CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Jan. 7, 2009 – 4:19 p.m.
Emanuel: Democratic Warrior’s Bipartisan Side
By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff
When Barack Obama tapped Illinois Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel to be his White House chief of staff last November, some critics questioned how well the hire conformed with the president-elect’s pledge to reach out to Republicans in addressing the big issues facing the nation.
Emanuel, after all, has played some fiercely partisan roles during his nearly two decades in public life: as a political “fixer” in the administration of President Bill Clinton, as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) during the party’s successful 2006 drive to claim control of the House, and in his most recent role as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
But those who have closely followed Emanuel’s public policy career recognize another side to his political persona. Emanuel can be as tough-minded as pragmatist in reaching across the aisle to achieve policy goals as he is a tough-minded partisan on many other occasions.
An early hint of that operating style came in 2003, midway through the first year of his freshman term in the House of Representatives, when Emanuel found himself sharing a stage at a press conference with veteran Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton .
They were an odd pairing, as Burton had spent six years dogging Clinton White House denizens about ethics issues as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee when the GOP controlled the House. Emanuel had once excoriated Burton by accusing him of lying to the public and abusing his power as chairman in investigating the Clinton administration.
But on July 25, 2003, having just joined forces with Burton and others to win passage of a prescription drug reimportation bill, Emanuel was in kidding mood about his past run-ins with Burton. “It’s great to work with you without my lawyer present,” he joked to Burton as they joined several other members of both parties to praise the legislation.
Emanuel had, in fact, been working diligently with Republican colleagues for weeks — even engaging in nighttime House floor debates on the issue, long after other lawmakers had hit the cocktail-party circuit — to build bipartisan support for the bill in the face of massive resistance from the pharmaceutical industry and Republican congressional leaders.
More recently, Emanuel teamed up with Republican Reps. Ray LaHood, a colleague and friend from Illinois, and Jim Ramstad of Minnesota on an effort to expand the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which Emanuel helped create as a Clinton aide.
Though he entered Congress during an era of intense partisan division in Congress, Emanuel stood out among House leaders for emphasizing alliances with Republicans even when it hurt him among fellow Democrats.
On the surface, it may be hard to reconcile Emanuel’s insistence on reaching outside his party’s ranks to build legislative coalitions with his well-earned reputation for throat-throttling partisan politics and efforts to intimidate adversaries.
But those who know Emanuel well, allies and critics alike, say he seeks the political center both to achieve the enactment of policy and to score points with the public for his party — goals that can be perfectly complementary.
“You decide what you think is a good policy for the country. You do everything you can to raise the political stakes around that issue, and you work with the other side try to get things done,” said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen , Emanuel’s successor as DCCC chairman, who added that he shares that outlook with Emanuel. “People who think Rahm is into politics just for blood sport have it totally wrong. It’s much more a means of getting things done, and the proof of that is he has been willing to reach across the aisle and compromise.”
If the policy doesn’t make it into law, “the other side exposes itself to criticisms that they’re too ideologically rigid or tied to certain special interests,” Van Hollen said.
For instance, Emanuel and most Democrats agreed that expanding children’s health care benefits under S-CHIP is good policy. But the strongly bipartisan passage of the S-CHIP expansion in the House set up a veto fight with President Bush and Republican congressional leaders — which in turn allowed Democrats to portray the GOP, overall, as insensitive to the problems faced by uninsured kids.
Figures in both parties say Emanuel’s relationships with rank-and-file Republicans should serve Obama well in the White House.
“By having Rahm, he’s picked a guy that knows all the ins and outs of how to get things done,” said Fred Upton , a Republican who represents a southwestern Michigan district where Emanuel has a vacation house, not far from his hometown of Chicago. “When you look at the success or failure of a president, it is their relationship with the Hill that determines that.”
As a member of Congress, Emanuel joined with LaHood to coordinate bipartisan dinners involving roughly 15 lawmakers. LaHood, who did not seek re-election in 2008 after serving seven House terms in a Peoria-based district, has since made a bipartisan leap himself, accepting Obama’s nomination to be Transportation secretary in his administration.
Emanuel also collaborated with Florida Rep. Adam H. Putnam , then the House Republican Conference chairman, to set up a series of amicable off-campus debates featuring rival teams of Democratic and Republican House members.
“He’s a no-nonsense person. He’s a strong Democrat, but he’s also a person who believes in doing what’s right and fighting hard for it,” said Delaware Rep. Michael N. Castle , a Republican moderate who attended the bipartisan dinners.
But the sharp-elbowed approach Emanuel employed in his partisan roles has, naturally, left some Republicans with a dimmer view.
“Rahm is 100 percent political. He will screw Democrats and Republicans equally. Once you are liability, you have to be killed,” said a GOP lawmaker who asked not to be identified talking candidly about the incoming chief of staff.
That lawmaker said Emanuel astutely seeks and finds the political center on a given issue and uses his occupation of politically safe ground to bludgeon those to the right and left of him.
“The center is a weapon to be held and used against the opposition,” he said.
Castle, though, suggested Emanuel may simply be playing political games at a higher level than his colleagues. “He might be a little more politically sophisticated than the rest of us in terms of understanding all of the ramifications” of a given situation, Castle said.
Good Fellow or Goodfella?
The hard-boiled aspect of Emanuel’s political persona is what first brought him to public attention as a Clinton White House aide.
Known best for theatrical tough-guy politics, he once went off on a gangster-movie riff about killing enemies of the Clintons.
He mailed a dead fish to a pollster, an apparent reference to the mobster cliche about an ill-fated rival “sleeping with the fishes.” His profanity might just bring a blush to the cheeks of Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich , whose foul language in surreptitiously taped phone conversations drew attention following his December arrest on federal corruption charges. And Emanuel even looks a bit like Al Pacino playing Michael Corleone in the third installment of The Godfather movie trilogy.
When he arrived in the House in 2003, according to other lawmakers, Emanuel carried the baggage of working in a Clinton administration that had irritated House Democrats by tacking to the center — often on issues on which Emanuel worked, such as trade, crime and welfare.
His tendency to rough it up with those on both his right and left political flanks, in pursuit of his political and policy ends, left Democrats bruised. He has drawn complaints in the past about his antics, his perceived ruthlessness and a pragmatism that unflinchingly sacrifices their individual priorities in the name of party success.
But Democratic critics have been far less eager to rip Emanuel since he was named to run Obama’s White House.
His defenders say Emanuel is just direct. “He’ll tell you no when he has to tell you no, and he’ll help you when he can,” said Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez , a fellow Chicagoan.
“Rahm doesn’t have the sweetest, nicest demeanor,” Gutierrez said. “He’s an acquired taste.”
Ultimately, the melodramatic political ferocity can obscure Emanuel’s willingness to conciliate, cooperate and compromise in order to produce tangible results, according to those who know him.
“One of Rahm’s favorite sayings in the White House was ‘We’ve got to put points on the board,’” said Paul Begala, who served as a counselor to President Clinton. “It’s not that he’s not a tough guy at campaign time. He is. But he is also very much in the tradition of you’ve got to get stuff done.”
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