Rahm Emanuel is the New Gatekeeper

So the rumors are true, Rahm Emanuel will be Obama's White House Chief of Staff (story from NY Times is here). As Paul Begala has been emphasizing (and re-emphasizing in this bonanza of coverage he's getting; makes you wonder what he'd be doing if McCain had won), Obama is really turning to the Clinton crowd to fill out his administration. That makes perfect sense, given the literally hundreds and thousand of posts that a president must fill. But he also faces the danger of having his administration taken over by the Clintons. As the primaries showed, the base of support for Clinton is phenomenal, and he runs the risks of policy sub-groups cropping up in his administration if allows people without any loyalty to him personally to cluster in certain areas.

So how does Emanuel fit into this? It helps that he's from Illinois, but since he was a top advisor to Pres. Clinton, there's also the risk that Obama will be picking somebody that might be exchanging emails/phone calls/breakfast meetings with the Clinton crowd. On the other hand, that's what Obama needs to make sure he can penetrate Washington.

But what I like about Emanual is the fact that he won't be afraid to tell Obama things the new president won't want to hear.