After the party's Massachusetts loss, criticism of the chief of staff—not only from activists, but from members of Congress—has increased.
In recent days, the White House turned to two other top advisers, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, to discuss on network television how the Massachusetts defeat will affect the president's agenda.
There have been reports of tension between Mr. Emanuel and Ms. Jarrett, who is more ideologically in tune with the liberal base and close with the Obama family, but several people who have worked with the two say they get along fine.
Matthew Rothschild, editor of the Progressive, an antiwar magazine, wrote this month that Mr. Emanuel has "delivered defeat" for Mr. Obama and should be fired.
The president, he wrote, "needs a chief of staff with the wisdom to help point him down a bold, progressive path."
Mr. Emanuel responds with a reference to the party's base: "They like the president, and that's all that counts."
Allies say the chief of staff's strategy is purely realistic, that compromise is required in order to pass legislation. Mr. Emanuel's defenders note that Mr. Obama campaigned as a pragmatist who would value bipartisanship over ideology.
On health care, Mr. Emanuel negotiated with Republicans, pharmaceutical and health-insurance companies. |
