A White House press spokesman returned Rahm Emanuel’s call and the mandate was succinct.
“Call Steve Weissman at the Times right now. He’s doing an editorial and says nobody’s returned his call,” said Emanuel, senior adviser to the president for policy and strategy.
He went into some detail about what the New York Times writer was looking for and how the White House wanted to shape the matter. There were no words wasted. It was the same when an NBC reporter called a few minutes later.
“Hey, buddy, what’s up? What’ya working on?” Emanuel says, simultaneously giving the reporter an update on a meeting which the newsie had inquired about previously.
The office computer has a thank you note to Barbara Walters on the screen, the television is tuned to CNN, the phone calls are unceasing and Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles pops his head in at one point, while Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin lingers nearby at another.
It resembles a miniature version of the information booth in the middle of Grand Central Station, except it’s 50 feet from the Oval Office, not Track 32, and the man-in-the-middle is now a short-timer.
Emanuel, 38, is the tightly wound Chicagoan who signed on with a longshot presidential candidate seven years ago, split to Little Rock to work for him, helped save the fellow at a crucial moment by raising a ton of money and wound up in Washington to run President Clinton’s first inauguration and then handle several high-level posts in the White House.
Along the way, a certain legend and caricature evolved. He was “Rahm-bo,” an intense, if eclectic, political mercenary who once sent a dead fish to a pollster whose work he didn’t especially like.
A mix of candor and passion rubbed some the wrong way, especially when expletives were uttered and phones slammed. In overdrive over the Kenneth Starr investigation, he once yelled at me for “suppressing” a story he wanted out. I wondered whether he could use an elephant tranquilizer and a Caribbean cruise.
But he was also Emanuel, the young man of conscience, son of an Israeli-born dad who is a Chicago pediatrician and an American Jewish mom who is a social worker. One of the proudest days of his life was the 1993 White House ceremony marking the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. He made sure his dad, a onetime Israeli underground freedom fighter, was there.
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Meanwhile, as Rahm-bo watchers knew, he took ballet lessons. And had a rabbi over to the White House regularly for consultations. He helped bargain the most substantive of policy matters, including the balanced budget deal and overhaul of the welfare system.
Frank Greer, a longtime Clinton ally and consultant, calls him “one of the most principled yet pragmatic people in the White House. Never a grandstander, he always tried to do the right thing. And he’s as responsible as any single individual for the president getting elected in 1992,” alluding to critical fundraising amid the Gennifer Flowers crisis during the New Hampshire primary.
“When I first met Rahm, he looked like a typical campaign type, wheeling and dealing,” recalled former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. The initial word was ` “don’t deal with Rahm.’ But he developed a maturity to work with people and became a real pro. They will miss him.”
In a week, he returns to Chicago and a new North Side home with his wife, Amy Rule, and their children, Zachariah, 19 months old, and Ilana, 5 weeks old. He will work for an investment banking firm and do some teaching.
“There is a sense of accomplishment,” he said. “Is the country better due to the Brady bill and the welfare bill? Yes.” He mentions other legislation, including more help for children’s health.
He rattles off the small group of people who’ve had his job, which he calls the second-highest non-elected position at the White House (after the chief of staff). “It was a fantasy of mine to be here (in the White House) with a Democratic president,” said Emanuel, whose key political patrons are probably the Daleys of Chicago. (He raised lots of money for Richie’s 1988 mayoral campaign).
His jurisdiction has included policy, press and politics. When it comes to the press, he may unwittingly reflect the inevitable myopia of the White House. They see something on the front page of the New York Times or on CNN and are convinced the story, especially if bad, is a potential ruinous reality, sure to impact all of America.
“This is an instant AP (Associated Press),” he said, pointing to a television. “You have to monitor it constantly.” He defends his “proactive” mindset; placing a story, rebutting others, gleaning what reporters are working on.
Inevitably, the last 10 months have been consumed by Monica Lewinsky. He believes that Starr has run amok and that there’s a new sexual McCarthyism. He concedes errors by his boss and that energy has been wasted that could have been otherwise spent.
But he backs Clinton, and not in a two-faced manner, according to a television executive who deals regularly with White House personnel. During the Lewinsky mess, top officials have said one thing on the air, then bad-rapped Clinton off, trying to impress journalists with their supposed integrity, said the executive. Emanuel has not played both sides of the fence.
He is a proud father and knows “It’s time to leave,” especially since one of his goals is financial security. His manic pace probably won’t change, though. It’s a genetic thing, he contends.
What might he tell his children, when they’re old enough, about the past 10 or so months; about Clinton’s conduct and the tall tales the president told?
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” he said.
WOES IN COLLEGE SPORTS
Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), a former wrestling coach who probably could still turn you to pulp, beckoned a top Department of Education official to his office Friday and read her the riot act. Here’s the previously undisclosed reason:
The Chicago branch of the department’s office for civil rights just informed Northern Illinois University that it must quickly remedy alleged violations of Title IX, which requires schools to allocate sports resources equally for men and women.
Title IX is controversial nationally, especially as men (and male coaches) feel they are shafted. Chances for women are growing, but sometimes male jocks lose out and their teams eliminated as the government seeks to have athletic slots mirror a school’s male-female ratio.
In 1993 the school dropped field hockey and was sued by an athlete. Her suit inspired a back-and-forth that has included dueling surveys on athletic interests by the 16,200-student university and the government. About 39 percent of athletes are female, about the national average, with the student body 53 percent female.
Now, the government has given Northern Illinois 10 days to agree to start a women’s track and field program or achieve greater proportionality by dropping men’s sports, presumably low-revenue teams such as wrestling and swimming. If it doesn’t, it faces the loss of federal funds.
Northern Illinois dropped track in 1982 and believes it would cost $1 million just to build a decent track, assuming use of a local high school track is impractical. I talked to two school officials stunned by last week’s letter, saying they fully support the aims of Title IX and had been seeking an accommodation.
Hastert beckoned Norma Cantu, the civil rights chief at the Education Department. He learned that the government asked women on the cross-country team if they’d be interested in track. “Which is like going to an interest group and asking them if there’s an interest,” he told me.
A meeting of minds was not reached. “This is the ultimate in government interference: telling them to drop the men’s sports, then also saying you have to do the sport we tell you,” said Hastert.
The Chicago official who headed the government investigation did not return a call Friday.
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James Warren and Michael Tackett of the Tribune’s Washington bureau are hosts of “Unconventional Wisdom” at 8 a.m. Sunday on WGN-AM 720.