manyak settlement outpost, or whichever outpost needs dismantling, because of a) domestic politics; b) security concerns; or c) the Bible, Rahm will call out such nonsense, and it will be very hard for right-wing Israelis to come back and accuse him of being a self-hating Jew.
Tom Dine, a past president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a senior policy adviser to the Israeli Policy Forum, concurred and said that Emanuels knowledge of the issue will mean is are dotted and ts are crossed. "God help the national security staffer who incorrectly spells an Israel town name," Dine said. "Having said that, he has to be very careful, he cant step on the toes of the secretary of state, the national security advisers, of Joe Biden," the vice president-elect whose emphasis will be foreign policy.
The significance of Emanuels Jewishness is more how unremarkable it is that an unapologetic Jew should rise so far, said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "He has never hesitated to wear it proudly on his sleeve," Foxman said.
During Emanuels freshman run for Congress in 2002, a backer of his Democratic primary opponent in the largely Polish district noted his service in Israel during the first Iraq war. Emanuel shrugged off the accusation as true and won by a wide margin.
Rahm's brother, Hollywood super agent and liberal activist Ari Emanuel, also has been unapologetic about his support for Jewish causes. He sparked headlines when he called on people in the movie industry to blackball Mel Gibson over The Passion of the Christ. Both brothers have inspired a television character: Rahm is said to be the model for Josh Lyman on The West Wing, and Ari more famously is immortalized as the agent/predator Ari Gold on the HBO series "Entourage.
A year ago, honoring his Hollywood agent brother for supporting children with learning disabilities, Rahm Emanuel recalled returning from Israel in 1967. More than his brothers, Emanuel remembered, he tended to darken in the Israeli sun. He was scooting around on his bike when a bigger kid grabbed it, saying black kids werent welcome in the neighborhood. Ari, Rahm recalled, "beat the crap out of him"not because of the bike, not to protect his brother, "but because of what he said about black kids." Rahm defended his brother in terms he might have applied to himself: "Where others see fierceness, I see loyalty. Where others see intensity, I see passion."
In general, Emanuel is fiercely loyal to his family, and they were a consideration in his hesitation to take work hes always dreamed of having he waited two days to say yes. Obama, in his statement announcing the pick, recognized the pain it would cause Emanuels wife, Amy, and their children, Zach, Ilana and Leah."
Emanuel was born to an Israeli doctor (who was a member of the Irgun terrorist group) who married a local woman after he moved to Chicago in the mid-1950s. Rahm speaks Hebrew and fondly recalls summering each year in Israel as a child including just after the 1967 Six-Day War. Rahm's wife converted to Judaism.
He and his wife attend Anshe Sholom, a Modern Orthodox synagogoue in Chicago, and send their children to Jewish day school. His rabbi, Asher Lopatin, recalls Emanuel approaching him just before Rosh Hashanah this year, telling him that an effort to put together a bailout package for the hard-hit stock market before the holiday had failed and asking whether it was permissible to take conference calls on the holiday in order to salvage the bill. "I asked, Is it as serious as people say it is? " the rabbi recalled. "He said, Without this bill there could be a meltdown of the financial system. "
Lopatin considered the effect such a failure would have on children and the poor. "I felt it was a case of pikuach nefesh, " the commandment that places the saving of life above all other commandments, Lopatin said, and gave Emanuel the OK. The somberness of the request couldnt quell Emanuels acerbic wit. Lopatin recalled Emanuels teasing, wondering whether the status of the rabbis 401(k) investments wasnt also behind the hechsher. "He kibitzed with me about that," the rabbi said.
Emanuel repeated the story, to raucous laughter, in caucus meetings on the Hill an example of how he will skid in the same sentence from Judaism to a liberal commitment to social reforms to hard-nosed politics, Schakowsky said. "Theres barely a caucus meeting where he doesnt make some reference to being Jewish, often in a humorous way," she said.
But his Jewishness does more than inform his sense of humor, Emanuels rabbi said. He has a very deep commitment and feel for Yiddishkeit," Lopatin said, "and its a Yiddishkeit thats about tikkun olam, having a positive effect on the world."
SOURCE http://jta.org/news/article/2008/11/09/1000859/rahm-emanuel-attack-dog-policy-wonk-committed-jew
=========================================
January 6, 2010, israelnationalnews.com
Israel Defense Forces Army Radio reported that Rahm Emanuel met with Israel's Consul in Los Angeles, Yaki Dayan, 2 1/2 weeks ago. Et voila.......in no time flat, the US was streaming two ships into the Persian Gulf armed with anti-missile missiles. How's that for quick service?
Yaki Dayan reported to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem that Emanuel said: If there is no progress in the diplomatic process, we will reduce our involvement and effort in the conflict, because we have other matters to deal with.........ROTFL........that Rahm is such a kidder (/snix).
SOME AMERICANS MIGHT ASK Does it seem like Emanuel is over-reaching? Having secret meetings and discussions with foreign diplomats? ANSWER Keep in mind, the Israelis are Rahm's bosom buddies. Rahm doesn't have to ask anybody's "permission" to meet with his friends.
One of Emanuel's proudest moments during his tenure in the Clinton administration was when he directed the details of the "Mideast Peace ceremony" (the 127th "Mideast Peace ceremony" to date). Rahm choreographed the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony. This event touched Emanuel's political sensibilities due to his lifelong personal and family ties to Israel. No one knows how Emanuel felt when, predictably, war broke out between the "peace partners" shortly thereafter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.