RAHM EMANUEL, President Barack Obama’s outgoing chief of staff, choked up and wiped away tears. Mr Obama hugged him twice in the brief farewell ceremony in the East Room of the White House. So “Rahmbo”, scourge of Republicans and disloyal Democrats, former Israeli army mechanic and the “enforcer” who once sent a dead fish to a political opponent, had a heart after all.
The dead fish episode will follow Mr Emanuel to Chicago, where he plans to stand for mayor in next February’s election. When Emanuel convened his last 8.30am staff meeting yesterday, Austan Goolsbee, the new chair of Mr Obama’s council of economic advisers, handed him a dead fish wrapped in Chicago newspapers as a joke.
As Mr Obama noted to laughter in his farewell address, Mr Emanuel’s departure was “the least suspenseful announcement of all time”, having been reported all week.
No one specifically mentioned the Chicago job, which became available when Mayor Richard Daley unexpectedly announced three weeks ago that he would not seek a seventh term. Mr Obama spoke of “other opportunities” and “a new challenge for which [Emanuel] is extraordinarily well qualified”.
In his response to the president, Mr Emanuel said only that he was “excited to be heading home to Chicago . . . the greatest city in the greatest country in the world”. For the past 20 months, Mr Emanuel has been the first aide to see the president in the morning, and the last one to see him at night. Mr Emanuel left his seat in Congress and a position in the House leadership to work for Mr Obama.
“He was not allowed to say no,” Mr Obama said. “He just brings an unmatched level of energy and enthusiasm and commitment to every single thing that he does . . . He exceeded all of my expectations.” Both men joked about Mr Emanuel’s reputation for using foul language. “A couple of years ago, I pointed out that Rahm when he was a kid had lost part of his finger in an accident, and it was his middle finger, so it rendered him mute for a while,” Mr Obama said.
Mr Emanuel said his White House colleagues “learned some words that you’ve never heard before – and an assortment of combinations of words.” Mr Emanuel’s replacement, Pete Rouse, stood with Mr Obama and Mr Emanuel, but did not speak. Mr Emanuel is known for his friendships with journalists, who yesterday gave him a standing ovation. In total contrast, “Pete has never seen a microphone or a TV camera that he likes”, Mr Obama said.
As the top aide to the former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, Mr Rouse “was affectionately known as the ‘101st senator’,” Mr Obama said. He then served as Mr Obama’s chief of staff in the Senate.
Left-wing Democrats saw Mr Emanuel as a ruthless pragmatist who sacrificed the party’s principles to expediency. Mr Rouse is expected to be less flamboyant and less opinionated, but he may come closer to achieving a “No drama Obama” White House.