Rahm Emanuel is charging forward on the campaign trail for the Chicago mayoral seat and trying to shake off his hot-tempered reputation by putting his best foot forward as a likable candidate.
On Friday, he e-mailed prospective voters plans for a cleaner government, promising to "close the revolving door between city government and lobbying."
But while Emanuel goes on the trail shaking hands, with his hand sanitizer nearby, White House insiders tell us they are relieved their time with the famously foulmouthed former chief of staff is over -- and they're taking bets on how many days until "Rahmbo" blows up on a constituent.
"You better pull your [bleep]ing tampons out," was a typical phrase used by President Obama's sharp-tongued former top aide to question the masculinity of his male staffers, a source said.
A former aide to Emanuel said his vulgar lines and aggressiveness rubbed many the wrong way. "He's always been rough with staffers and particularly insensitive around females," the ex-aide told us.
I think the funniest part of this piece is not the details surrounding the vulgar Emanuel expressions (which I'm sure Rahmbo just thinks are colorful and not offensive) but the Emanuel campaign email that says Rahmbo will bring clean government to Chicago and end "the revolving door between city government and lobbying."
Rahm Emanuel ending the connection between government and lobbying would be like Ronald McDonald ending the connection between McDonald's food and obesity.
Just not going to happen, you know?
I've sort of wondered why Rahm Emanuel would want to bother with being the mayor of Chicago. I mean, the place is probably going to go broke and it's not like it's a big Wall Street bank or something really powerful. I suppose it could be an ego thing: even in decline it could be cool to be mayor.
ReplyDeleteBut try this idea on for size: as mayor, Emanuel could really cash in big by 'privatizing' various services, selling off public lands at 10 cents on the dollar, sticking the local taxpayers with outrageous debts for nothing, etc. Before Chicago goes completely belly-up there might be a few easy billions rips for the pickings, if someone were selfish and corrupt enough to think that way. Just saying...