Rahm Emanuel: “city government is not an employment agency”

The Manhattan Institute’s Josh Barro reports that Chicago mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel doesn’t seem too worried about courting the public sector union vote:

Public employee unions in Chicago are up in arms about a new campaign ad being run by Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's ex-chief of staff and the frontrunner in this month's mayoral race. The city's police and fire unions joined AFSCME to release a statement calling the ad "offensive." The head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police called the ad "a travesty."

What does the ad say? That "city government is not an employment agency," and, when Rahm is mayor, "everybody that works for the city government [will know] that they're actually a public servant." Stunning sentiments, indeed.

Emanuel has never been one to shy away from confrontation, and in this mayor's race he's run head-on at Chicago's public employee unions. He's raised the hackles of the city's teachers' union by backing aggressive school reforms. He's earned the enmity of the police and fire unions by insisting that pension benefit changes for current employees be on the table in the city's coming fiscal restructuring. And he's made many classes of public workers nervous by calling for "charter agencies" that enjoy the sort of bureaucratic autonomy used by charter schools--as in practice, that has often meant employing non-union labor.

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  • | |

    Go Rahm, Go!

  • Barely Suppressed Rage| |

    No, really, Rahm - go. Just fucking go.

  • | |

    Everything in the ad sounds good...

  • | |

    I hope he's not trying to 'Rahm' us.

  • Sovereign Immunity| |

    Too bad its just pandering. I think it's a wink wink, nod nod kinda thing.

  • Barely Suppressed Rage| |

    My thoughts exactly. I would be pleasantly surprised if his substance backed up these words, but I've never heard him say or seen him do anything that made me want to like the guy.

  • Sovereign Immunity| |

    Oh goody! It's HERCULES TRIUMVIRATE SALIVATION...

    You are a certainly a daffy one...

  • sounds real good| |

    I really hate that guy.

  • Hugh Akston| |

    Is the Emmanuel campaign hiring? I know the perfect copywriter for them.

  • AlmightyJB| |

    no one cares bitch

  • COMMANDER | |

    GO RAHM GO!

  • Almanian| |

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

    Ohhhh.....that was a good one, Rahmbo

  • | |

    Rahming speed!

  • | |

    As a Chicago resident, this ad reflects our biggest fear about the next mayor- that, whomever it is, they don't use the city as their personal gift basket for friends and colleagues. Rahm is probably talking out of his ass (except that he doesn't have any friends which is compelling) but he certainly is tapping in to what everyone is fearing.

  • Paulnut Allergy| |

    That's what gives me some hope.

    Sure, they're lies - but they're the right kind of lies. Emanuel is a smart guy, and he thinks those are the lies that people want to hear right now.

  • cynical| |

    Honestly, if you belong to an organization that looks one letter swap away from being pronounced "assfuck me", you deserve whatever you get.

  • Juice| |

    Well, a broken clock and all. Never forget the No Fly No Buy, National Service, and his being a total Neocon warmonger.

  • Mango Punch| |

    A broken calendar is right once a year.

  • Abdul| |

    This is the guy who famously said "Fuck the UAW," so he may actually mean it.

  • Invisible Finger| |

    Except he supported bailing out the UAW.

  • Wink Wink| |

    Gee, I wonder if Rahm will turn out to be as much of a liar as mayor as he was as White House aide?

  • puma soldes| |

    i see

  • | |

    Public employees are public servants, most have lost site of that and think that the public exist to serve them, financially. Union are for the most part self serving. I worked a union jobs before, and all they did was dip into my earnings for dues. When they should stand up for you they don't do shit. Union can't see why they are being done away with and nobody seems to care, because they are to busy stuffing their pockets and figuring ways to steal more money. Nobody like a thief. Especially one that hides behind the legal system.

  • employmentagency| |

    recruitment agencies in singapore
    has just the cut-rate caped crusaders to meet your needs.

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