The Rahm Emanuel I know: Separating caricature from character
A news frenzy has emerged in recent weeks around Rahm Emanuel's potential 2028 presidential run. To dispel with any suspense: I know Rahm well — and, no, I don't know whether he will run.
I do know this: Any conventional wisdom diminishing his ability to compete is unwise. That's because Emanuel can't be easily discounted. He deserves more than just casual observation.
It's not easy. As I've said in several interviews, he may be the best-known American political leader that most people don't really know. To understand Emanuel requires the delicate separation of caricature from his character.
First the caricature. Like most exaggerated imagery, there is a foundational realism. Emanuel is combative, brash, profane. Yes, he did once send a dead fish to a Democratic campaign pollster who he felt had let him down during a House race. And President Barack Obama did once quip that Emanuel was 'rendered practically mute' when he lost part of his middle finger in an accident.
I once introduced him to a Long Island political leader, just off the floor of the House. The meeting was civil and relatively inconsequential. My guest later expressed disappointment because Emanuel hadn't cursed once. He'd come to meet the legend and instead he got the legislator.
This may be a challenge for Emanuel and his supporters: reminding Democratic primary voters that the style serves the substance. Sure, he likes to win, in blitzkrieg fashion. But the conventional stories about 'how' he wins often reduce him to an elite partisan athlete, competing merely for the sake of victory.
There's more to him than that. The calculation is clear, simple and paramount in his mind: You achieve victory in order to govern with values. Nothing else matters.
That's why Emanuel has always been one of the first calls for virtually every major Democratic leader over the past 30-plus years. When President Bill Clinton decided to take on the NRA to enact more stringent gun safety measures, he called on Emanuel. The result: the Brady Handgun Bill and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, followed by Clinton romping to reelection in 1996.
Also under Clinton, Emanuel helped pass the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has given millions of America's kids health care and helped cut the child uninsured rate from around 14 percent in 1996 to roughly 5 percent in recent years.
When Obama took office, Emanuel took on the special interests that caused the 2008 economic meltdown, and helped guide the passage of the Affordable Care Act — which President Trump seeks to begin dismantling in the current budget reconciliation bill.
Then there was his Chicago mayoralty, from 2011 through 2019. Governing large cities is as tough a job as there is in politics. It's about delivering results, winning on values that protect lives and create opportunity. In Emanuel's case, he was the first big city mayor to sue the pharmaceutical industry over opioids (before even any state attorney general did), he made community college free and he took on an entrenched bureaucracy. None of these accomplishments was possible without a willingness to throw — and take — some punches.
He has a brawling reputation because he's willing to take on the hardest battles: big banks, gun manufacturers, insurance companies. Going toe to toe, even with nine and a half fingers.
Again, whether or not he runs remains to be seen. But one thing is clear in both caricature and character: Democrats need candidates who know how to fight and win if we're to defeat MAGA.
Steve Israel represented New York in the House of Representatives for eight terms and was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015.
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