READING THE TEA LEAVES

Obama has indeed chosen Chicago Rep. Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff.

Emanuel is a Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) kind of Democrat. In his role as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 he worked hard to keep progressive Democrats from running for Congress and instead only gave party funds to those who took a more moderate position on the Iraq occupation issue. Thus he was instrumental in slowing down congressional momentum to force an end to Iraq war funding that now costs us $12 billion per month.

According to Democratic candidates who ran for House of Representative seats in 2006, Emanuel took sides during the Democratic primary elections, favoring conservative candidates, including former Republicans, and sidelining candidates who were running in favor of withdrawal from Iraq.

One Emanuel critic reported, "Many of the candidates that Emanuel helped elect have joined with a group of self-styled conservative Blue Dog Democrats and have cast key votes with Republicans and stymied Democratic efforts to end the occupation of Iraq and the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program."

So it is instructive to see that a key corporate Democratic party operative has now been placed in probably the most powerful position inside the Obama administration. As we begin to read the tea leaves this is one important sign of what is yet to come.