Now that The Great Mentioner is talking about Rahm Emanuel as Obama's White House chief of staff, it's worth rereading Ryan Lizza's January 2007 GQ profile of the "new kingmaker of the Democratic party":
Twenty-two months ago, amid the ruins of the 2004 Kerry campaign, Democrats installed Rahm--nobody calls him Congressman Emanuel--as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. As we all now know, he did his job better than it has ever been done before. He raised more money than any previous chairman, he ruthlessly recruited handpicked candidates over the objections of local party bosses and liberal activists, and he bulldozed his colleagues over questions of strategy, regularly pissing off many House Democrats with his win-at-all-costs political advice. Despite the wins by traditionally liberal candidates in several districts, Rahm, with his insistence on playing to the middle, was undeniably the primary architect of the Democratic sweep.
Be sure to read the entire thing here.
--Amanda Silverman