Emanuel on deal-making and dealing with Trump
Tuesday, Feb 7, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Mayor Rahm Emanuel talking about deal-making…
“The hotel industry wanted to throttle Airbnb. [But] nobody signs on to a loss. Nobody willingly. . . . I always before we negotiate draw out on a piece of paper, their wins, my wins. Can I give ’em what I think are their wins. Can they give me my wins? And then, how close are we to that kind of ideal paper at the beginning when we get to the end,” the mayor said.
“We did it recently with the teachers. There are things in there the teachers can claim to their members they won fair and square. Not a problem,” he said. “There’s things we won fair and square. Otherwise, it’s not a very good negotiation or a contract. If you try to make the other side lose, it’s not usually a good way to get a deal done and they won’t sign onto it. And if they do sign onto it, it’s because you crushed ’em. And trust me, they’re gonna come back and get you. What goes around comes around.”
Agreed.
* And here’s some of his advice for Democrats in the age of Donald Trump…
Stop the blame game. “Democrats love doing a firing squad in the circle. Stop it: ‘They’re too moderate.’ Forget about it. This guy [Trump] and these people are about to do something on the tax code, the regulatory environment and things that are more threatening than what a fellow Democrat might slightly disagree with you on,” Emanuel said.
Pick your battles. “Not every pitch has to be swung at. … We don’t have the power to swing at everything, so you have to pick what is essential,” the mayor said.
Go slow. “Time is not the incumbent party’s friend. Time is the opposition’s friend. Slow. Go slow. They want to rush. We want to go slow. Real slow.”
Drive a wedge every chance you get. “Whenever there’s a disagreement among Republicans, I’m for one of those disagreements. I’m all for it,” the mayor said. “The President wants Russia? I’m with John McCain and Lindsey Graham. I’m for NATO. Why? Wedge. Schisms have to be wedges. Wedges have to be divides and divisions. …We’ve got to lower the President? Why? Because they are strong enough to get him than us. We’re not strong enough.”
* He also said this…
“Democrats are at the lowest level since 1928 in the House of Representatives and the lowest level since 1925 in the state houses. … It is hard to imagine it getting lower,” the mayor said.
“It took us a long time to get this low. It ain’t gonna happen in 2018. Take a chill pill, man. You’ve got to be in this for the long haul. And if you think it’s gonna be a quick turnaround like that, it’s not. You have to be part of this for the long haul. … You’re gonna have a success here and a success here, and then you’ll build a critical mass. But it’s worth fighting for. And I think this country is worth fighting for.”
Thoughts?
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:12 am:
I’ve said this before- Dems need to fertilize and seed their grassroots. Trump may end up in “apoplexy by Twitter” and be out before 2018 or the next General. In that case, Pence will step in quite possibly with Ryan by his side. Right now Trump is Trump, but a Pence/Ryan team will be harder to beat on rules/reg rollbacks and eliminations. The Dems need to recapture some ground in 2018 to be able to make their votes count and not just their voices heard.
- TheDopeFromHope - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:16 am:
So Emanuel isn’t for anything that would improve the country, he’s for things that might drive a wedge between Republicans.
A very principled stand, I would say, given the state of today’s Democratic Party.
- gstritzel - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:18 am:
“Their wins and my wins”. Did the mayor say that, really? Did he say that is what negotiations are about? Isn’t that what Rainer has been begging for for the last 2 years? Yet he is condemned by many for wanting a few scraps. Geez.
- Anon - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:25 am:
=== “Democrats are at the lowest level since 1928 in the House of Representatives” ===
In November, Democrats picked up six seats in the House. So it can’t be the lowest level in 2017.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:38 am:
=== Isn’t that what Rainer has been begging for for the last 2 years?===
Nope. Where did you get that?
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:45 am:
They’ve been running republican-lite moderates for like 2 decades, only to see their share of power diminish under the leadership of people just like, and actually including Rahm Emmanuel. The Trump voters in the Rust Belt 5 told you already why they voted for Trump. Trade and jobs. Seems on that issue, those voters have much more in common with Bernie Sanders than with Hillary Clinton, which may explain why he won Michigan. dunno, but I think there’s something to that - Bernie beat Hillary in Michigan for the same reason Trump beat Hillary in Michigan.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:53 am:
Hillary lost because Bernie voters stayed away in too great numbers, either voting for Trump (yes), Jill or Gary, or not voting. Bernie was not as close in votes to Hillary, either delegate or pure numbers, than Hillary was to Obama in the primaries. Getting on board with Hillary should have been easy as that is where the progressive plans were. Those who said that Trump and Hillary were the same thing sound really, really sad and silly now. Thanks brogressives.
- phocion - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 10:59 am:
Everything Rahm said is absolutely spot on. He is a brilliant political thinker and strategist. His party, unfortunately, holds realpolitik in disdain. It would benefit for the Democrats to take heed of his words of wisdom/caution. But they won’t. Nationally they will continue to lose. Locally they may hold on, but at great cost to the future prospects of the state.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:10 am:
=So Emanuel isn’t for anything that would improve the country, he’s for things that might drive a wedge between Republicans.=
“But it’s worth fighting for. And I think this country is worth fighting for.”
I think he was fairly clear on that, the “wedge” is how you get there.
BTW- Same strategy as Rauner.
- don the legend - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:21 am:
When my guys uses wedges it’s good. When the other guy uses wedges it’s bad. Like I grew up hearing old timers say, “He’s an SOB but he’s our SOB!”.
- gstritzel - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:24 am:
To Rich: Didn’t Bruce Rauner list 50 some reforms during his campaign, all of which the people who freaking elected him knew about and supported? And how many have the Dems agreed to? None. Now, he is asking for a couple of reforms to be agreed to before he accepts their demands. Those are the scraps I’m referring to.
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:26 am:
Rahm is very good at the politics part of politics. Now that I think of it, Illinois is full of politicians who are very good at politics, but are awful at the governing.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:29 am:
===Those are the scraps I’m referring to===
I know what you’re referring to. But you quote the “their wins, my wins” without addressing what he actually said: “Can I give ’em what I think are their wins. Can they give me my wins?”
That’s what has been missing.
- Thoughts Matter - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:31 am:
Texas Red
Lisa’s motion to stop paying workers does not preclude a budget deal. It only deals with would happens if a budget deal is not reached. Why would it unravel a possible deal?
As OW says, show your work at reaching your conclusion.
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:31 am:
==Hillary lost because Bernie voters stayed away in too great numbers, either voting for Trump (yes), Jill or Gary, or not voting.==
wrong. Trump brought in new disaffected voters in the Rust Belt 5, while Clinton failed miserably to excite the natural base of her party in those states. She never even stepped foot in Wisconsin and spent the waning weeks of the campaign, not in Michigan, but in Arizona and Georgia.
- Gstritzel - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:45 am:
Rich…..I agree. God, why can’t it all be this easy.
- Rahm is Not the Education Mayor - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:53 am:
“If you try to make the other side lose, it’s not usually a good way to get a deal done and they won’t sign onto it. And if they do sign onto it, it’s because you crushed ’em. And trust me, they’re gonna come back and get you. What goes around comes around.”
The adjunct faculty at Chicago City Colleges have been working without a contract for close to five years because Emanuel’s handpicked college trustees tried to crush them. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board held that City Colleges did not bargain in good faith and engaged in unfair labor practices.
The new college building at Olive-Harvey remains unfinished.
The faculty and students are protesting the City Colleges “Reinvention” plan to concentrate majors on individual campuses and force students to commute across town depending upon which college features their major.
Remember that when Rahm talks about caring about the importance of college education while he and his privatizing friends are wrecking a “community college district.”
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 11:56 am:
If the Democratic Party keeps doing what it has been doing since 2010, it earned its extinction.
The Democrats need to stop insulting anyone disagreeing with them. They need to stop shutting down those that question them. It is hard to have a disagreement with Democrats who unfriend you on Facebook, melt down in temper tantrums when they lose and riot when their safe little bubbles get popped.
I can’t defend what I’ve been seeing from Democrats since Donald Trump got elected.
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 12:03 pm:
==The Democrats need to stop insulting anyone disagreeing with them.==
Is this happening anywhere but on social media and college campuses? Because the experience in my life has definitely not been anywhere near this. Growing up in the conservative bubble, I’ve been harassed for being a liberal my entire life. Lazy, hippie, communist, thief have all been used to insult me because of my beliefs. This last cycle it was “cuck.” Many Trump supporters have unfriended me, not for insulting them, but for disagreeing with them. And as parting shots on the way out the door they hurl all the usual slurs plus cuck. I’m just not sure what lessons people are learning here, especially when the voters are telling you economics are the most important issue in an election where the second least liked candidate in modern political history lost an election to the single least liked candidate in modern political history while winning more votes. Only one of those people are on the ballot in 2018
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 12:09 pm:
==The Democrats need to stop insulting anyone disagreeing with them.==
Is this happening anywhere except on college campuses and social media? I keep asking this and nobody seems to be able to answer me. Meanwhile, the Republican platform consisted almost entirely of exclusion and insults against those that disagreed with them. Lyin Ted, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary, etc. Some of the lessons being thrust upon the Democratic party are really puzzling to me.
1. Clinton got more votes
2. In the places she lost, it seems clear it was because of economic issues - she’s a poster child for NAFTA and the hollowing out of middle america for corporate gain
3. Clinton and Trump are the two least liked candidates in modern political history, and only one of them will be on the ballot in 2018 and 2020 (yes I realize it won’t physically be Trump on the ballot in 2018)
4. Republicans are on the verge of taking health insurance away from 20 million people and give grandma a coupon for her health care.
- Daniel Plainview - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 12:14 pm:
On paper Rahm isn’t really wrong. I’m just wondering how indulging Griff’s tantrums over speed bumps, warring with the unions, and trying to cover for bad cops that commit murder fit into the long term plan.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 12:35 pm:
===They need to stop shutting down those that question them. It is hard to have a disagreement with Democrats who unfriend you on Facebook, melt down in temper tantrums when they lose and riot when their safe little bubbles get popped.===
Pot, meet kettle. Lol.
- Oy vey! What an Egotist - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 12:52 pm:
“I’ve never lost an election. It’s about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done.”
Sounds like Trump, doesn’t he?
Really classy, Rahm. You might have added that you never faced a real opponent in an election who wasn’t hopeless underfunded and, with the possible exception of Chuy Garcia, wholly unable to compete.
Emanuel cut a deal with Blagojevich, Mell and Daley to be slated for Congress and some of his precinct workers went to prison for campaigning on the city’s dime. So, yeah, brag about what a terrific candidate you were when it cost you almost $70.00 per vote to beat Garcia in 2015, which included a run-off.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 1:17 pm:
The Democrats have lost over 1000 federal and state seats across the US since 2010. Focusing on Trump or 2016 isn’t addressing the total disaster, or the previous five years.
Mayor is right. Change or die out.
- ZC - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 2:56 pm:
I too find it hard to disagree with Rahm’s logic but agree he’s been on a learning curve that trying to “crush” his political opposition, isn’t a smart way of governing. (… “there’s no way the CTU will ever get the percentage they need to strike!”) I think he and the CTU were always going to clash, no stopping it, but man did he help poison the well from the get-go.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 7, 17 @ 4:52 pm:
–“The President wants Russia? I’m with John McCain and Lindsey Graham. I’m for NATO. Why? Wedge.”–
I can’t believe he said that. He just has to be the “smartest guy in the room” sometimes, in his own mind.
That’s worse than Rauner’s infamous unions/social services wedge comments and strategy.
You should be with Graham and McCain on Russia because that is clearly in the national interest; as is being strong on NATO, the alliance that has kept the peace in Europe for the longest period of recorded history.
Those aren’t “wedge” issues for political romper-room games. Those are matters of war and peace.