House Minority Leader John Boehner and other
Republican insiders in Washington are griping about President-elect
Barack Obama's selection of Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel to
serve as White House chief of staff. Emanuel, they complain, is too
partisan.
In fact, Emanuel is the opposite of a
partisan. He is someone who has worked very hard for a very long
time -- first in the Clinton administration and then in Congress --
to change the Democratic Party into a more cautious, centrist and
compromised institution. As head of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee in 2006, he actually undercut efforts by
progressive candidates who had a chance to win in order to advance
the candidacies of more conservative candidates who lost.
Why? Because on the most vital issues --
economic and trade policy, war and peace, civil liberties -- this
true believer in the worst compromises of the Clinton era has
frequently been at odds with labor and progressive forces within
the party.
