Transcript of Rahm Emanuel Monitor Breakfast
(Page 11 of 12)
Look, you know, Lisa’s thinking about running. Like other candidates, it’s not - there’s been other candidates running for governor, senator, congress, who are interested in ya know whether they should or shouldn’t, what are the issue. You know that Lisa was a seatmate of the president’s when he was a state senator. She’s the most popular politcal figure in Illinois. And she’s weighing a judgment on what she wants to do in her career. Um, and uh, ya know, there was a discussion about, ya know, let me say this, let me do this: What happens in the oval stays in the oval. They had a conversation about the race. I met with her, that part I’m more cognizant of. She was kinda weighing the benefits and costs of running for office, ie the Senate. And ya know, having done recruitment once as a living, in the DCCC, candidates are trying to figure it out, figure out what they’re looking at.
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She would be – it goes without saying, she would be a formidable candidate. She’s the most popular figure in the state of Illinois. She was deciding, and she’s going through a process, trying to decide. But there’s no doubt by any – by even people who are in the race, in the primary, people who are thinking about it, they all know, she’s the 800 pound gorilla here, because of how popular she is and how good a job she’s done as the attorney general.
Q: Do you think she should run?
RE: That’s for Lisa to make that decision.
Q: But you have gotten involved in other races, such as New York?
RE: I think this – I think like all the other candidates in the field, she’d be a formidable candidate.
Q: So what is it, two meetings?
RE: Valerie and I met with her together.
Q: Difference between now and ‘93. Republican Party in tough shape. There’s no John Chafee. Getting 70 votes on healthcare reform in the Senate, is that a tool or a goal?
RE: You said two things. Well, you said four things.
DC: That’s why he’s a high paid pundit.
RE: I can say this because I was – having ran, with Bill Daley, ran NAFTA for the president. People forget this, after NAFTA, he passed the Brady Bill about 11 days later.
He was at 63 job approval. It was a piece of history. I remember meeting with the president after having run both of those for him to get done. It was the highest job approval since his swearing-in. The difference between Chafee and Clinton was employer vs. employee mandate. And those who weren’t there, Clinton was for employer, Chafee was for employee. After that, you could pretty much write it all off, as just kind of like, nothing.
I for one begged, just bring him into the oval, look him in the eyes, and say we’re going to call it the Chafee Bill, He had 33 Republicans at that time on his bill, it could be 32, but it was in the 30s. And just say, I have one change I would like, but we’re gonna call it your bill.
So, and I think if you look back, there was a big mistake. OK, that said. That’s one. Two, you are right, that the Republican Party is at the lowest point, which is in two decades at least, or since the early 90s, whatever. Every poll is a little different. Let’s just say it’s the lowest point in a long time.
One of the reasons, in my view – and let me go back, what’s significant about that is – am I getting that look that I’m being too political, Bill? [laughter] I haven’t seen you sit up like that in a long time. You’re just worried about where this is going?
BILL BURTON: That signal is more, more!
RE: I just looked up and I caught this hairy eyeball by Bill. I haven’t seen that since my DCCC days.
BB: [inaudible]
RE: Sarah and Bill are sitting back there, all of a sudden they both sat up like, [inaudible], and I said, OK. I’m trying to repress my political gene as much as I can.
What’s interesting is that they’re at their lowest point after two national elections, in which the country voted against their defence of the status quo.
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