Rahm Emanuel's got thumpin' big plans for the Obama presidency

November 6, 4:05 PMBook ExaminerMichelle Kerns

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Wondering about Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Obama's pick for Chief of Staff? Don't rely on pundit chatter--let Mr. Emanuel speak for himself. In his 2006 book The Plan: Big Ideas for America, Emanuel lays out an ambitious and detailed description of America, Emanuel-style, which would include a Democratic party free of New Deal policies and compulsory national service for all Americans under the age of 25.

Democrats hailed the book as a voice crying in the wilderness while Republicans wailed that Emanuel was advocating a nationwide descent into the great dark night of socialism.

Some of the Republican angst over the The Plan probably stemmed from the book's lengthly and damning laundry list of Bush administration sins. However, with Emanuel standing next to Obama at the helm for the next four years, Republicans had best get used Emanuel's aggressive style since there is most likely going to be plenty more to come.

Emanuel is renowned, both in and out of his party, for his sometimes abrasive tactics. The Democratic strategist Paul Begala once vividly referred to Emanuel's political style as:

a cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache.

Republican Congressman Tom Cole said that Emanuel is:

dangerous, absolutely relentess when he's got a political kill in sight.

 

Naftali Bendavid's 2007 book The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to be Ruthless and Finally Ended the Republican Revolution, goes behind the scenes of the 2006 midterm elections and gives readers an up-close view of Emanuel at his peak. Bendavid credits the Democrat's success in that election almost exclusively to Emanuel's ferocious new approach to politics--an approach that will almost certainly be a major component of his strategy as the new White House Chief of Staff.

For anyone interested in political goings-ons, these next four years should make for some exceptionally fine viewing. Goody goody.