Other reports have described the Emanuel household as a place of constant philosophical and political debate and one-upmanship, with the brothers competing intensely. Zeke described his parents lovingly but firmly pushing the boys to do better in sports and school. Their father taught them to play chess: “He would admonish us with two messages: ‘Think three moves ahead!’ and ‘Remember what Napoleon said: “Offense is the best defense,”’” Zeke wrote.22
One can speculate that it was a rarified atmosphere of mutual self-confidence, based on liberal social values yet permeated with a sense of insular superiority. Bumiller’s profile quoted Ari: “The pressure is that you were judged by the family. . . . Our family never cared about the kid down the block.”23
Rahm was introduced to Democratic politics early on; as teenagers he and Ari joined their mother in volunteering for the successful congressional campaign of Abner Mikva, a popular liberal who later served as a federal chief judge and White House counsel.24
Despite the intellectual rigor of the Emanuel home, Rahm was an unexceptional student; a guidance counselor suggested he might consider other options besides college. (Ari, who is dyslexic, also struggled with schoolwork.)25 Rahm had an after-school job at Arby’s that ended up endangering his life and left him with one of his most celebrated physical characteristics. As a teenager he cut his finger at work and then took a late-night swim in Lake Michigan after the high school prom. The result was a life-threatening gangrenous infection, many weeks in the hospital, and the partial amputation of his middle finger.26 Given his proclivity for literally or verbally giving people the finger, Emanuel’s severed digit would become a lifelong source of amusement. President Obama would later joke that the accident left Emanuel “practically mute.”27
The Education of Rahm Emanuel
After high school graduation—having turned down the Joffrey Ballet scholarship—Emanuel headed to Sarah Lawrence College, a small and exclusive liberal arts school (formerly a women’s college) north of New York City.28Emanuel studied dance, philosophy, and other social sciences at Sarah Lawrence, and he became heavily involved in politics.29
At age twenty he took a semester off to volunteer for the congressional campaign of Illinois Democrat David Robinson, who was seeking to unseat Paul Findley, a Republican viewed as unsympathetic to Israel because of his support for Palestinian rights.30 Forrest Claypool—a lifelong Chicago politician who also worked for Robinson—told Chicago Magazine that this was the first prominent national campaign to use an opponent’s purported anti-Israel stance as a major hook for fundraising.31
Emanuel started out volunteering as Robinson’s driver, but he soon became the campaign’s fundraising director.32 He helped Robinson raise $750,000, and though the candidate ultimately lost the race, young Emanuel made an impression— notably on field director David Wilhelm, who later managed Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and became the youngest chair of the Democratic National Committee.33
After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Emanuel worked for the Illinois Public Action Council, a large consumer advocacy group known for sending staff door to door to raise funds and enlist support for progressive causes. The council endorsed candidates and spent money on independent campaigns backing them. At the time Emanuel worked there, the council’s program director was Jan Schakowsky, who would later become a long-serving congresswoman representing North Side “lakefront liberals” and the wealthy North Shore suburbs beyond.”34
Emanuel also did fundraising work for Paul Simon’s successful 1984 US Senate campaign, helping the liberal upset a three-term Republican incumbent. Though Emanuel was just twenty-four, famed Democratic strategist David Axelrod would later say, his tenaciousness and success in wringing money out of donors was striking.35
In the mid-1980s California congressman Tony Coelho was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of Democrats in the House of Representatives. On a trip to Illinois he met Emanuel, who was working at the Illinois Public Action Council. Coelho was immediately impressed by the young politico, who he said “was organized, bang-bang-bang, knew the pros and cons” of every race. He recruited Emanuel to join the DCCC.36
Emanuel headed to Washington with the committee, then returned to Chicago to set up the DCCC’s Midwest office, and he was named the committee’s national campaign director for the 1988 elections.37 While at the DCCC Emanuel notoriously sent a dead fish in the mail to pollster Alan Secrest, whose work he blamed for the loss of a congressional seat in Buffalo, New York. Secrest responded with a six-page letter excoriating Emanuel for arrogance, “lying,” “star-fucking,” and “hubris.” Emanuel proceeded to fax the letter out to journalists and colleagues, very possibly to build his own reputation as someone not to be messed with.38
From 1984 to 1985 Emanuel earned a master’s degree in communications at Northwestern University. He lived on the Evanston campus, not far from his parents’ Wilmette home, and he impressed his fellow graduate students with his political rather than academic ambitions and his ceaseless appetite for lively debate.39 His communications colleagues later speculated that Northwestern was where Emanuel learned the rhetorical techniques that helped him avoid answering tough questions from reporters and critics—for example, by taking a concrete question in a theoretical direction or answering a question about the past with a proclamation about the future.40
Becoming Rahmbo
Harold Washington’s election as mayor of Chicago in 1983 was a euphoric moment for many Chicagoans. A coalition of African Americans, whites, and Latinos came together to elect the independent African American congressman, who ran a massive grassroots campaign that registered more than one hundred thousand new African American voters.41 Once in office Washington kept the momentum going, filling city agencies with progressive and multiracial staff; starting the city’s first environmental affairs department; and striving to address economic, social, and environmental injustice in various forms. It wasn’t easy—his tenure was characterized by the infamous “Council Wars.” Washington backers in City Council constantly squared off against old-regime loyalists headed by Alderman Edward Vrdolyak. Racial tension boiled, and Vrdolyak’s contingent blocked many of Washington’s appointees and initiatives. But even with the bitter political standoffs, many saw a “new Chicago” emerging, and hopes were high. Washington easily won re-election against Vrdolyak in April 1987. So it was a devastating blow for many when Washington died of a heart attack on November 25, 1987, at the age of sixty-five.42
Washington’s death cleared the way for the return of the Daley family, which would become a Chicago dynasty. In 1976 the twenty-one-year-term of Mayor Richard J. Daley had come to an end with the death of the “Boss,” also by heart attack. His son Richard M. Daley ran in the 1989 mayoral election to replace interim Mayor Eugene Sawyer, an African American alderman installed by City Council, whose tenure was also characterized by bitter racial hostilities.
Though still not even thirty years old, Emanuel was already blossoming as a shrewd and powerful political operative, and he likely knew that allying with Daley could be a crucial move for his own career. Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader speculated:
Emanuel was no dummy. He knew Daley would defeat Sawyer and, once in office, would probably rule for life—just like his father, the late Richard J. Daley. So Emanuel did what any bright and ambitious young politico would do—he signed on with Daley. By all accounts, he made himself indispensable to the boss as a fundraiser, badgering, bullying, or guilt-tripping the locals into giving money to Daley’s campaign. It was then that Emanuel established his reputation as Rahmbo—the brash, arrogant, and tempestuous assistant that political bosses use to get things done.43
Emanuel honed his aggressive fundraising tactics for Daley. Chicago Tribune reporter and author Naftali Bendavid noted that Emanuel “told one donor that if he was not prepared to donate a certain amount he should keep his money, and he slammed down the phone.” Apparently