by Mark Silva
Rahm Emanuel here. James Carville here. Paul Begala here. George Stephanopoulos here.
Every workday. For 17 years.
So goes the story in politico.com by John Harris, reporting on a round of phone calls that has been going on for so long that someone could have been born and graduated from high school in the meantime. The graduates of Bill Clinton's 1991-born campaign "war room'' go through a daily reality check starting around 6 am.
"The conversations don't begin with hello,'' Harris reports. "They don't end with goodbye. Most often they pick up with a low, drawling voice uttering something between a sentence and a grunt.
"Wahzgoanawn?"
"So begins another morning in what may count as Washington's longest-running conversation -- a street-corner bull session between four old friends who suddenly find themselves standing once more at the busiest intersection of politics and media in Washington.
"Carville calls White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel calls ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. A bit later, CNN commentator Paul Begala, who is not quite the early bird that his friends are, will complete the circle with a rapid set of calls to all three. Different versions of this round-robin chatter have been taking place, with few interruptions, every workday for nearly a generation,'' Harris writes.
"I refer to it as the 17-year-long conference call," Emanuel said for this tale.
"The morning calls -- no single one of which usually lasts more than a few minutes -- among this gang of four is the headwaters of at least one major tributary of Washington politics,'' Harris writes.
See the rest of the Emanuel phone-ring story at Politico.com.
Comments
Rahm is too nasty to last through Obama's administration.
And don't worry Axelrod and Rahm will watch out for Israel.
No fair brokering in the Middle East.
For the Arabs Obama's the "good cop" and Rahm is the "bad cop".
Ya'll gotta learn to live together. It's a small world.
Posted by: mike | January 27, 2009 5:21 PM
Why did you not point out very troublling aspects of this "friendship?" Rahm Enanuel is chief of staff. The other 3 appear regularly to discuss politics -- Stephanapolous has his own darn show, for pete's sake. And I don't think their all discussing the "message" has been reported before, which means the Obama administration gets to help shape a supposedly neutral message on the news.
Posted by: Beth | January 28, 2009 10:34 AM
It's called group think. It's why Howard Dean was needed to win back something approaching a majority--and then Emmanuel and Carville took credit and his groupies Begala and Steph engaged in stenography.
This is PRECISELY why we need an instant-runoff/second choice ballot. We need the Green Party. And we need to grow it in a safe way--a way that keeps out repug thugs from starting a war for oil that a Democratic administration must inherit.
Posted by: REJECT THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHAN NOW!!! PROTECT YOUR KIDS FROM RECRUITERS! | January 28, 2009 10:41 AM