End of the Trail

At Politico Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer point out something I observed months ago:

RAHM EMANUEL had never lost a political campaign. Until this week.

Over the past few weeks, the former Chicago mayor has been waging a typically relentless but abnormally quiet (for him, anyway) campaign to put himself in contention to be Biden’s Transportation secretary.

He leveraged his platinum rolodexes from Obamaworld and Capitol Hill. He talked up how Biden would need a good congressional partner when pursuing an infrastructure package. Obama’s former secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, reached out to chief of staff RON KLAIN to put in a good word. Other top Obama aides like DENIS McDONOUGH and SUSAN RICE joined the administration, so why not Rahm?

But earlier this week, JOE BIDEN personally called BARACK OBAMA’s former chief of staff to deliver the bad news, according to a person familiar with the call. Emanuel, one of the most powerful Democrats in the country for nearly two decades, was now considered too toxic for the Cabinet. PETE BUTTIGIEG would be Transportation secretary.

“Rahm has former colleagues and friends who are involved and respect him, but no one is worth that sort of headache,” a senior Democrat who is advising the transition told Transition Playbook. “Labor didn’t want him at Transportation, civil rights groups didn’t want him, progressives didn’t want him. There simply is no constituency for Rahm Emanuel at this point.”

which is that Rahm Emanuel has no future in politics. He never had a constituency but ascended through a number of sinecures to become mayor of Chicago where he made too many enemies and too many mistakes. He has always reminded me of Pontie, the main character in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He ascended the ladder without actually doing anything up to a point. Mr. Emanuel reached that point as mayor of Chicago. Now he’s reached the end of the trail.