Reason to Like Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff

Spotted in today’s Times story on Barack Obama’s emergency economic agenda:

Mr. Obama is coordinating with Congressional Democrats behind the
scenes on the stimulus plans, which would include more jobless
benefits, food stamps, aid to financially strapped states and cities,
and spending for infrastructure projects that keep people at work. His chief liaison has been Mr. Emanuel.

"You
don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do
important things that you would otherwise avoid," Mr. Emanuel said in
an interview. "In 1974 and 1978 we never dealt with it, and our
dependence on foreign oil never changed."

Good stuff, except for that "foreign" part.

  • Rahm is my Congressman. He played a significant role in securing federal funds for the CTA’s Brown Line expansion, which essentially rebuilt every Brown Line station north of the loop. The project should be wrapped up by March ’09.

    He gets it.

    http://chicagotransitauthority.net/news/archpress.wu?action=displayarticledetail&articleid=119462

    Now I need a new Congressman.

    Also note this little ditty I found on the newly-launched change.gov web site:

    “Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.”

    http://www.change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy/

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