"Undersecretary of Go F - - - Yourself"

By GottaLaff

Lynn Sweet has a piece on Rahm Emanuel. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have attracted my attention, but some of the quotes were eye-catching.

On stress:

"I don't sleep through the night. No. Well, you can't [...] I am not sure in Congress I slept either. This is a lot more stressful because of where you sit, it just is."

On choices:

"In the White House, the choices you make are between bad and worse, and they are usually on a time frame of essential and immediate."

On the Medicare price negotiation flip-flop:

While he has been chief of staff, the White House cut a deal with drug companies not to allow Medicare price negotiations. And Emanuel watched as a drug import plan was blocked from the health-care reform bill in order to win a crucial Senate vote. "It was a way of getting that done," he said. He added he would not deny there was a "level of irony" in the situation.

On the dead fish tale:

All those profiles about Emanuel sending a dead fish to a consultant are the product of "people doing lazy stuff, in my view, in reporting."

On changing, which he attributes to being a father:

"I'm more open to hearing from other people than I would have been before."

On sticking around through 2010 (he's not running for mayor or running for his old House seat, he says):

"But it is not drudgery. . . . I can't think of anything else I would rather do if you are in public policy at this particular point."

And at another particular point?

Now I'll wait for all the negative comments to pour in. They always do when Rahm is mentioned.