1 day Ago By Laura Washington
In the wake of the Democrats’ Nov. 5 wipeout, there is no shortage of theories on how the party can get back to winning. One that got my attention is a dubious pitch from David Axelrod, the prominent Democratic Party strategist and CNN political commentator.
The Democratic National Committee will be looking for a new chair. It’s Rahm time, Axelrod says. Rahm Emanuel, that is.
On his podcast “Hacks on Tap,” Axelrod touted his friend, currently the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
“If (the Democrats) said, ‘Well, what should we do? Who should lead the party?’ I would take Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, and I would bring him back from Japan, and I would appoint him chair of the Democratic National Committee,” Axelrod said. “He is the most skillful, political kind of infighter in the Democratic Party. He’s been a member of Congress, he’s been White House chief of staff, he’s been the mayor of Chicago.
” On the social platform X, Axelrod added, “Dude knows how to fight and win!” Current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison’s term ends early next year, and he won’t run for reelection, according to news reports. Several leading Democrats plan to run for the post. Newsweek reports that Emanuel is exploring a potential run and is “fielding calls from Democrats encouraging his candidacy and inquiring about the selection process.
” Emanuel “has told associates he plans to leave his Tokyo post in November.” So Rahmbo, back from Japan, will be looking for a job? Really? Sure, establishment Democrats like Axelrod will marshal a boatload of arguments for why their “dude” is The Man. They will argue that Emanuel has high friends in even higher places and has held powerful positions at the local and national levels.
President Joe Biden tapped Emanuel to serve as ambassador to Japan in 2021, against fierce opposition from his party’s progressive wing. (More on that later.) They will note that Emanuel was a key operative in the 1992 election of President Bill Clinton as a power player in Congress, representing Illinois’ 5th Congressional District.
He is credited as a prodigious fundraiser. He was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and served two terms as Chicago’s mayor. Blah, blah, blah.
The Emanuel trial balloon has the party’s left flank flabbergasted and furious. Emanuel is despised by progressives everywhere. They dub him “Mayor 1%,” who as mayor favored the wealthy and powerful Democratic Party elites over the city’s have-nots.
U.S. Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York blasted Axelrod’s pitch. “There is a disease in Washington of Democrats who spend more time listening to the donor class than working people. If you want to know the seed of the party’s political crisis, that’s it,” she responded on X .
“The DNC needs an organizer who gets people,” she added. “Not someone who sends fish heads in the mail,” referring to Emanuel’s slash-and-burn style of politics. In 2021, when word got out that Biden wanted Emanuel for an ambassadorship, the blowback was intense.
Emanuel for the DNC? I reached out to Delmarie Cobb, a Chicago-based political strategist. Cobb, a Democratic Party stalwart and a veteran of several presidential campaigns, was part of a contingent of progressive political and community organizations that held a news conference to protest that appointment. Biden appointed Emanuel anyway.
“This is so typical of what the Democrats do,” she told me last week. “Every time there’s a loss, they start going backwards. So whatever progress they made in terms of policy and issues, they go back to the center and (say), ‘We’re too far left.
’” Emanuel is a nonstarter, based on his mayoral track record alone. That would include his decision to close nearly 50 Chicago public schools, as well as half of the city’s mental health clinics, most serving African American and Latino communities. And the most compelling indictment of Emanuel can be summed up in two words: Laquan McDonald.
That’s the Black teenager who was shot down in the street like a dog by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014, while Emanuel was mayor. There is a widespread belief that Emanuel tried to cover up that police murder. He is accused of deep-sixing a damning dashcam video of the shooting for fear it would jeopardize his reelection chances.
Black voters will never, ever forget that. Now, Democratic Party honchos are talking about installing Emanuel as their leader, of a party whose most loyal base is African American? Cobb asked: “So, you’re going to discount that 91% of Black women and 77% of Black men who ..
. voted for Biden?” Just like that dead fish, a DNC perch for Emanuel should be dead on arrival. Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist.
Her columns appear in the Tribune each Wednesday. Write to her at [email protected] .
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