Rahm Emanuel Should Go

Sometimes, a shake-up as severe as jettisoning your White House Chief of Staff, might give the appearance of an Administration lost.  One in complete disarray.  Obama's White House is not in complete disarray...but it is completely dismaying.  Opinion here, is that firing Rahm Emanuel now will give a far different signal to Washington and the country.  One that will benefit Obama and his Administration.

Missteps, wrong messaging, the appearance of incompetence at times - from a President and an administration hailed as being oh so smart...as well as just plain, shooting themselves in the foot in a myriad of instances, can be traced back to the first days of this Presidency.  I bet if you stop reading and sit back and ponder, you'll come up with a good dozen, on your own.  Time and space, prohibits me from actually listing them all here. 

Accusations of Chicago style politics and outright thuggery, of the Administration's strong-arm tactics and shady backroom deals.  The apparent disdain for the media and the propagandizing of the message.  The demonizing of those who oppose them, to the point of dismissing a huge swath of their American constituency. On and on we could go.

Of the two men, Emanuel and Obama - when speaking of the Chicago way, of politics.  Emanuel was clearly, the student and Obama, more the beneficiary of such tactics.  Oh, Obama knew exactly how the game was played but to allow his own elevation to the ultimate goal, he needed also, to appear to be elevated above such things and someone like Emanuel, needed to be the actual practitioner of all the lessons learned, in Chicago.

But now, more than ever, the president needs to show, who really is in charge.  As with the current Gulf Oil Spill debacle, Obama found himself having to overtly inject his authority over the continuing crisis, after weeks of the public, the punditry, as well as those within Washington and those on the ground in the Gulf states, wondering why he came off as so disengaged and deferring authority and responsibility to others. 

Letting Rahm go now, would perfectly underscore to the country, his seriousness in how he sees his Presidency moving forward.  Who Obama picks as a replacement is as crucial as the signal he'll give in giving Emanuel his pink slip.  And believe me...this isn't coming from the perspective of someone, who is a big fan of Obama and his progressive, government expanding policies.  I wish for him a one-term presidency and then, a succession of the right people in the job, to steer this country back to its founding principles and drive the progressive ideology and agenda back underground, at a minimum or ideally, vaporized from the American consciousness, altogether.

No.  Not at all.  This is an exercise in dealing with Obama's current reality.  And, in dealing with this reality - let's indulge ourselves in some fantasy.  Obama needs a Chief of Staff, cut from the same cloth as "Leo McGarry."  The fictitious character in the once popular show, West Wing, played beautifully by the late John Spencer.  Imperfect as we all are, McGarry was Chief of Staff in Jed (Martin Sheen) Bartlett's White House.  He seemingly, handled the activities of an entire administration, with all its complexities and potential for disaster at every turn, while allowing his President to be, well...President.  But, you always had the sense that Leo McGarry's every move, was done in service of his President.  You felt that whenever he spoke, intuitively, he reflected the wishes of his boss.  The two characters, President and Chief of Staff, were very close and went back a long way but, in the presence of his Boss, McGarry always addresed him as "Mr. President."  Somehow, perhaps wrongly, I have an image of Emanuel calling President Obama, "Barack", in private.  An interesting tidbit, is that the character played by Bradley Whitford, who was Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman, was based on Emanuel.

I think the dynamic of the Obama/Emanuel relationship, is that of Brothers, close in age, who work in the Family business together.  And, regardless of whether the business may suffer and the Brother who holds the ultimate authority in doing what's best for the business...that Brother's unbreakable allegiance to Family will choose to struggle forward, while the business suffers, than to make the painful choice of removing his Brother from a position that is adversely affecting the other's ability to run a successful business.

A big part of bringing his presidency back, will be Obama's truly learning to govern from a far more centrist location, then he is right now.  His far-left, extreme progressive agenda, notwithstanding - it's high time for Obama to learn the lesson, learned by all truly good Presidents.  And that's to adapt your policies and leadership, that enable you to govern the entire population of America.  Not just serve those, of one collective and inherently, narrow thought.

Now, all of this doesn't fall on the mere existence of Rahm Emanuel in Obama's White House.  But, it would be a significant step in showing all of us, in America, that maybe this President is ready to stand on his own and really lead this country and truly be responsible...and not just mouth the words, when he finds himself up against it.  To paraphrase Emanuel in, "Never letting a serious crisis go to waste..."  Now would be the time for the President to thank him for all he's done and cut his ties, with Emanuel.  Thus, showing all of us, both for and against, just what he's really made of and just maybe...make his last 32 months a lot better than his first 16.

Of King Makers, Lyin' Kings and Smoking Guns

Rahm Emanuel, Bill Clinton, Joe Sestak's charge and the Obama White House.  You can be of two minds, now, with the news that Bill Clinton was dispatched to visit Joe Sestak, to speak about options, as they relate to his bid to unseat Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate primary.  The first could be that nothing good can come from involving a former President to act as a go-between, for the White House, to dangle some kind of inducement in front of a Senate candidate, in the hopes of dissuading him from running against a preferred candidate of the current administration.  The second, is that what we may see, as the end result of this four month long dust up between Sestak and the White House, where the initial charge by Sestak was that he was offered a job by someone in the Administration, to abandon his campaign for Senate -  is one of the slickest maneuvers to side-step a potential scandal, by the Obama administration.  One that could have resulted in real, legal problems, should the statements made by Sestak were able to be proven, as true.

What we have now, after months of nothingness from White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, when continually pressed for something that answered Sestak's claim - and more recently, President Obama's promise, when questioned about it, during his annual press conference, that there would be a statement issued soon, in response.

Well, the statement is out, in the form of a memorandum, issued by White House Counsel, Robert F. Bauer.  And, as I write this...Joe Sestak has issued his own statement on the WH memo.  In the memo, the key issues covered are 1. The paid position of Secretary of the Navy was not offered to Sestak in exchange for his dropping out of the primary.  2.  That uncompensated advisory board options for Executive Branch service, were discussed that would enable Sestak to remain in Congress and would have the added benefit of avoiding a divisive senate primary race within the Democrat Party.  And, 3.  That the White House staff didn't discuss these options with Congressman Sestak but that, Bill Clinton was enlisted by Chief of Staff Emanuel to raise these options with Sestak.  So, the King Maker had the Lyin' King do the talking for the White House.  And in the events leading up to this memo's release were, Obama having a dicussion with Clinton, before his annual press conference.  The White House talking to Joe Sestak's Brother and campaign manager, Richard Sestak, about the job offer allegations.  Also, purportedly, Sestak himself was cooperating with the White House in preparation of the memo's release.  So, a cooperated effort by all, to bury deep, any possible smoking gun that might hurt the Administration. 

Though some continued help will be required to keep the smoking gun from ever going off and shooting the Obama Administration in the foot.  That help will need to come from the Democrats in Congress, to continue to keep issuing a pass to this administration, for holding itself up to any of the lofty standards that candidate Obama pledged and has continued to pay lip service to, as President.  Because, it seems that White House Counsel Bauer has only negotiated down, from felony, to misdemeanor, in highlighting the fact that no compensated position was offered to Sestak...only advisory positions, within the Executive Branch. 

In showing in the memo that the position of Secretary of Navy or any other compensated position was offered - Counsel showed that there wasn't a violation of US Code 18 USC 600 .  By the most technical sense, even though Clinton is no longer employed by the govenment of the United States but, if you extend it back to Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel...a misdemeanor might have occurred under US Code 18 USC 595.

However, don't count on anything ever going forward, in a legal sense, by anyone in Congress. The pungent aroma that surrounds this whole issue is that - for one, if things shook out as the memo and now, Sestak contends...what was Sestak's problem in just expounding on his initial claim, if it was the same as this memo contends.  He went as far as to not dispel the insinuation, when questioned, that the position offered was Secretary of the Navy.  Not to mention the months-long stonewalling by the White House in answering these questions.  And the apparent coordination of all parties concerned in the preparing the release of this memo.  Or, at least, the appearance of everyone getting their stories straight. 

It's just all a little fishy and more evidence that this Administration is just more of the same, as it goes, in the world of shady politics.  Counter to what Obama held himself up to be, His Administration is unfolding as one of the least transparent, least concerned about honesty and forthrightness and waaaay more about them, then us, then any other administration in memory.