More about Rahmbo (excerpts)

"Why Rahm: A Message To -- And From -- The Center" (Marc Ambinder):

Advisers say that Obama has sent a not-so-subtle message to Congress: President-Elect Obama will not cede much agenda-setting ground to liberals. While outside Democrats are interpreting Emanuel's selection as an institutional message for Nancy Pelosi, Obama advisers concede that Emanuel's ties to key party centrists and blue dog Democrats will be criticial to smoother relationships between the executive and legislative branches. (Emanuel is more liberal than these centrists, but he's not nearly the ideologue that people seem to think he is.)

"The Rahm era begins" (Ben Smith):

Just tonight, for example, I caught up with some Hill staffers at House-side watering hole. Also there was Carl Hulse, the New York Times's crack congressional reporter. Before I arrived, Emanuel had called Hulse on his cell phone. Being an unseasonably warm night for November in Washington, the gang was outside the bar together when Hulse took the call. The Timesman cracked to Emanuel that he was surrounded by a group of Republican Hill staffers. So what did the soon-to-be Chief of Staff to the next Democratic president do? He asked to talk to them. Hulse passed the phone to one senior House GOP aide and the two had a nice chat, with Emanuel recounting how he had a good conversation with the aide's boss today.

"Rahmbo" with video (Al Giordano):

Here's a theorem for the coming weeks and months before President-elect Obama's January 20, 2009 inauguration: The volume of teeth-gnashing and Chicken Little-ing from my friends and colleagues about what moves Obama makes during the transition will be inversely proportional to the amount of work they did to get him there.

Barack Obama