(CNN) - Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton administration aide, has accepted the position of President-elect Obama's chief of staff, a Democratic aide tells CNN.
Watch: Jessica Yellin reports on Emanuel
House Minority Leader John Boehner criticized the choice of Emanuel - the man known for his tough-minded approach and widely credited with engineering large congressional gains for Democrats in the 2006 elections.
“This is an ironic choice for a President-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center," Boehner said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Jim Manley, a senior communications advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, praised the choice.
"An excellent choice. Rahm knows the Hill," he told CNN. "And he knows the White House. He is a brilliant strategic thinker and someone who knows how to get things done."
From CNN Politics
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Excellent choice. He won't take any crap from anyone. Excellent!
GO ahead.... whine and cry "no fair" republicans HAHAHAHAHA
my my my...have the tables turned hehehehe
May Emanuel serve you well President Obama!
Emanuel is brilliant and is known to get the job done and he has two brothers that are just as smart as he and successful, it must run in the family. Great pick Mr. President for 2008 and 2012 and the Republicans know this.
What an awesome choice!
President Obama's admnistration will reflect his core message: change. The experienced Emanuel, mind you, A+ experience, will bring that change.
President-elect Obama has set the tone, and that tone will be reverberated through all of his picks, no matter how a part of "the establishment" they have been.
great first choice.
a partisan washington insider and a wall street investment banker.
Obama picks an attack dog for Chief of Staff. Really sets the tone for a new kind of politics in Washington. But I suppose the 'palace guard' lap dog national media will spin a positive story out of it for him.
Awesome choice! A chief-of-staff is not supposed to be "mr. nice guy" but someone who can get things done. I see the typical Republican response from Boehner, like he is non-partisan and lives to work w/the Dems. Boehner and has ilk will have to get used to REALLY not being in charge and start putting America ahead of their (rejected) policies and politics. America has spoken and it wasn't for you Boehner. As Napoleon Dynamite said "Idiots. Gosh".
I thought Obama was for change, that is why I voted for him, BUt what does he do, picks a hardline Washington insider, that has the charm of a shark. SO where is this change he promises. Emanuel is about
partisan politics all the way. Just remember OBama, we elected you, four years from now you can be kicked out. YOu work for us now. Do us right,
Wow, the Repugs are already slinging mud!
May the force be with our prez-elect!
Rham Emmanuel is a great choice. Obama will put together an awesome team. Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!
What will happen if Obama does live up to his promises that got him elected. Please do not forget the dems pretty much control all 3 executive branches so they should be able to move his agenda along
1) Troops out of Iraq in 16 months.
2) Universal and affordable health care. He did say the cost would ne $2500 less per family
3) Tax CUTS to people and families making less than 250 grand for the tax year 2009.
4) Help for main street in the 1st year that allows people to stay in their homes.
5) 5 million Green Jobs by the end of his 1st term.
If he does not live up to all these promises what will his supporters say
6) Energy independance.
Boehner's a blowhard... who cares what he says. Now that the Dems have it they need to push the Democratic agenda and scale back on what the Republicans brought in, as the Republicans did when they took over.
Here we go ... Bam's ready to Rahm it down ...
That's not surprising. Great choice
Awesome, Mr. President: We have been with you since 2007, and will be with you until 2016!
Great choice!
Pragmatist = a practical approach to problems and affairs - what is wrong with that??????? I
EXCELLENT!
I mean really really excellent choice. Let's go to work!
I'm just glad Obama got those drapes measured ahead of time.
John Boehner's immature knee jerk comment is laughable. Keep that garbage up and right wing fanatics will become even more irrelevant.
Boehner starts the whining for the congressional [R]s already? How pathetic. Obama can't even pick his own chief of staff without mindless, divisive comments from the bitter right. For those, including Boehner, who do not like this, you deserve all the self-imposed distress you can inflict on yourselfs. Personally, after living through the political hell of the last 8 years, the more you neo-tards are distressed, the happier I am.
Anybody saw Joe the Plumber?
To Jeff –
Of course this would be an excellent pick. Why not pick the Chief of Staff who was in office during the success of the Clinton Administration.....this only shows that Obama is truly putting his country first.
...and get over it, she lost.
As Gergen points out, Bam's setting up a a good cop-bad cop approach. I wish I could collect all the "woo-hoo"-ers' comments and save them for when this administration begins to crumble under the weight of its "greatness."
jeff- Hillary would NOT have won IN, VA, NC, CO, NM, NV, NOR COMPETED IN MT, GA, TX, AL, ND, SD, NE
Btw, Obama ONLY has Bill Clinton's economic advisors and other few members, the rest in President Obama's administration are Republicans, Independents, Dems
Change you can Xerox! You Obama supporters are in for a rude awakening and now we all have to suffer.