The Problem with Rahm Emanuel

The CapTimes editorial board (i.e., John Nichols of The Nation) explains the problem that I and a lot of other lefties have with Rahm Emanuel.

clipped from www.madison.com 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.