It's fairly obvious that the GOP's line of defense heading into the 2006 midterms will center around the indecision of the opposition. The inability of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to reconcile differences among disparate Democratic Party factions may or may not prove to be a liability to American voters as they head to the polls, but bubbling underneath the surface lies what could prove to be a much more ominous impediment to significant Democratic gains this fall. And his name is Rahm Emanuel.....
DCCC Chairman Emanuel represents a double-edged sword for the Dems. Even those of us most critical of the Democratic Party leadership have to admit he's done a bang-up job of candidate recruitment: a former NFL quarterback....a Microsoft executive...a Time magazine "Person of the Year"....stealing Ken Lucas of KY-04 from the jaws of retirement....and lest we forget the dozens of "Fighting Dems," some of whom are as articulate as hell. I'm convinced that without the shrewd operator Emanuel behind the wheel of the DCCC this cycle, we wouldn't have near as many potentially competitive seats as we now appear to have. Unfortunately, our salvation could become our downfall at the end of the day.
The problem: as the election nears and our impressive selection of candidates begins to get noticed by the mainstream media, they're gonna start sniffing around for the person responsible for recruiting them. And for those unaware of Emanuel's personality, trust me when I tell you that the less camera time this guy gets, the better off we all are. I've only seen tidbits of his interviews a couple of times, but he left me with an undeniable impression of being abrasive, obnoxious, insulting and just downright angry. Think Zell Miller at the 2004 GOP convention and you'll come as close as you're gonna get to a modern political equivalent to Emanuel in terms of demeanor. And it's not just me who feels this way. Most of the interviews I've read about the guy make a special point of informing the reader about Emanuel's "frightening the children" personality.
Worse yet, Emanuel has a history of borderline psychotic behavior that could turn into a PR nightmare if it gets widespread exposure. Here is a guy who, at Clinton's 1992 victory party, singled-out a list of Clinton's political enemies and shouted out "DEAD!" as he stabbed a steak knife into the dinner table. On another occasion, he mailed a dead fish to a pollster when things didn't go his way. Think this kind of behavior will sell in Middle America?
The biggest risk we run after the media shines a spotlight on Emanuel is for the GOP response (which was probably scripted by Karl Rove months ago) to ask voters "Is this the kind of guy you want running Congress?" Accurately or inaccurately, the Republicans will attempt to convince us that Emanuel is the "Democratic Newt", the guy who stands to be at the top rungs of Democratic Congressional leadership if his inflated role in securing Democratic gains proves successful. If this was your ordinary eccentric politician, I wouldn't be worried. But with someone as patently unlikeable as Emanuel, enough swing voters might be scared into sticking with the "sane voices" of the GOP. I just hope the Dems are anticipating such an attack.