Mr Emanuel is a man who could teach the Israeli Defence Forces a thing or two about coming at an opponent the hard way. Among the many euphemisms used to describe him when he announced he was leaving the West Wing for the Windy City were “bombastic”, “brusque”, “tough personal style”, “not afraid to break a little china”, “not a shrinking violet”, “will use the f-word”. They were from, if not exactly his admirers, certainly not his enemies. His enemies tried shamelessly to have him thrown off the ballot as recently as January 24, claiming that because he worked in the White House, he didn’t live in Chicago – despite the fact he kept all his possessions stored in the house he rented out to tenants who, apparently didn’t want to give him back his home. Among those items was his wife’s wedding dress and an overcoat worn by his maternal grandfather when he arrived in America in 1917 after he fled persecution on the Russian-Romanian border. Emmanuel saw off the procedural dirty tricks without even breaking sweat but Chicago – where his predecessors included the formidable Richard J Daley and his son Richard M Daley – breeds its politicians hard-nosed. In fairness, they have to be – six of its parent state Illinois’s governors were charged with crimes during or after their gubernatorial terms, four were convicted and Rod Blagojevich (who tried to extort a children’s hospital) was succesfully impeached.
