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Is Rahm Emanuel floating gun control ideas to Obama for use during his “second term?” Does former Presidential advisor and current Chicago machine politics confidante Rahm Emanuel, with his own personal team of bodyguards, really believe that requiring a $65.00 per handgun registration fee every five years for every handgun owned in Illinois will really have any impact on gun crime in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois? Grooming himself for a run at the Governor’s office, Emmanuel claims that such a gun registration scheme will make the streets safer. He even thinks that this registration will cut illegal gun sales....

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants lawmakers to require that all handguns in Illinois be registered with the state, or gun owners could face felony charges. A statewide gun registry is key in helping solve Chicago crimes that involve handguns from outside the city, and would also help crack down on gun trafficking, Emanuel is expected to argue Thursday. Under Emanuel's proposal, handgun owners would have to pay $65 for a registration certificate from the state, which would function much like the title to a car. Illinois law currently requires that gun owners and shooters have a firearm owners identification card,...

Occupy Chicago protestors interrupted Mayor Rahm Emanuel for about three minutes Thursday as the mayor shared a stage with pundits at the inauguration of former White House advisor David Axelrod’s Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. “He has fired 363 library employees and cut numerous CTA routes,” protestors shouted. “Do I take it that your election was not unanimous?” Republican pundit Alex Castellanos teased Emanuel. Emanuel smiled and conceded that his election as mayor was not unanimous

So, Jennifer Epstein wites a breathless puff piece about a breathless puff piece written by Jodi Kanter about the magnificent Michelle and the God like Obamas. New York Times "reporter" gets 7 figure advance to write this drivel, after one interview with the Obamas, to come out just in time for the election season.

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband. In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama...

*snip* “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides. Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them. Mr. Emanuel, in a brief interview, denied that he had grown frustrated with Mrs. Obama, but other advisers described a grim situation: a president whose agenda had hit the rocks, a first lady who disapproved of the turn the White House had taken, and a chief of staff who chafed against her influence.

As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel begins to ruthlessly amass new powers under the pretext that he needs more control to host the NATO and G-8 summits in May, I long for a simpler time. A simpler time when I called him by an affectionate endearment. Ah, yes, Rahmfather. It seems so quaint now. And by next spring, with Rahm's imperial powers growing, things might be so different, so loud, that we may wish for the quiet times of yore. Because by May, with throngs of reporters in town covering throngs of protesters, we'll have made-for-TV shrieking, and Porta-Potties toppled, and...

UPDATE -Mayor Emanuel is denying he is involved in anyway with the exchange of information regarding Cain's sexual harassment accusers. Herman Cain's campaign is revealing suspicions about who is behind the story regarding the former unidentified employees who accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment in the late 1990's. According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a...

George Stephanopoulos, who as a Democratic operative in the '90s coordinated with ABC to save Bill Clinton from scandal, on Wednesday teased an exclusive with Herman Cain's accuser, openly gloating, "Will our interview spell the end of the one-time front-runner's presidential bid?" [MP3 audio here. ]

What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate. This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House's most frequent visitors. They're the "1 percent" with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations. Ronald Perelman is the New York...

Long known as the “political fixer,” who was friends with a politically young Barack Obama, Tony Rezko once grabbed headlines in a presidential campaign. At the same time in Illinois, Rezko’s name was synonymous with a federal investigation into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But since Rezko volunteered to go jail after his 2008 conviction, he’s settled in as not much more than a footnote in both politics and corruption. That’s partly because the investigation into Blagojevich exploded after Rezko’s trial, taking a new turn involving the sale of President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat — conduct that happened when Rezko was...

Politics: The former White House chief of staff journeys to Iowa to trash the Republican presidential field. As the ship of state continues to sink, the former first mate ignores the iceberg he helped steer us into. One would think that Rahm Emanuel, currently mayor of Chicago, would be busy fixing the fiscal mess his city, birthplace of the "Chicago way" of politics and government, is in. Illinois is imploding under a Democratic governor who is taxing businesses and jobs out of the state. But Emanuel was in Iowa, knocking Republicans and blaming them for all that ails America. "Mitt...

DES MOINES – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, defending his former boss against a drumbeat of criticism from GOP rivals in Iowa, told fellow Democrats on Saturday that President Obama is guided by principles — not politics – that are designed to steer the nation through troubled economic times with an eye on assuring future prosperity for all Americans. “To create true middle-class security, we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. We must out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the world,” Emanuel said during his keynote address to the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day annual fundraiser. Iowa will open the 2012 presidential...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is dumping all three city members of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority — including former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew — in a housecleaning that could set the stage to renegotiate the White Sox lease, modify its restaurant deal and, possibly, have the state acquire and renovate Wrigley Field.

After reading the news and watching the videos of Sharon Bialek, the Herman Cain accuser, I noticed that many of the articles mentioned that Bialek was fired or let go ” from the NRA’s educational foundation.” However, none of them mentioned why. Being let go or fired is more serious than simply being laid off. I wonder why there is no mention of the reason she was fired? This might give more insight into her character and whether she is a trustworthy person or not. Why was she fired? Does anyone know or has anyone seen a report as to...

As mayor of the city of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel is paid a salary of $216,000 a year. He spent four times that much money just to prove that he was a Chicago resident and therefore entitled to run for office. *snip* he court challenge that Emanuel had to overcome was proving that he was indeed a Chicago resident and had been for at least a year as required by law. Emanuel had held onto his home here in Ravenswood, even though he and his family had moved to Washington where he was President Obama's fiery chief of staff, and the...

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm... First, the Tuscon shooting. An anti-immigration Judge just happens to be in the line of fire Ashley Turton, a former senior aide to Rep. Rosa DeLauro and an energy company lobbyist is ‘burned in her car’. The car just happened to ‘crash into the garage of a home in the 800 block of A Street SE....When the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered Turton’s body inside the car” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/ashley-turton-dead-car_n_806780.html And today, there was a deal that just happened to get done... Deal Profile: Duke, Progress Agree to $13.7 Billion Deal http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/01/10/deal-profile-duke-progress-agree-to-137-billion-deal/ Business Lunch: Duke Energy...

Ashley Turton, the wife of an Obama official and a lobbist, was found dead this morning in a burning car parked in her garage. The bizarre death has D.C. wondering what happened to Turton. Authorities said her death appears to have resulted from "a low-speed crash, an unknown medical condition, the fire, or some combination of the three," the Washington Post reported. Turton, who was 37, lived a full life. Surge Desk rounds up what we know about her so far. 1. She was one-half of a power couple Turton was married to Dan Turton, the White House's deputy director...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for city workers’ health care problems that are manageable.Chicago city employees would have to pay $50 per month more for health care if they choose not to participate in a wellness program announced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Goldman Sachs is funneling $25 million in loans and educational grants to Chicago-area small businesses, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday. The investment bank launched its 10,000 Small Businesses initiative in 2009, committing $500 million to provide education, access to capital and business support services to entrepreneurs. The initiative is already running in Houston, Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans and Long Beach, Calif.

Dan Sinker, otherwise known as @MayorEmanuel, turned the profane tweets of “F**k these Angry Birds right in their motherf**king feathered f**king vents” into art, pissing off the real Rahm Emanuel in the process. Now Sinker — a former punk magazine editor turned journalism professor in Chicago, tweeting his way into Chicagoan political fame — will begin a new Twitter-based short story project on The Huffington Post tomorrow, through its literary account @HuffPostBooks.

“Arm yourselves citizens. You are about to become the most unusual social experiment in history.” (1) Such is the advice the owner of police blog “Second City Cop” gives to the residents of Rahm Emanuel’s crime ridden city of Chicago. Months after inheriting a demoralized and shrinking police force from outgoing mayor Richard Daley, Rahm Emanuel has charged newly appointed Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy with slashing $190 million from the Department budget. Yet during last year’s campaign, Emanuel promised voters he would, “…put 1000 more officers on the beat and erase a more than $635 million city of Chicago budget...

“When I explained to him that a longer school day should not be used for warehousing or babysitting our youth he exploded, used profanity, pointed his finger in my face and yelled. At that point the conversation was over — soon thereafter we found ourselves subject to a full-scale propaganda war over a moot point.”

Tom Lashinski was walking his mother's small dog in the North Center neighborhood early Sunday when he noticed two people scuffling in an alley. "It was like something out of Batman ... with Batman jumping into someone and people rolling around and getting up and going back at it."

When Chicago’s former mayor Richard Daley sold his top hat and city bank book to Rahm Emanuel, some pundits figured Obama’s former top aide would be satisfied with the benefits the position had always provided the Daley family–job security and all you can steal. But Rahm has his eyes firmly fixed on the 2016 presidential race and is already doing what experienced Democrat politicians do best–he is using the power and authority of his office to buy voters and donors. And of course in the best tradition of Democrat politics, Rahm will make certain that members of both groups have...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday reaffirmed his promise to erase a $635.7 million shortfall without raising taxes — hoping to put to rest concern that his embrace of a massive school property tax increase sets the stage for an about-face on the city budget. “I will not raise revenue until we deal with the fundamental problem. … Not gonna do it. I believe we need to make structural changes to the budget because there’s structural problems,” Emanuel said. “So, I’ve taken one-time fixes off the table. I’ve made clear that I’m not gonna raise taxes on taxpayers. They do feel...

In his new book on President Obama's first year in office, "The Promise," Jonathan Alter includes a quote from the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, illustrating just how opposed Emanuel was to the president's push for comprehensive health care reform. "I begged him not to do this," Emanuel told Alter, as detailed by the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, writing off advanced excerpts put out ahead of the book's release Tuesday. (Hotsheet just got its copy of the book and is planning to dig into it this weekend.) The president overruled Emanuel, telling him, according to the book, that he...

President Barack Obama left the heated partisan atmosphere in Washington on Wednesday for an overly warm hometown 50th Birthday Party with 2,400 fans and donors packing the historic Aragon Ballroom in Uptown. “It doesn’t matter how tough a week I have in Washington, because I know you’ve got me — you’ve got my back,” President Obama told the crowd. “When I come to Chicago, when I travel across the country, I know we can’t be stopped.” Introducing Obama, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said “This looks like the Uptown Music District,” a reference to one of the mayor’s pet entertainment projects. With...

In dealing with the press, Mayor Rahm Emanuel often tries to emulate his former boss, President Barack Obama. But Emanuel can’t match Obama’s calm demeanor. In fact Emanuel’s temper can get the best of him. I found out yesterday when I asked him a question about where his children would go to school, and he let his famous temper emerge. For some background, I had the chance to ask Barack Obama a similar question in 2008, just after he had won election and was transitioning to the White House. Since the president had sent his own children – Malia and...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - With Chicago still facing a lingering deficit in its current budget, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday unveiled steps that will lead to up to 625 layoffs. They include privatization of custodial services at city libraries and airports, benefits services and the water billing call center. Also about 126 seasonal workers in Chicago's transportation department would be discharged, resulting in a drop in curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements this year. "Today, I'm taking steps because I cannot wish away this budget shortfall," the mayor told reporters. Earlier this month, Emanuel said he would eliminate $20 million of the...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he will send layoff notices to up to 625 city employees today as he tries to close a $30 million budget hole. Custodians, call center operators at the city's water department and seasonal workers at the Department of Transportation will be among those affected. Emanuel said he will close an entire $30 million budget hole left by the expiration of a deal with City Hall labor unions for unpaid days off. The mayor previously had turned up the pressure on unions for concessions or cost-cutting ideas at a series of news conferences. "It has been two...

President Obama’s campaign committee is moving a fund-raiser featuring Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel from the Pfizer world headquarters to another location in New York City after The Boston Globe inquired about the propriety of a major pharmaceutical company hosting an event that could benefit the administration regulating it. “This is a general fund-raising event for the campaign that has nothing to do with a specific company and the attendees will not be from any one company or sector,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said this afternoon in a statement. A Pfizer spokesman did not address the change in locale but defended...

William J. Kelly goes after Chicago Police Chief and Rahm Emanuel appointee Gerry McCarthy for his race-baiting rant at St. Sabina Church on Chicago's south side.

Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher of jobs and tax revenues. The opponents brace for an epidemic of bankruptcies, crime, divorce and suicide. Which side to believe? Neither. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is now considering whether to sign or amend a measure authorizing five new casinos, including one in Chicago, and slot machines at racetracks as well as Chicago airports. The capacity of gambling establishments in Illinois would more than triple. The motive for this sudden interest is economic. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...

In addressing Chicagoans today, Mr. Emanuel will likely celebrate Illinois Senate Bill 7, which last week passed the state legislature and awaits Governor Pat Quinn's signature. The law is certainly welcome, and Mr. Emanuel was right to support it. But its provisions say less about the boldness of lawmakers than about the implacability of the status quo. On the plus side, the law ties teacher tenure and layoffs to student performance, not just to seniority. The law also makes it easier to fire ineffective teachers. ...And while it's good that the law makes it harder for the Chicago Teachers Union...

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel is laying down the law to two unions whose cooperation he needs to turn Chicago around: teachers he wants to work a longer school day and laborers he wants to simply show up at work in greater numbers. During the campaign, Emanuel declared his support for curtailing teachers’ right to strike. He also made it clear that, if teachers won’t agree to work longer hours for extra pay, he’ll ask the Illinois General Assembly to mandate it. On Monday, Emanuel said he has made his feelings known to a Chicago Teachers Union that did not support his...

TRENDING: Emanuel aide resigns over ethics violations By: CNN's Gabriella Schwarz (CNN) - A co-chair of Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's transition team resigned from her new post Friday after it was revealed that she left her high-level state job last summer over ethics violations, CNN confirmed Saturday. Judy Erwin previously served as the executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and served on then-candidate Barack Obama's Education Policy Committee during his 2008 presidential campaign. On Thursday, she was named to Emanuel's transition team and according to a news release, Erwin was also recently hired as managing director for...

(CNN) - Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, won the Chicago mayoral election Tuesday, topping the 50% threshold to avoid a run-off vote, CNN projects.

CNN’s chief national correspondent and anchor John King was in Chicago this afternoon to report on the mayoral race. King sat down at Manny's Cafeteria with David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama, to discuss the mayoral race, Chicago politics and Wisconsin. The second part of the interview with David Axelrod will air tomorrow on John King, USA – 7pm ET. Transcript is after the jump. MANDATORY CREDIT: JOHN KING, USA HIGHLIGHT TRANSCRIPT THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. KING: Any doubt that your friend will...

Chicago (CNN) -- When Rahm Emanuel entered the race in November to succeed Richard Daley as mayor of Chicago, he was far from the front-runner. Despite the fact that he was a native of the city, had served three terms as a congressman, and was chief of staff to President Barack Obama and a key aide to President Bill Clinton, he was not well-known to much of the population. Since then he has worked hard to introduce himself. He has assembled a well-organized campaign operation and canvassed the city delivering a series of high-profile campaign speeches, as well as making...

CHICAGO - Mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's former chief of staff, on Saturday blasted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's move against state unions, which have triggered mass protests in Madison. Emanuel was asked about the Wisconsin situation by reporters at his Hyde Park campaign office--down the street from the Museum of Science and Industry and near the Lake Michigan shore. Emanuel stopped at the office as he sought to get out the vote on the South Side in advance of Tuesday's election to replace Mayor Daley, who is retiring. "I think what the governor there is doing is not just...

Yes, get used to that title. In just 72 hours, election day dawns in Chicago. And most likely, Rahm Emanuel will become mayor of the Windy City; the former White House chief of staff draws 58 percent of the votes

Attorneys for former governor Rod Blagojevich have asked a federal judge to order prosecutors to produce two phone calls his lawyers say are mysteriously missing from evidence. In a motion filed overnight, Blagojevich's attorneys say the calls would support the former governor's contention that he is innocent of charges alleging he attempted to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat after the November 2008 election. While much of the motion is blacked out to comply with orders that the conversations remain under seal, it appears at least one of the alleged conversations was between then Chief of Staff John Harris and...

February 8, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- ABC7's exclusive poll on the Chicago mayor's race provides a snapshot of how the candidates are doing as we head into the final two weeks of the campaign. Rahm Emanuel's 54 percent share in the survey suggests an overwhelming lead, nearly quadrupling second place Gery Chico at 14 percent; Miguel del Valle was third at 8 percent followed by Carol Moseley Braun at 6; others at 3 and undecideds at 15 percent. The ABC7 poll suggests that if the vote had been held during the survey, Emanuel had enough support citywide to win the...

(This is a fictional explanation of why Chicago is in turmoil over Thursday's Rahm Emanuel residency decision). Pavel hadn’t set foot inside Headquarters since the November election. A high school senior, young Pavel Syerov Jr. (Paul to his friends) had spent the summer volunteering at 51st Ward Party Headquarters, learning the ways of Chicago as no book or community college course could ever teach. When the election turned out as it did, he couldn’t get out of bed for days. His parents said it wasn’t his fault, but he blamed himself. “I helped them, don’t you see? I helped them...

Did anyone really doubt that the Chicago fix was in all along? The Illinois Supreme Court just announced a 5-2 decision to allow Rahm Emanuel on the ballot for the February 22 Chicago mayoral election. Earlier today, former IL Republican Gov. Jim Thompson and other members of the state GOP establishment came out in favor of giving the former Obama ballot access.

Politics: Rahm Emanuel thought he was above the law, but an Illinois court says he can't run for mayor of a city he doesn't live in. At least he can vote for someone else. It's been said that through redistricting and gerrymandering we no longer live in an era where voters choose their leaders, but one in which leaders choose their voters. Sometimes you can even pick the state you want to be senator from, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did in New York. At least she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made an effort to meet...

It has been decided by a court in Chicago that Rahm Emanuel does not meet the needed residency status, and therefore can not run for Mayor. Emanuel had won two lower rulings, but in a split decision today, Emanuel is no longer allowed on the ballot. With the election less than a month away, this is an odd time for the courts to decide this. The appellate court released this statement: “We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to...