If Democrats take the House, rising star will get much credit

By J. Patrick Coolican

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

There's no polite way to say this. Rahm Emanuel looks like a corpse lately. He has sunken eyes ringed with what looks like charcoal. The man is so tired that he gave a weak handshake Friday, when it's just inconceivable he doesn't own a firm grip.

Emanuel, a Chicago congressman in charge of Democratic efforts to take control of the House, has every reason to be exhausted.

He has thrown himself into his role as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and after traveling to dozens of districts, he made his final stop in Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday, where he tried to pump up Tessa Hafen volunteers with some help from celebrity Democrats Paul Begala and James Carville.

Hafen is challenging Rep. Jon Porter in the 3rd Congressional District.

Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats in the House. Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said Emanuel is fooling himself, especially in Nevada, because Porter is right on the issues of taxes and immigration and will be re-elected .

Emanuel, who was deputy chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and was known as a political enforcer, combines his old boss' gift for message and strategy with an aggressive Chicago style. Democratic strategists say if the party is victorious Tuesday, much of the credit will go to Emanuel, who is seen as a rising star. A loss will be devastating to him.

"He succeeded in bringing a level of discipline and exceptional tactical sense to the DCCC," said Marc Ambinder, an editor of the nonpartisan political newsletter The Hotline.

Tom Matzzie, D.C. director of the liberal group MoveOn.org, was less delicate: "He's a bull in a china shop. He's going to get out of the china shop and he's going to break some china."

These are all different ways of saying that Emanuel is the hard-nosed operative Democrats have been thirsting for in the face of Karl Rove, and before him, Lee Atwater.

Emanuel is so dynamic that he was fictionalized in the character of Josh Lyman on "The West Wing." (His brother, Ari, is a high-powered Hollywood agent on whom the character Ari Gold is based in HBO's " Entourage.")

Strategists say Emanuel has been enmeshed in every important step in the road toward a Democratic majority, if indeed that is where they're headed. He recruited candidates that fit given districts, which sometimes meant shoving aside the favorites of liberal interest groups.

Ambinder said he then played hardball with those candidates, imploring them to raise money and hire the right staff. Those who strayed were shunned.

Emanuel had carrots and sticks to work with because he raised so much money, more than his Republican counterpart, Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York.

He has been a skilled fundraiser, unafraid to ask and deeply connected from both the Clinton years and a brief post-Clinton stint as an investment banker, during which he made millions.

Ambinder said Emanuel had the guts and the foresight to see this year as a national election, one that could sweep out a wave of Republican incumbents.

Matzzie was more circumspect: "Republicans stepped into a hornet's nest. It was their time."

Emanuel said that once a decade, "the American people make a course correction." He rattled off the years and some of the causes: " '58, '66, '72 Watergate, '82 recession, '94 health care." This year, the Iraq war has the American people in the mood for change, according to polls.

At appearances with Hafen, Emanuel looked like a coach prepping his team before the final game. "Never give in, and never give up," he said into the microphone, although quietly.

Matzzie said if the Democrats win a majority, lots of people will deserve credit, and he questioned whether Emanuel is the visionary he has been made out to be by many in Washington.

Still, he credited the DCCC with a sound plan to finish the closing weeks of the campaign by investing in so many districts - many once thought solidly Republican - and making them competitive.

As for finishing, why did Emanuel make Las Vegas his last stop?

"It's 72 degrees here, man."