Citing one of his infamous unnamed sources, syndicated columnist Robert Novak wrote on Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted to see Rahm Emanuel take over as Illinois' junior senator if Barack Obama is elected president.
According to Novak, Emanuel expressed zero interest in such a move:
Emanuel told this column he is not interested in the Senate and has not talked to Pelosi about it. He also suggested that Pelosi might be saying she would regret losing him from her leadership team. However, the source quoting the speaker indicated she was enthusiastic about Emanuel's elevation to the Senate.
Emanuel would be a counter-intuitive replacement for Obama for two reasons: 1) a Clinton protege, he was the only member of the Illinois congressional delegation who did not endorse Obama until the primary was essentially over; and 2) Open Left's Chris Bowers notes that Emanuel is such a high-ranking House member that he would be "one of the few people who would actually lose power by moving to the Senate."
Bowers -- who, like many progressives, has been disappointed by Emanuel's centrist positions -- goes on to offer some reasons why naming Rahm to Obama's seat "might actually be very good from a progressive movement perspective."
That being said, while Pelosi's opinion on this matter is interesting, it's also meaningless. If the need to replace Obama arises -- and hopefully it will -- Gov. Blagojevich is going to be the one making the call. The only public official who would really have an effect on that decision is Obama himself.
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