Obama Expected to Name Rep. Rahm Emanuel White House Chief of Staff

Politico.com is reporting that President-Elect Barack Obama is expected to name Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff sometime this week. The selection of Emanuel would be a signal to Republicans that Obama is not planning much of a bi-partisan approach, as Emanuel is known as a "brass knuckles" operator on Capitol Hill. Joe Scarborough on MSNBC just said this selection would be the equivalent of a Republican President-Elect choosing Tom Delay to be chief of staff:

In his first major move as president-elect, Barack Obama has asked Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a tough-minded tactician with West Wing experience, to serve his White House chief of staff, Democratic sources tell Politico.

Emanuel has said to friends that he wants and will take the job, but it was not a done deal as of early this morning. Obama plans to move swiftly with his transition announcement and could name Emanuel this week, the sources said. He then plans rapid-fire announcements on his economic and national-security teams.

If Emanuel - a member of the House Democratic leadership with ambitions to one day to be House Speaker - were to turn it down, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) would likely get the nod, the sources said.

Some Democrats have warned that Emanuel’s take-no-prisoners style could hurt Obama. But the president-elect wants to move fast to push his legislative agenda through the Democratic-controlled Congress – and Emanuel knows the Hill and power politics as well as anyone in town.

“Obama wants a bad cop, so he can be good cop 90 percent of the time,” an adviser said.

Emanuel, who at 49 is two years older than Obama, is the Democratic Caucus Chair, the fourth-highest ranking member of the House Democratic leadership.