Wikipedia states: "During the 1991 Gulf War, Emanuel [then 32 years old] was a civilian volunteer in Israel, rust-proofing brakes on an army base in northern Israel."

Questions:

1) Isn't it difficult to perform a tactile function like "rust-proofing brakes" with a missing finger?

2) Doesn't it strike you as rather odd that someone as talented and ambitious as Rahm chose to assist his fellow Jews in such a mundane capacity?

That's on the one hand (as it were); on the other, we have this claim by one Sherman Skolnick (10/17/05):

"[Rahm Emanuel] is Deputy Chief for North America of Israeli Intelligence, The Mossad, even while he is now a Congressman."

No matter what you may think of Sherman Skolnick (or Wikipedia, for that matter), perhaps Rahm as Mossad-man is more believable than Rahm as grease monkey. Or perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Now consider this bit from www.theneweditor:

" Rep. Emanuel, who made almost $10 million in 2002, accumulated the bulk of his net worth

between 1999-2002 after serving in the Clinton Administration, when, with no experience in the

field, he was hired as an investment banker at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. There is nothing

illegal in this, as many trade-off of previous government contacts and reap big rewards."

Question: Was that $10 million "compensation" due to his "previous government contacts," or was it a down payment for future services to be rendered? Or perhaps that answer also lies somewhere in the middle.

The only reason I ask these questions is, not enough others are - especially those with stars in their eyes thinking Rahm and Company will lead the Democrats to the Promised Land in 2008. I invite you (the loyal partisans of Daily Kos) to take a much harder look at the types of men who are generating "Big Ideas for America" on your behalf.

Rahm Emanuel has quite a gift for attracting money his way - from raising record amounts to re-elect Dirt Bag Daley as Duh Mare of the City of Chicago, to wowing Clinton with his Midas touch, to finding just the right job at the right time to (well) become a Midas himself. Yet he says in his book, "Washington has forgotten that we're a nation of barn raisers, not fund-raisers, and of shared sacrifice, not special privilege." [Excuse me?]

That being said, apparently legions of ever-hopeful Democrats (many of them self-avowed progressives) have no qualms about falling over each other to beat a path to Rahm's door. Yet some of you can't resist beating me up as a potential spoiler in the 2008 presidential campaign. You might not want to vote for me, you might believe in the two-party monopoly system, you might believe it's the Democrats turn [to gangbang us].

Be that as it may. However, I hope you start asking more of your leaders. It's one thing to be attracted to aggressive "winner" types; everybody luvs `em. It's quite another to deepen your level of expectation past the layers of charisma. I'd like to see the Democratic National Convention in 2008 crowded with presidential hopefuls making speeches while the "peanut gallery" loudly chants: "Contract! Contract! Contract!" [As in, "Put at least some of your campaign promises in the form of a written contract, and in that way become the Best Party Available."]

As for Rahm's and Bruce's book, it's a featherweight. Worse than that, I view it as Rahm's way of giving the naïve among us "the middle finger." Read it anyway, since these are your leaders talking. But also read "American Theocracy," by Kevin Phillips and "The European Dream" by Jeremy Rifkin for not only better writing but also better thinking. Then come up with your own proposals for changing American politics. And insist that you be heard.

Steven Searle for US President in 2008

The only candidate with a contract: You wouldn't sell your house without a contract; why give your vote away?

www.BestPartyAvailable.org

bpa_cinc@yahoo.com