Why the Left Couldn't Destroy Rahm Emanuel [View all]
Politico
After Rahm Emanuel limped to the end of two controversy-pocked terms as Chicago mayor in 2019, many people assumed he would be consigned at last to irrelevance. Some critics, especially on the Democratic left, thought a sullen fadeaway was too good for Emanuel — he deserved some place a bit hotter to spend his political afterlife.
Less than three years later, Emanuel isn’t going to oblivion. And he isn’t going to hell, or at least not yet. He’s going to Tokyo. Emanuel leaves on Saturday to begin his term as President Joe Biden’s newly-confirmed U.S. ambassador to Japan.
What gives?
At a moment when police violence against people of color has become a national emergency, Emanuel left office showered by anger over how he and the city government handled one of the country’s most notorious episodes, the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was struck by 16 bullets while he walked away from an officer.
At a moment when the left is widely touted for its new power, Biden ignored the warnings of rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about a person they think epitomizes the problems of the Democratic Party. Instead, he appointed Emanuel to represent the country to a major world power — a posting historically given to such esteemed figures as Caroline Kennedy, former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield.
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