“Change” was Barack Obama’s campaign theme.
“Change … or else,” might be a better mantra for the hardball players he has chosen for two key roles in his administration.
Rahm Emanuel on Thursday accepted Obama’s offer to make him chief of staff. And key sources confirmed that Robert Gibbs, Obama’s bulldog of a senior aide, is in discussions about becoming the voice of the White House as its press secretary.
A White House presence for David Axelrod, Obama’s poetic but tough strategist, was also rumored Thursday as the longtime Obama friend and campaign mastermind considered moving to Washington to play a key role in the administration.
Obama is sending a no-nonsense message by naming Emanuel and considering Gibbs. While Obama intends to lead the nation as the hopeful, inspirational figure who soared to the pinnacle of U.S. politics, he clearly has no intention of assuming a deferential position in the capital.
Emanuel and Gibbs are known as scrappy partisans, not at all shy about a tough fight — and certainly not worried about their reputations to that effect.
Emanuel, a congressman from the North Side, once joked that the literal translation of his first name was “Go screw yourself.”
A Democratic operative a few months back described Gibbs, an Alabama native, as “Northern ruthlessness and Southern charm combined.”
Among many Democratic partisans these days, that’s as much a fond hope as a belief.
“This is not a town where people will give you what you want if you look good standing on the portico of the White House,” said Dee Dee Myers, Bill Clinton’s first press secretary and later a consultant to the TV series “The West Wing.”
Obama already displayed that he wasn’t naive, Myers said, when he decided to opt out of the public financing system for the campaign despite past support for the program. When the choice was between having millions and millions of campaign dollars at his disposal and maintaining a sunny symbolism, he chose the former.
“It’s really important to have someone who knows how the game is played. There are 435 people in the House and 100 people in the Senate who all have their own agenda,” Myers said. “The Clinton team came in less clear-eyed about the way Congress has its own agenda.”
Some might have harbored concern that Obama, with his message of inclusion and unity, would not be a fighter. Maybe those people missed the significance of Obama’s political upbringing in Chicago, where politics, as they say, “ain’t beanbag.” Perhaps they weren’t watching back in the early days, when he cleared the field of opponents by challenging their right to be on the ballot.
Things were much clearer by the end of the day Thursday, though, when Emanuel and likely Gibbs became part of the White House team.
Emanuel is a veteran of the White House, having worked as an aide in the Clinton administration. Since winning election to the U.S. House in 2002 he has risen steadily through the ranks, and he is widely credited for the Democratic takeover of the chamber in 2006.
One story sums up his reputation around town. In a Little Rock restaurant near the end of the Clinton campaign, Emanuel expressed dismay with Democrats he felt had betrayed the team. He picked up a steak knife and shouted “Dead!” as he spiked the knife into the table. Shouting the names of other disfavored Democrats one by one, he stabbed the table shouting, “Dead! Dead! Dead!”
Emanuel has joked about the story in the past. On Thursday he sounded a conciliatory note in a statement he released with Obama.
“Now is a time for unity, and Mr. President-elect, I will do everything in my power to help you stitch together the frayed fabric of our politics, and help summon Americans of both parties to unite in common purpose,” Emanuel wrote.
Republicans were skeptical.
“Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides,'” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “Our nation will be ill-served if Obama runs the White House the way ‘Rahmbo’ ran the Democratic Congress.”
The appointment of Gibbs likely will evoke a similar response if it becomes official. A top transition source says there has not been a formal offer yet, but as the dominant figure in Obama’s message discipline during the campaign, he would not be a surprising choice.
Since joining Obama’s Senate campaign in 2004, he has emerged as a commanding, influential figure within the senator’s inner circle.
Gibbs has long been viewed as being able to “speak the truth” to Obama, offering speaking and message discipline to the candidate. He also is known for his humor — and for a good fight.
“He knows how to ease the tension,” said a campaign staff member. “Barack implicitly trusts him.”
As the campaign wound on, Gibbs often found himself in front of the cameras. That’s where one conservative commentator got a taste of his cutting style.
Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Gibbs whether Obama was “guilty by association” for a having a friendship with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
Gibbs turned the tables on Hannity, asking the host whether he was an anti-Semite for once allowing an anti-Semite on his show.
“You put him on your show,” Gibbs said, referring to a previous guest. “It’s the Hannity show. Why am I not to believe that you’re anti-Semitic?”
As Obama continues planning for his administration, he spent the day Thursday in Chicago making calls to world leaders and received an intelligence briefing.
For anyone who had missed the significance of Obama’s Chicago-centric operations, the prominent White House roles shaping up for Emanuel and Axelrod drove it home.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, an ally and friend to both men, was almost giddy about Emanuel’s appointment.
“I just want to tell you there’s only one chief of staff for [the] president of the United States,” he said. For Chicago, he added, “It’s a gain. It’s a real gain, gain, gain.”
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