Friday, November 07, 2008

The Operating Style of the New Chief of Staff

From Naftali Bendavid, The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 53.

“I think Katrina just did us a really big favor, to be crass about it,” Emanuel said. He called Bill Burton, his communications director at DCCC, and ordered him to find out which Republican congressmen from the Gulf region had voted to cut the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps was responsible for New Orleans levees, and given the levees’ fate, such a vote would now look reckless. “Hey, look, if the AP doesn’t do it, let’s see if either the [New Orleans Times] Picayune would do it or we can go to a blog,” Emanuel said. “No fingerprints,” he added curtly, meaning the news item should not be traceable to the DCCC.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It certainly gives one a lot of confidence in the seriousness of the campaign rhetoric about "bringing the country together", doesn't it? One bellweather pick in this regard will be SecDef. If Bob Gates is retained, then maybe this will be an inclusive administration. If he's not, then all bets are off.

Chord Beccas said...

Innteresting read