Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Second rate reporter says what?

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

I really should read my own blog.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Black Jimmy Carter / The DRahma Never Stops

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    Napoleon

    Good riddance. It can not bear repeating enough, this is a guy who saw the greatest achievement of the Clinton WH as being NAFTA.

    That said what odd timing. Why not wait until right after the election?

  3. 3.

    Ash Can

    What does it mean? It means he wants Richie’s job, but you’re right — the professional wankers will spin it every which way but correctly.

  5. 5.

    Hugin & Munin

    Wait, because he’s liberalisms best friend.

    C’mon, I recognize that the criticism of Rahm gets over the top, but let’s not pretend that he is anything other than a centrist and a corporatist who would skullfuck a nun to win power.

    I mean really, John, is Rahm your bestest buddy or is he someone who could be replaced by mo’ bettah dems? You tell me.

  8. 8.

    lol

    @Napoleon:

    The timing isn’t odd at all. The filing deadline for mayor is November 22nd (< 2 months) and the primary is February 22nd. (< 5 months) He needs to leave yesterday to get his campaign up and running.

    Leaving now also deflates the "Are DemocRATS fleeing the sinking ship Obama?" storyline if he leaves well beforehand.

  9. 9.

    Peter J

    Leaving now also deflates the “Are DemocRATS fleeing the sinking ship Obama?” storyline if he leaves well beforehand.

    Instead we’ll get the “DemocRATS are demoralized” storyline.

  10. 10.

    Napoleon

    @lol:

    I didn’t know about your first point, which makes it sensible to start on the campaign ASAP.

    The second point occurred to me and there is certainly something to that logic.

  11. 11.

    calling all toasters

    I’m not going to interpret, just celebrate. Until he’s replaced by David Boren, that is.

  13. 13.

    August J. Pollak

    Prepare for a few days of media wanking about “what this all means.”

    Because there’s nothing out of the ordinary or worthy of inquiry about the Chief of Staff of the President of the United States abruptly leaving immediately five weeks before a national election?

  14. 14.

    lacp

    I never could make sense of all the focus on Rahm Emanuel; he’s hired help. Dubyuh had two chiefs of staff – anybody remember the name of either one of them?

  18. 18.

    Joe Beese

    All you need to know about what a POS the health “reform” bill is: Axelrod is desperately trying to dump responsibility for it onto Emanuel before the exit polls show how it helped the Democrats lose the House of Representatives.

  19. 19.

    JWL

    “Liberalism’s greatest villain”? Rubbish.

    He’s just another republican, albeit one who styles himself a “pragmatic” democrat.

    Which is why that party is such a fucking joke.

  20. 20.

    beltane

    What does it all mean? It means that certain people will have to find a new villain to star in their drama. It shouldn’t be hard.

  21. 21.

    valdivia

    oh boy I see it’s going to be one of those days. Better bring out the doll so everyone can point at it and get the Rahm accusations done early in the thread….

  24. 24.

    Xantar

    Clearly Rahm sold us out by leaving at a time when Democrats need him most!

    (The above was snark. I’m saying this because I’m pretty sure someone is going to say the same thing I did but actually mean it.)

  25. 25.

    geg6

    @August J. Pollak:

    No, not really. Not when the CoS’s heart’s desire is to win the Chicago mayoralty and then weasel his way back into the House to become Majority/Minority Leader in order to wrestle the title of History’s Greatest Monster from Jimmy Carter. If Rahm doesn’t go for it within the next couple of weeks, that ain’t gonna happen if you take a look at the timetable.

  27. 27.

    Peter J

    @lacp:

    Dubyuh had two chiefs of staff – anybody remember the name of either one of them?

    I remember one of them, Andrew Card, the guy who interrupted Bush Jr’s reading of ‘My Pet Goat’.

  29. 29.

    Ash Can

    @valdivia: My favorite part will be when the professional wankers start handicapping the mayoral race and demonstrate for all the world to see that they know absolutely nothing about Chicago city politics. Then I’ll really start pointing and laughing.

  31. 31.

    lacp

    @Peter J: As Jonah Goldberg might say, “This is central to my point.” In Dubyuh, the USA had a president who even a lot of his supporters thought was a boob – but nobody thought he was a puppet of his chief of staff, or that his chief of staff made decisions for him. Why in the world would anyone think that Emanuel is some heavy-duty independent operator?

  34. 34.

    valdivia

    @Ash Can:

    yep. But can we laugh now please?
    Also: the minute Daley said he was not running again the people who know Chicago politics said Rahm would leave. Why is this a mystery now?

  35. 35.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    The fact that most people that care about politics know Rahm is Obama’s chief of staff is already a pretty big warning sign that he was not great at this job. As mentioned, that position should be hired help. They should remain behind the scenes doing the dirty work and protecting the boss from the shitstorm. Perhaps Rahm did some of the former but he obviously did not do enough of the latter. As an example: somebody should be berating Democrats/progressives/firebaggers to get over it and get to the polls (Remember the “no difference between Gore/Bush” argument?) but it sure has hell shouldn’t be Obama.

  37. 37.

    ruemara

    @Comrade Javamanphil:
    I wouldn’t know whotf Rahm was without firebaggers. What pisses me off is, I still have no proof why I should care about Rahm. Nothing they’ve ever said about him is more than speculation and “corporatist” hate. Who gives a fuck? Aren’t there issues that would be better served with your focus. God, this whole Rahm fixation is stupid considering how may conservatives would be thrilled to take away the little you got.

  38. 38.

    apostropher

    On CNN, Paul Begala said that Obama is “losing his right arm.” What this implies for a left-handed president is an exercise left to the viewer.

  41. 41.

    Michael

    @apostropher:

    On CNN, Paul Begala said that Obama is “losing his right arm.” What this implies for a left-handed president is an exercise left to the viewer.

    Nice. Almost too subtle for winning the intertubes for today, but I think I’ll give it the nod and grant you the trophy.

  43. 43.

    General Stuck

    Ot

    In other Capital News, President Demint pulls out his veto pen.

    Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) warned that he “would block all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session,” Politico reports.

    “With the Senate slated to adjourn Thursday untiil after the elections, DeMint’s stance could mean trouble for Democrats if the two parties don’t quickly agree on a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating past Sept. 30. And that could mean the demise of a slew of other stalled and largely non-controversial bills that both parties are looking to clear before Election Day.”

    Swell

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m not sure that non-Chicagoans understand how huge it was for Richie Daley to announce that he was not going to run for mayor again. Daley’s father died in office — literally at his desk, IIRC. Harold Washington did, too, which makes it kind of a tradition for Chicago mayors to hang onto the position until they croak. Daley was already being referred to as “Mayor for Life.” No Democrat was going to challenge that, and no Republican will ever (ever!) win over a Democrat in the city of Chicago.

    Now Daley is giving up the office voluntarily. There are a whole lot of people who have their eye on that job, and Emanuel has never concealed that he’s one of them. If he wants to run, he has to skedaddle back to the city now, and now may be a little too late.

  46. 46.

    Allison W.

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    The fact that most people that care about politics know Rahm is Obama’s chief of staff is already a pretty big warning sign that he was not great at this job.

    No, its not. If you care about and follow politics, you are going to know who works for the president – period. You are going to know of a lot of people that the average person does not. That you know of Rahm does not indicate he was not good at his job. Only Obama can tell you if he was good at his job or not.

  47. 47.

    Allison W.

    Marc Ambinder thinks the new guy is going to be Peter Rouse and wrote a few things about him on his blog. Ambinder points out that he doesn’t like to kiss the press’s butt – so we know how that’s going to turn out.

  49. 49.

    The Other Chuck

    @Napoleon:

    Why not wait until right after the election?

    Throwing a bone to the “professional left” in order to GOTV?

    The “Black Jimmy Carter” tag is an interesting juxtaposition — Carter had no Chief of Staff.

  50. 50.

    Bob L

    @The Other Chuck

    : The “Black Jimmy Carter” tag is an interesting juxtaposition—Carter had no Chief of Staff.

    Proves Obama has completed his transformation into the next Jimmy Carter. Now all does Obama has to do is give away the Panama Canal, have a failed hostage rescue attempt and be attacked by a rabbit.

  52. 52.

    FlipYrWhig

    @ruemara:

    What pisses me off is, I still have no proof why I should care about Rahm. Nothing they’ve ever said about him is more than speculation and “corporatist” hate.

    AFAIK, the chief reason you’re supposed to hate him because when he was heading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee he favored wealthier, more centrist/conservative candidates, like — I had to look this up — Tammy Duckworth over Christine Cegelis in IL-6 in 2006. He seems to have supported the idea of targeting fewer races and dumping more money into them, whereas Dean supported the idea of targeting more races and spreading the money more widely/thinly. So it’s mostly that the blogs came of age by being associated with Dean and the “50 State Strategy,” which Emanuel opposed.

    Of course, over time, as tends to happen, this difference of strategy started to get remembered as a difference of ideology, and thus Emanuel is also blamed for Blue Doggery, even though the 50 State Strategy brought in a number of Blue Dogs too, because that’s what you get when you run Democrats in hostile territory.

    He was also known as someone who pioneered the idea of raising a lot of money from wealthier donors to support the Democrats, which is where that “corporatist” insult comes from.

  53. 53.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Having to change out your RAHM after a couple of years isn’t that unusual.

    Thanks, remember to tip your veal, and try the, er, never mind.

  54. 54.

    AxelFoley

    There’s gonna be a lot of “progressives” showing us places on dolls where Rahm touched them this week.

  55. 55.

    joe from Lowell

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Ah yes, more reflexive Rahm defensiveness. What’s up with that? Seriously?

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Kick

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    Punch

    …Hey, why are you so defensive? What’s UP with that?

  56. 56.

    AxelFoley

    @Joe Beese:

    All you need to know about what a POS the health “reform” bill is: Axelrod is desperately trying to dump responsibility for it onto Emanuel before the exit polls show how it helped the Democrats lose the House of Representatives.

    Lol, ninja please.

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