THE RAHM DOCTRINE
Principled on policy; ‘ ruthless’ to get it done
WASHINGTON— How did Rahm Emanuel become the public figure most often known by friend and foe simply as Rahm? Let’s go back 25 years. Chicago’s mayor returned to Washington on Monday tomark the 25th anniversary of the election of Bill Clinton as the 42nd president of the United States at a Georgetown University symposium.
Clinton received his undergraduate degree from GU, and GU’s Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy hosted a retrospective, “Clinton 25: Georgetown Reflects On The Vision Of Bill Clinton.”
It’s also the 25th anniversary of Emanuel’s arrival on the national scene, a byproduct of Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid.
On Monday, Emanuel was on one of the GU panels with former Clinton White House staffers who focused on domestic policy: Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste; former director of White House political affairs Minyon Moore, who also got her start in Chicago politics, and former chief domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed.
At the end, Emanuel gave students a lesson in pragmatism: Why politics— even the ruthless version Emanuel has long embraced— isn’t a dirty word.
It’s what’s needed to get policy done.
A recap . . .
In 1991, Emanuel was beginning to make a name for himself as a Chicago political operative.
In that year, he moved from Chicago to Little Rock, Arkansas, to become the fundraising director for Clinton’s presidential campaign. At the time, Clinton was a relatively little- known governor of Arkansas.
By then, Emanuel had already done a stint at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee— known as the DCCC — handling politics for the House political shop. In 1989, he did fundraising for Mayor Richard J. Daley’s re- election campaign, and his success led him to Little Rock.
Long story short . . .
Emanuel landed in the Clinton WhiteHouse as the political director. He got sidelined because his style— brusque to say the least— didn’t mesh. But he stayed and prevailed, becoming a senior adviser.
He worked his way back up by taking on chores such as NAFTA, policing and children’s health care. He never got tangled up in any of the many Clinton controversies.
Emanuel left the Clinton White House in 1998, returned to Chicago and made millions as an investment banker. He ran and won a seat in the U. S. House, taking the 5th Congressional District slot vacated by then- Rep. Rod Blagojevich, who ran for governor.
Emanuel became the leader of the DCCC, the architect of the strategy that led the Democrats, in 2006, taking back the House they lost in 1994.
After Barack Obama won the presidency, he picked Emanuel to be his first chief of staff. Emanuel left the 44th president of the U. S. in September 2010 to run for Chicago mayor.
Now, back to Monday . . .
On a personal note, Emanuel— whose father is Israeli— said he was most grateful to Clinton for taking him on a 1994 trip to Israel and having Emanuel walk down the steps of Air Force One with him.
“He had known it was a big deal to me.”
At the end of the panel session, Emanuel was talking about how the philosophy Clinton espoused — on responsibility, opportunity and community— influenced his philosophy as mayor.
“Now this might not be the note you want to end on,” Emanuel said, spelling out the Rahm Doctrine: “. . . My view of leadership is you have to be idealistic enough and principled enough to know why you are doing what you are doing and then ruthless enough to want to get it done.”
Footnotes: Emanuel was in the front row when Clinton spoke at GU Monday. . . . During the day, Emanuel met with Edward Hamberger, president and CEO at Association of American Railroads, to talk about the CREATE freight railroad project in Chicago— a city, state, federal, Amtrak and industry infrastructure partnership.