Rahm Emanuel Runs for Chicago Mayor, a Test for Progressives

One of the worst kept secrets of September was White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's intention to quit the White House in an effort to become Chicago's next mayor. On Friday, it became official, and Mr. Emanuel spent the week-end getting the electoral machinery in place. This offers the progressives in the Democratic Party a test as to whether they are serious about political hardball or whether they just like complaining about the Obama administration.

Mr. Emanuel's disdain for the progressives is legendary. Back in February, he upset many pundits in the professional left blogosphere (specifically MoveOn.org) by calling them "fucking retards." He feared that their demand for a single payer or public option would alienate the Blue Dog Democrats whose votes they'd need to pass healthcare. Their disdain for Mr. Emanuel is as great. A quick review of Mr. Emanuel postings on Firedoglake.com is sufficient proof of that.

The question now is whether the "retards" are prepared to make Mr. Emanuel pay a price for his opposition to their agenda. In brief, this is the man most of them blame for the timid (some might all it prudent) approach to most of the nation's problems in the first two years of the Obama presidency. While he was White House Chief of Staff, attacking him was tantamount to attacking the president. And while the left is disappointed in much of the president?s actions, the left is not prepared to sabotage the administration (just yet).

Mr. Emanuel is now just another politician (very well-connected, of course) in the 15-way race for the job of Mayor of Chicago. It would be very easy for the "retards" to fall in line behind another candidate and work to ensure that Mr. Emanuel's dream comes a cropper in February's balloting. Unless one of the candidates gets an outright majority, the April runoff is a second spot to punish Mr. Emanuel for his moderating actions and disrespectful attitude.

One suspects that the left will do no such thing. The reasons for this are threefold. First, the November Congressional elections will result in a heightened focus by the pundits on Inside the Beltway nonsense. Second, there is a legitimate and decent sense on the left that such action would be interfering in a local matter -- the people of Chicago should choose their own mayor without external monkeying about. Yet given the way money was pumped into the Arkansas Senate primary by those very same people, this is hypocritical nonsense.

The third reason, and one this journal has believed for a great many years, is that the American left is essentially gutless. Preventing Mr. Emanuel's election as mayor would put down a marker with the new Congress, and especially the Blue Dog Democrats; opposition has consequences. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is psychologically incapable of the kind of the hardball, street-fighting politics this represents. It's also why Republicans will win seats in November in districts where their registered voters are outnumbered by Democratic voters. Perhaps, these Democrats should de distinguished from others by taking the label "Yellow Canaries". It's a yellow caged bird; for non-American readers, "yellow" is a decades old term for being cowardly.

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