All-business Obama begins transition to White House
Emanuel likely to answer call to be chief of staff, ending his chances of becoming House speaker
Rep. Rahm Emanuel is weighing an offer from President-elect Barack Obama to be his chief of staff; he is hesitating, I was told Wednesday, because of family considerations, but will have a hard time turning down the call of a president.
When I e-mailed Emanuel -- the No. 4. leader in the House, on a path to be speaker someday -- to ask if he was going to take the Obama chief of staff job and what factors he is weighing, Emanuel, the father of three youngsters, sent a one-word answer: "family."
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
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Sources close to the situation said they thought Emanuel would take the job, even if it means uprooting his family to Washington and sacrificing his own chance to be a part of history as House speaker.
Emanuel is close to Obama, and they share David Axelrod as a key adviser. Emanuel ran the House Democratic political operation that won the Democrats the majority in 2006.
Emanuel served in the Clinton White House but returned to Chicago before the end of his second term and won a seat in Congress from a district rooted in the city's North Side, with the backing of Mayor Daley.
Emanuel has a rare resume: He knows the White House and congressional operations up close and understands the Hill, the White House and the press, and how they all fit together.
He has another big attribute, said a source: "He knows how to kick ass and take names."
Obama has been plotting a transition since last April with a team announced Wednesday to steer the newborn Obama administration through the next 76 days, when Obama is sworn in as president. I reported previously that the Obama team created a nonprofit organization -- called a 501(c)4 -- for the transition process.
Valerie Jarrett, John Podesta and Pete Rouse were tapped by Obama to co-chair the process.
The three basic lines of business include reviews of federal agencies, staffing and policy.
Jarrett is the Obama confidante who is close to Obama and wife Michelle; she played a key role in the campaign as a top Obama adviser.
A honcho at the Chicago-based Habitat Co., the real estate firm, Jarrett is also a veteran of Daley's City Hall and a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She will probably play a major role in the Obama administration, either in the White House or Cabinet.
Podesta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, grew up in Jefferson Park and graduated from Lane Tech. Podesta has been the public face for the past months on the semi-clandestine Obama transition project.
After the Clinton administration, Podesta founded a Democratic-allied think tank in Washington.
Rouse has been Obama's Senate chief of staff and is an architect of "the plan'' drafted after Obama went to the Senate in January 2005 that laid out the path for Obama to take that could lead him to the White House.
Bill Daley, a former Clinton commerce secretary and brother of the mayor, is one of 12 people Obama picked to serve on an advisory board for the co-chairmen. Daley is the Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase.
The Obama transition will have its main offices in Washingon and other offices in Chicago.