Strid om Emanuel Rahm

Stabsjefen i Det hvite hus, Rahm Emanuel, har havnet i en bitter strid som reflekterer at Obama-administrasjonen sliter. Er det fordi at presidenten lytter for mye til Emanuel, eller for lite? Emanuel har sine tilhengere og sterke motstandere. Nå har de begynt å gi utløp for sine meninger i pressen, og da stiger temperaturen. Da mister Det hvite hus kontrollen.

Emanuel liker å styre, nå er han selv objekt. Venstrefløyen blant demokratene, som er frustrert med at reformene går sakte eller endog har stoppet opp, ser Emanuel som en bremsekloss. De mener han er en skap-konservativ. De har angrepet ham så intenst at Emanuels støttespiller følte behov for å ta igjen.

De gjorde det på en så cocky måte at det provoserte førstedamen, Michelle Obama. Hun følte at den høye sigarføringen gikk ut over presidentens autoritet.

That growing chorus appears to have forced Emanuel – or, more likely, his supporters – to launch a counter-attack. A column in the Washington Post by the highly respected sketch-writer Dana Milbank reported that Emanuel had set up his own press outreach operation, separate to that of other top White House aides such as press secretary Robert Gibbs and top adviser Valerie Jarrett. It also stuck the knife into those aides and other senior Obama advisers, blaming them for Obama's problems.

"Obama's first year fell apart in large part because he didn't follow his chief of staff's advice on crucial matters," Milbank wrote. The piece concluded bluntly: "Obama needs fewer acolytes and more action. Rahm should stay."

Other pieces followed in which sources attacked Obama's top aides and repeated the line that Emanuel was the spurned saviour of the Obama White House, not its downfall. But there was a backlash, too. Anonymous sources reported that Michelle Obama had been furious at the Milbank column. "A knife in Obama's back?" thundered a headline in the Los Angeles Times.

There was much speculation that the pro-Emanuel pieces had done damage to Obama by undermining his authority in the frank way that they had spelled out that Obama's first year had been a disappointment. "The defence of Rahm favoured by some Washington Democrats is evidence of everything that is wrong with Washington ... no wonder people hate this city," fumed the Washington Post's Ezra Klein.

I neste omgang skrev David Broder en artikkel som kritiserte sin egen avis' dekning av Rahm-saken. Dermed er det stiftet enda flere branner og ilden vil spre seg. Det fører lett til situasjoner der uansett hva man foretar seg, så har det en nedside, og situasjonen er utenfor Det hvite hus' kontroll.

Open war over Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's master of the dark arts

Rahm Emanuel, the president's tough backroom operator, has found himself at the centre of a career-threatening row