When White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met privately with lawmakers last week on health care reform, he took the key seat at the table and showed he meant business by removing his jacket.
A day before, Emanuel was named by GQ magazine the most powerful man in Washington not named Obama or Biden.
President Obama’s sharp left jab is lately emerging from behind the scenes in the West Wing to claim a new, higher policy profile.
An emerging force for the administration on health care reform, Emanuel also is recasting the chief of staff role, which historically has been more managerial, less political and somewhat obscure. Whether Emanuel’s shifting style proves effective for Obama is an open question.
“Where was he in August?” said Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political scientist. “He was supposed to be the political eyes that see around corners, but he missed August and that resulted in some backsliding on health care reform.”
With five bills through committee in Congress on Obama’s signature issue, Emanuel has stepped up as a key administration spokesman for health care reform, appearing more frequently on network news, Sunday morning talk shows and in the New York Times.
Emanuel, a former Democratic congressman from Chicago, “knows procedure, he’s ruthlessly pragmatic about what is politically achievable, and he knows how and when to twist arms and call in the many favors he’s owed,” GQ said in its tribute.
When Obama tapped him for the job, reviews and expectations were mixed. Some hailed the choice as inspired — Emanuel understands both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and has the strong legislative background Obama was lacking.
Others questioned whether the notoriously hot-tempered and profane Emanuel had the right mix of temperament and skill for the job, one of the toughest and thankless in the White House.
Norm Ornstein, a political scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, gives Emanuel high marks.
Among other things, the pundit said, Emanuel has the trust and confidence of Obama, and has largely contained the corrosive, unhelpful political discord and intrigue that are routine at the top levels of power at the White House.
“You don’t have what has occurred before, which is an incoherence because everyone is in and out of the Oval Office,” Ornstein said. “You have discipline, with a lot of access — and boy, is that a rarity.”
A key objective for Emanuel in the coming weeks will be addressing a central criticism of the administration’s handling of health care reform — specifically, that the White House has lacked a coherent message and allowed Congress to gum up the works with conflicting proposals.
It won’t be easy work. Asked about the five bills in Congress on PBS’ “NewsHour,” Emanuel acknowledged the difficult job ahead.
“I’m only reminded when you said that of a joke my mother used to say. When I used to say, ‘Do you love my older brother more than you love me?’ she goes, ‘No, I hate you all equally.'”
