Rahm Ruminates Run

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 28, 2010 2:00PM

Enough teasing; it seems we could know as early as Friday whether or not Rahm Emanuel intends to leave the White House and take a run at Mayor of Chicago. The prolific "source speaking on condition of anonymity" told a few folks in the media yesterday, "Because of family considerations, no final decision has been made," but that a decision could come by the end of the week. As for Rahm's current boss (if you actually believe anyone can boss Rahm around), he addressed the issue yesterday:

On Monday morning, however, Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer that he thought Emanuel would have to make a decision in a hurry because running for mayor "is a serious enterprise."

The race is "something he's thinking about," Obama said of his chief of staff. He said he thought Emanuel would make an "excellent" mayor, but that he hasn't made up his mind whether he would actually endorse anyone in the race.

Over at Politico the mood is one of "when" not "if" for Rahm's departure, leading to lots of speculation over who will replace Rahmbo once he bids adieu. Senior Obama advisor Pete Rouse is expected to step up at least in the short-term with the long-term replacements being considered: Rouse; Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Biden aide Ron Klain; former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle; former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta; and CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Meanwhile, as Rahm ponders the battles on the ballot, he's also - allegedly - engaged in a battle already here in Chicago, one with the current tenant of the house he owns at 4228 N. Hermitage. The Sun-Times Scoop-o-Rama that is Michael Sneed reports this morning that Rahm is having trouble getting back in to his home because said tenant won't budge, having signed a lease through June of 2011. There's also the issue of residency but it seems that that won't be a problem as Rahm voted absentee in this year's February primary via the local address - even though the tenant registered the address for voting back in November 2009.