Progress Illinois

In a press conference today recorded by Chicago Public Radio, Rep. Rahm Emanuel took a few questions regarding the presidential race and came up with a kinda clever way of describing John McCain's co-opting of Barack Obama's "change message."  Listen here:

Internal mp3

EMANUEL:  John McCain is not the change agent.  So I believe we're in a tight race.  And the real race that's going to come out is who is going to represent change from George Bush on economic policies and foreign policies.  And I think that Barack Obama represents that change and John McCain is trying to lip-sync it. [...]

But I do believe that this is: who is the authentic agent of change? And Barack Obama represents that authentic change.  He will fundamentally alter the economic polices that have benefited the few while the rest of us have paid.  And he will not lip-sync that change.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel himself discarded last month's rumor that he could potentially be tapped to fill Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Now comes fresh speculation that seems a bit more realistic. Politico's John Bresnahan says the speaker's gavel might soon be in the cards for the fourth ranking House Democrat:

But the private consensus among Democratic members, even among those who count themselves as critics, is that Emanuel is on the path to the speaker’s chair. Emanuel will have to do some fence-mending to get there, especially with some black and Hispanic Democrats he has offended over the years. But that obstacle is not seen as insurmountable for someone who, as chairman of the DCCC, gets the lion’s share of the credit for ending the GOP’s control of the House after 12 years.

What's the rationale? Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Whip James Clyburn, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are all over 68 years old. If Pelosi serves another four to six years as speaker -- the typical length of tenure for that position -- Hoyer and Clyburn may be too old to take over.

In steps 48-year-old Emanuel.

Pelosi, who has taken a beating from conservative critics but has been pretty effective in the post, would be a tough act to follow. We know Emanuel can fundraise. But does he have the policy chops or the executive acumen to blossom in such a position? In a few years, we might find out.

We know that Jan Schakowsky is interested (not to mention the strongest progressive on the short list). And to everyone's surprise -- even his own -- Rahm Emanuel's name recently surfaced in a Robert Novak column on the subject. Now the Sun-Times' Michael Sneed is telling us that Tammy Duckworth could be tapped to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate if he is elected president:

Sneed hears rumbles that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who is this/close to Sen. Barack Obama, and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel are talking up Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth as Obama's replacement -- if Obama is elected president.

Duckworth, a moderate Democrat, came a hair's breadth from defeating GOP Rep. Peter Roskam in 2006. Her name has already been proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who would ultimately make the decision about Obama's replacement. If Sneed is right, Duckworth might have some support from the Democratic nominee as well (Durbin and Obama most likely stay in communication about such things).

Regardless, November is a long way off and we'll probably see more names ground through the rumor mill before the whole thing is done.

This morning, the House passed The FISA Amendment Act of 2008 by a vote of 293-129. Authored by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, it was billed as a bipartisan compromise. The Media Consortium's Brian Beutler writes that while it certainly did garner support from both sides of the aisle, calling it a compromise "is a total farce." Salon's Glenn Greenwald agrees. Mark Agrast at the Center for American Progress has more:

Nevertheless, despite these welcome improvements, the bill fails at the most fundamental level to restore the independent judicial check on executive power that the Bush administration has done so much to undermine. Now, instead of determining whether probable cause exists for the issuance of a surveillance order, the FISA Court will be reduced to reviewing the adequacy of the surveillance procedures established by the Bush administration. Instead of evaluating the sufficiency of the assurances that were given to telecommunications companies to obtain their cooperation, the federal district courts in which the lawsuits against the companies have been filed will be authorized to do little more than determine whether such assurances were in fact provided.

Unfortunately, four members of Illinois' Democratic congressional delegation voted in favor of the measure -- Melissa Bean (8th), Rahm Emanuel (5th), Dan Lipinski (3rd), and Luis Gutierrez (4th).

But praise is in order for Democrats Phil Hare (17th), Jesse Jackson Jr. (2nd), Jan Schakowsky (9th), Danny Davis (7th), Jerry Costello (12th), and newcomer Bill Foster (14th), all of whom voted to ensure the civil liberties of Illinoisans.

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.

From the Tribune:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel is endorsing Barack Obama, after months of avoiding the choice between his fellow Illinois Democrat and his old friends Bill and Hillary Clinton.

"He has endorsed," said Nick Papas, an aide to Emanuel. Emanuel and Obama are together at the conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington this morning.

According to The Hill, Rep. Rahm Emanuel dropped in on a closed-door meeting of House Republicans last week:

The unusual appearance of the partisan Democrat was triggered when Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) passed out fliers to GOP members on the House floor about the meeting.

“He said, ‘I’m going to come to this thing,’ ” Kingston said, noting that he and Emanuel have a good rapport. “And he showed up.”

Kingston said the Illinois Democrat was well-received by the group and even offered some advice: that President Bush and the GOP’s lack of an agenda would continue to haunt the party in November.

“Rahm was merely showing conservatives some compassion,” said Nick Papas, a spokesman for the Democratic Caucus chairman and the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

While Emanuel’s visit to the GOP roundtable group was in jest, his message was serious — and Republicans know it.

Rahm's "advice" is fairly common these days. A lot of observers are emphasizing that the GOP needs to distance itself from Bush if they hope to avoid a Democratic landslide this November. But as Atrios and Josh Marshall both point out, it's not clear how the Republicans actually do that. Most voters are fed up with the country's direction and the GOP is inexorably tied to the administration that's been steering this ship for the past seven years.

Speaking at The New Yorker Festival this morning, Rep. Rahm Emanuel called Barack Obama the "presumptive nominee." From the Huffington Post:

"At this point, Barack is the presumptive nominee," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel during the New Yorker's magazine conference. "Hillary can't win but something could happen that could effect that Barack could lose the nomination."

Emanuel wouldn't go so far as to say that Clinton should drop out. "Next question!" he declared when asked. But his voice does carry political sway.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder offered the following analysis of Emanuel's remarks: "[H]is words reflect the developing consensus of many high-profile Clinton supporters. The race is over, but let's let Clinton will determine when and how to exit."

Shortly after Ambinder blogged about Rahm's comments, House Democratic Caucus communications director Sarah Feinberg walked them back a bit:

I would like to clarify two points:

1. All Rahm said was that Senator Obama is clearly now the frontrunner, which by and large means, because of the calendar, he is the presumptive nominee, at this point. He was stating the obvious. Its about the calendar.

2. The "presumptive" quote is only accurate if you ignore the several sentences proceeding this half sentence and the several minutes of conversation that followed it. I'd call it selective quoting. Congressman Emanuel also stated about 90 seconds after this that he thought Senator clinton can still win the nomination and he stands by that.

Of course, if it were only about the calendar, Barack should have become the "presumptive nominee" a good while ago.

Meanwhile, what MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is calling the "superdelegate drizzle" (not yet a flood) continued today.

Lynn Sweet talked to Rep. Rahm Emanuel today about his undeclared status during the Democratic primary season and he made clear he's not going to step into the battle for the nomination until all the primaries have concluded. Not surprisingly, he seems to realize that, if and when that day comes, he's going to be in a unique position to end this thing:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), an uncommitted superdelegate torn between two friends, told me Friday he is waiting “for the voters to issue their verdict” before making any decision.

“When the primaries are done,” Emanuel said, “If that process is over and if there is not a clear nominee, I suppose I’ll have to do something.” He said he was not sure what yardstick he will use to measure voter preference—popular vote, delegates won, etc.

It's been five long years since President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with a "Mission Accomplished" banner unfurled behind him and told the American people: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

As Bush explained it, the banner had virtually nothing to do with the war. It signified the return of the literal ship on which he was standing, which had just returned from Iraq after an operational tour of 290 days. "The banner was a Navy idea, the ship's idea," he said. "The banner signified the successful completion of the ship's deployment." The BBC complicates that account:

However, it was not quite that simple. It also turned out that the banner was made, by a private contractor, with the help of White House staff.

And there can be little doubt that those White House staff ensured that the banner was correctly placed for the cameras.

So much about that visit was planned for effect - the location, the president dressed in combat gear, landing in the co-pilot's seat of a Navy S-3 when he could have used a helicopter, the television cameras.

To mark the occasion, MoveOn has released an effective advertisement tying John McCain's support for Bush's war policy to the banner fiasco. Media watchdog Media Matters for America and Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher both printed thorough accounts of how the press covered Bush's speech as well. The results, as one can imagine, aren't very pretty. From Mitchell's piece, which looks specifically at the New York Times:

One snippet: “The Bush administration is planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence to less than two divisions by the fall, senior allied officials said today

Democrats in Washington are commemorating the somber anniversary in a different way. According to The Politico, "Congressional Democrats are preparing a flurry of activity on Thursday to mark the five-year anniversary of President Bush’s now infamous 'Mission Accomplished' speech marking an end to major combat operations in Iraq." Illinois' own Rahm Emmanuel got in on the act:

"It’s been five years since ‘Mission Accomplished,’ and seven years, three months and 10 days since America had a president who was not in a state of denial about the economy and his legacy,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.).