Video- The Full Ginsburg: Rahm Emanuel Makes You Fill Out The Census

VIDEO: Don't "have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel"-- Rep. Anthony Weiner

By GottaLaff

Earlier today Paddy posted her Quote of the Day, but the matching video wasn't available. Thanks to Heather over at Crooks and Liars, we now have it:

"I have very few hard and fast rules. One of them is not to have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel."

Love the Weiner! Wink.

ADDED- Relevant part starts at 2:30

Quote of the Day

Man, I looked but couldn't find this video. Via Taegan-

"I have very few hard and fast rules. One of them is not to have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel."

-- Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), in an interview on Fox Business Network, referring to former Rep. Eric Massa's (D-NY) naked confrontation with the White House chief of staff.

AUDIO: Rep. Eric Massa on His Naked Rahm Run-In

By GottaLaff

No love lost here:



Via Roll Call:

[Massa] recounts running into Emanuel in the House gym, where the shower curtains had inexplicably been removed. “I’m ... naked as a jay bird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn’t going to vote for the president’s budget,” Massa said. “Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man?”

No, my arguments with naked men are rarely about politics... but I can imagine....

President Obama Wants Less Drama

Who can blame him? The President needs to find whoever it was that kept things wrapped up during the campaign and bring them back. Via Taegan-

After a series of news stories "delving into West Wing palace," President Obama warned his senior staff "against fueling the blaze," Politico reports.

Said Obama: "Don't get absorbed in the Washington finger-pointing and intrigue."

"The season of turmoil, which has erupted just as Obama is pushing for final health care votes that could determine his domestic legacy, is the most vivid example of how the discipline of the campaign -- which prided itself on a tight-knit culture and aides who stayed aloof from the who's-up, who's-down obsessions of the press and the Washington political class -- has frayed under stress."

In Praise of Rahm

By GottaLaff

Rahming it through:

Ezra Klein: "It's a bit weird to see so much blame accruing to Rahm Emanuel for the administration's woes. Emanuel wasn't part of the campaign team. He was brought in to help govern. In that capacity, his primary job was shepherding the administration's agenda through the legislative process. Ugly as that process was, Emanuel -- and more to the point, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi -- did a fairly masterful job at it. In the Senate, Democrats got all 60 of their members to sign onto the same large, controversial bill. That's a legislative achievement [unprecedented] in modern times. Bill Clinton didn't manage it on any bills of this size and scope, and neither did George W. Bush."

Rahm has a friend.

SNL VIDEO: Rahm Emanuel offers his apologies, demands one from Palin

By GottaLaff

Need a laugh? This will do the trick:



If only this were real life....

Palin Hypocrisy Watch: Fire Rahm, but not Rick Perry adviser for "retarded" comments

By GottaLaff

In an earlier post, I reported on a Rick Perry campaign adviser who, per the Hutchison campaign, bandied the "R" word about.

Heartbreak McTwoFaced, ironically, supports Rick Perry and is campaigning on his behalf.

So, yeah, this isn't hypocritical at all:

Sarah Palin is criticizing a Rick Perry campaign adviser accused of using the word "retarded" - but she isn't demanding that the aide be fired. [...]

On Monday, Palin called on President Obama to fire his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for using the very same word in a closed door meeting about health care negotiations. [...]

She said Emanuel's use of the term, first reported in a Wall Street Journal article last week, was "heartbreaking" and merited his dismissal from the president's inner circle.

Apparently her achy breaky heart only achy aches when Democrats are involved.

UPDATE: Boss Limpdong wasn't asked to resign either.

Palin Wants Rahm Fired

"Palin wants sunny skies, licorice flavored rain pouring down while she rides her unicorn thru the rainbow..." Same diff. I'm sure the President will be right on that.

In a Facebook post, Sarah Palin calls on President Obama to fire Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for reportedly describing the strategy of Senate liberals as "f===ing retarded."

"Yes, Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm's recent sick and offensive tactic."

See, Palin's power has already made Rahm apologize... to Tim Shriver.

NBC News Files Complaint with White House Over ABC's Access

Wow, this has a really odd feel about it.

TVNewser has learned that NBC News has filed a formal complaint with the White House press office over the distribution of presidential interviews, specifically that several of the most recent broadcast TV interviews have gone to ABC News -- including George Stephanopoulos's interview yesterday and Charlie Gibson's December 15.

NBC is reportedly claiming Stephanopoulos' friendship with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has helped land the interviews. But insiders tell us those decisions are generally left to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"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.

Tom Tancredo uses Haiti to accuse Dems of exploiting Haiti

By GottaLaff

Look what Shannyn Moore found:


Of course, the saints of the Rushpublic party would never exploit the Haiti tragedy. Not ever.

Oh, and Tom? It's spelled "Rahm Emanuel".

VIDEO- McLaughlin Group: Bye-Bye Rahm Emanuel?

By GottaLaff



What do you think? Will Rahmbo go bye-bye in 2010?

Sources: Rahm Emanuel Pressed Reid To Cut Deal With Lieberman

By GottaLaff

Earlier today I posted a report that the White House told Harry Reid to cut a deal with Traitor Joe Lieberman, encouraging Reid to "eliminate the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill." That report was from Politico.

The White House denied it.

Now we have this:

Rahm Emanuel visited Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his Capitol office on Sunday evening and personally urged him to cut a deal with recalcitrant Sen. Joe Lieberman, two Democratic sources familiar with the situation said.

Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, has long been identified as leading a faction of White House advisers who have been pushing the Senate simply to pass any health care bill, no matter how weak.

And a very angry Ed Schultz just said on his MSNBC show that Robert Gibbs didn't deny the original story. He's furious with Traitor Joe, as we all are, and is in the middle of a rant.

The Senate liberals are none too thrilled either.

Reid still has one bullet in the chamber: Traitor's chairmanship, says Ed.

Ed goes on, this isn't about someone's (Obama's) legacy, it's about the American people. What about their legacy?

Universal health care has been the Democratic platform, and Ed is making sure that message is coming across loud and clear. Good for him.

Traitor Joe is getting what he wants: Attention, revenge, and control of the health care argument. Time to shut him off.

VIDEO: Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod on White House view of Fox News

By GottaLaff



This is not a hard concept to grasp: ClusterFox is biased, okay? Oh wait, CNN, "the most trusted name in news", often has some difficulty with getting the facts out there, too. I wonder how the White House feels about them:

"While it's clear what the White House and what Anita said... It's not a news organization, that it has a perspective... The concentration of the White House isn't about what Fox is doing, it's about what does it take to make sure the economy is moving...That's what's occupying the decisions and the time in the White House."

White House Official Considers Gays Part Of Internet Left Fringe

Not helpful Rahm, and yes we know it's you. Jane and John both have something to say about this. The whole blogger/pajama/Cheetos axis of blogging is really over btw- I don't own pajamas and I'm not real fond of Cheetos- Chex Mix is much better.

Emanuel v. Dean, the Sequel

By GottaLaff

(Yes, another excuse to post The Photo)

Remember how right Howard Dean was, and how wrong Rahm Emanuel was, when the 2008 election argument was 50 State Strategy v. "realism"?

Clang! Round Two, via Mudflats:

Rahm Emanuel, then chair of the DCCC had in the mean time, argued for “realism.” He wanted a more targeted conservative approach, spending resources only in areas where there was a “realistic” chance for success. He went down to Dean’s devastating left hook in the first round.

Now, we’re in the second round. This time it’s the health care debate. Rahm Emanuel has been pushing for a weaker version of reform from the beginning. In his defense, he believes he is focusing on what is doable (nearly the same thing he said during the previous House elections). Emanuel has argued for a trigger from the beginning of the debate and seems to think that a public option is not realistic in this political environment.

Howard Dean has instead argued for a stronger version of health care reform. He believes the country is persuadable (the same position he had in the House elections) and is largely on the side of bolder reform already. He believes the Democratic politicians need to have the courage of their convictions and they can make a real difference.

Once again, Howard Dean is right and Rahm Emanuel is wrong. The voters didn’t vote for a little bit of change. They gave the Democrats the White House and overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate. They voted for real change. The kind of change that Dean always pushes for (and often accomplishes) and the kind of change that Emanuel doesn’t ever find “realistic.”

Emanuel needs to change his definition of realistic. We didn’t elect Obama to fiddle around the edges. We elected him to change the current reality of Washington. We didn’t elect him to figure out the best way to appease the lobbyists; we elected him to figure out the best way to beat them. What Rahm Emanuel doesn’t seem to get is that real change is realistic. You have all this political power. It’s time to use it. If not now, when?

Dean remains standing. Rahm is down for the count.

Video- Rahm Emanuel Pessimistic On Public Option In Senate

The hose they are using on us keeps getting bigger. Via TPM.

Video- Fox & Friends guest Scheuer: "Rahm Emanuel wants an attack. He loves crisis"

I saw this guy Scheuer get an earful from a caller on CSpan not too long ago about his "we need to get attacked again" thingie, and I cannot tell you how wounded and sad he acted that she would take his words out of context. Piece of crap.

**I would like a shiny medal for the restraint I showed not throwing this piece of crap computer out the window this morning. Sorry for being late.

Quote of the Day

Behold, one of the supposedly "great political minds" of our century. Isn't it funny that pretty much anyone who reads or writes at this little blog could have told you the same things months ago?

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the heated opposition was evidence that Republicans had made a political calculation to draw a line against any health care changes, the latest in a string of major administration proposals that Republicans have opposed.

“The Republican leadership,” Mr. Emanuel said, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”