"Rahmbo" to lead Obama White House

WASHINGTON — A student of ballet, Rahm Emanuel has shown a flair for theatrics over his years as a Democratic operative. His fancy dancing has been anything but delicate, however.

Upset with a Democratic pollster during a long-ago congressional race, Emanuel mailed him a big dead fish.

Outraged over what he regarded as disloyal Democrats during Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, he stunned dinner companions by rattling off names of the offenders, each time stabbing the restaurant table with a dinner knife and shouting, "Dead."

This is one way of expressing the "fierce urgency of now."

Emanuel embodied that phrase years before it was popularized by the man he will serve as White House chief of staff, President-elect Barack Obama.

Bit more mellow

"Rahmbo" is said to have mellowed over the years, but that's relative. That's from a starting point of pugnaciousness the likes of which even the hardened politicos of Washington don't see every day.

He's a striking contrast to the cool-tempered president he'll serve. Emanuel shares Obama's discipline, at least.

The fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, Emanuel already was in a prime position to help Obama. But in the modern White House, the chief of staff is one of the most powerful posts in all of government, the gatekeeper to the president on every issue, and the person with the last word.

Emanuel comes to the job with a reputation for getting things done, a focused mind in Clinton's chaotic terms and, after a lucrative detour into investment banking, an architect of his party's takeover of Congress in the 2006 elections and its further advances Tuesday.

"Street-smart"

"He is competitive, hardworking, hard-charging and street-smart," said Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, who ran the Republicans' House election committee in 2006 when Emanuel was in charge of the Democratic counterpart. "At the end of the day, you send him to get a mission done, he'll get it done."

A centrist Democrat, Emanuel knows policies as well as politics, easily distills complex issues into a simple message and is renowned for always seeing several steps ahead in the legislative process.

But there's the matter of his temperament — or, as Emanuel says, "I swear a lot." He also yells a lot, and in his sentences his favorite expletive can serve as subject, verb or adjective when he is facing down either recalcitrant Democrats or Republican opponents.

To many Democrats, Obama's choice to run the White House seems at odds with the atmosphere Obama enforced at his Chicago campaign headquarters. The motto there was "No drama with Obama," in contrast with the backbiting and shake-ups in rivals' campaigns.

Several Democrats privately expressed or relayed reservations to Obama about Emanuel. To one Obama replied, "Rahm's grown a lot."

John Fritchey, a member of the Illinois House whose district is part of Emanuel's congressional district, said a chief of staff is supposed to be "a bad guy at times. That's a role he cannot only excel at but may even relish."

Emanuel's partisanship has not stopped him from working with Republicans on issues such as the financial-rescue package and transportation.

He made his strongest mark under Clinton by pressing the centrist portions of the president's agenda, including welfare overhaul, tough-on-crime measures and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

For the past two years, Emanuel and Republican Rep. Ray LaHood, also of Illinois, have held dinners for small groups of lawmakers from both parties.

"These intimate, yet no-holds-barred dinners have underscored something that I believe is very important for a functional Congress: To get things done on Capitol Hill, one must work in a bipartisan manner," LaHood said. "Rahm Emanuel shares that belief."

Emanuel, who turns 49 on Nov. 29, grew up in the ritzy Chicago suburb of Wilmette, the son of an Israeli physician who moved to the U.S.

In what he recognized later as a boneheaded move, the son of a doctor avoided the hospital for several days after cutting off part of the middle finger of his right hand while working in a restaurant. Infection set in, and he said he almost lost his arm during weeks in the hospital.

He and his wife, Amy Rule, have three children, ages 11, 10 and 9. Emmanuel will leave his family in Chicago and commute from Washington to see them whenever he can, at least until the school year ends.

His brother Ari, a Hollywood agent, is inspiration for Ari Gold, the Type-A superagent on the HBO series "Entourage." The congressman has been cited as an inspiration for presidential aide Josh Lyman on the series "The West Wing."

His start in politics came after college, when he worked for Paul Simon's 1984 Senate campaign and Richard Daley's run for Chicago mayor in 1989.

Then he worked for a little-known Arkansas governor who wanted to be president.

Emanuel's fundraising skills helped keep Clinton's campaign afloat during some rocky times, particularly the Gennifer Flowers scandal.

Big demotion

Clinton made him his political director in the new administration, but internal tensions led to his comeuppance a year later at the hands of Hillary Rodham Clinton, when he was demoted to a policy adviser.

Ever loyal, he learned better how to get along, while retaining his aggressive ways. He took up residence in a closet-sized office and went to work.

Midway through Clinton's second term, Emanuel left for Chicago to work in investment banking. The firm he joined was soon sold. He made millions, giving him the financial security to return to politics.

Clinton named Emanuel to mortgage giant Freddie Mac's board, a post that paid him at least $292,774 in director's fees, according to a financial-disclosure report Emanuel filed in 2002 when he ran for Congress.

Emanuel served on the board when Freddie Mac misstated its earnings by $5 billion for 2000-02. When the problem was uncovered in 2003, three top Freddie Mac executives were forced out.

He was vice chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority and on the boards of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, beautyjungle.com and Slim-Fast, whose founder is a major Democratic donor.

His first financial-disclosure statement as a House member showed he had about $9.7 million in earned income in the previous year.

He has been a friend of top Obama adviser David Axelrod for nearly 20 years.

Axelrod, a Chicago political consultant, knows about Emanuel's persistence firsthand.

"When I was a reporter and he was working for a public-interest organization and wanted a story written, he tracked me down to the recovery room after one of my children was born to ask me how my story was coming," Axelrod told the Chicago Tribune in 1999. "This guy is relentless."

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.