Rahm, Durbin In The Chief-Of-Staff Shuffle?

By Karl Klockars in News on May 26, 2010 7:00PM

Some are beginning to question just how much longer Rahm Emanuel will be occupying the office of Chief of Staff for President Obama. Which, of course, leads to a couple other questions - who gets the seat next, and what would Rahmbo do afterwards? He's already expressed an interest in taking the mayor's office, he's long desired to be Speaker of the House and the head of the Democratic National Convention, and then there are those pesky "placeholder" rumors about his initial appointment to his current position. Couple all this with the growing drumbeats about the unnamed "administration official" who might have, sorta, accidentally, illegally offered Joe Sestak a gig to drop out of the race with Arlen Specter. So what's the deal?

Historically, chiefs of staff don't last too long, with a couple years being a fairly average run. Chicago Magazine's Carol Felsenthal spoke with the deputy historian for the House of Representatives, Fred Beuttler, who believes that Emanuel will stick around through the '10 midterm elections but then skedaddle elsewhere, quite possibly to lead the DNC. Emanuel has expressed concerns that taking the White House job has "cost him his independence” and would probably be interested in being his own boss again.

In addition, the L.A. Times is saying that as immigration reform rears its head again, the administration would likely never move on it until Emanuel was out of the picture. Pair that information with what Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic is saying: "[Senator Dick] Durbin isn't really the future chief of staff. But he might be." Sure, it's tenuous at best, but the president has established that he likes working with people from his neck of the woods. Would he pull one of the most senior Democratic senators out of Congress to help push forward his agenda?

Let's play a little musical chairs. If Rahmbo leaves the Chief of Staff position, he could either end up as head of the DNC or as mayor of Chicago, should Daley decide to opt for the simple life at his summer home on the western shores of Michigan (which is looking doubtful, more on that later). Durbin then leaves his Senate seat to be CoS which allows Governor Quinn to install Alexi Giannoulias in the open seat (or David Hoffman, or Lisa Madigan) presuming that Mark Kirk reigns supreme in the actual Senate race, which is something that's looking more and more likely. We end up with a new mayor, two new senators, and the head of the DNC with strong Chicago ties. Whew.

Naturally, all of this is blue-skying, but in Chicago politics someone is always looking a few steps ahead. If anyone sees the President around town this weekend, ask him if he knows what's up, won't you?