Oh Rahm…What Are You Up To?

I get nervous when people who should be incredibly intelligent do what should be looked at as stupid things. This means that I am naturally nervous that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is leaving Washington D.C. to come back to his native Chicago to run for mayor in the next election since Rich Daley II is abdicating his throne. You might say the prospect of Rahm Emmanuel running for mayor of such a prestigious office was frightening enough. You might ask what is this business about smart people doing stupid things making me nervous and how does it apply to Emmanuel?

Emmanuel appears to be doing a stupid thing by leaving his White House job because anyone who owns a calendar knows that he cannot possibly fulfill the residency requirement to be mayor before this election cycle. So why would he do it? This is what makes me nervous, because this can only mean that he has a plan.

The Emmanuels have rented out their past primary residence since September of 2009 and the renters have just re-upped on the lease for another year. Going by traditional laws, Emmanuel is not eligible to run, in fact, other contenders have said that only a fool wouldn’t challenge him on it. The rumor is that Emmanuel believes he has a number of possible solutions to this dilemma. The first is that he has a number of other properties in Chicago and he is going to try to use those to establish residence. The second is that he will try to invoke the same privilege that members of the military are given. Namely, his job…in service of his country… has taken Rahm from his home, but he is still a Chicago resident.

If he does try to stoop to such lows to run for mayor of Chicago, I have to ask any voters the following questions:

• What do you think of a future mayor starting his campaign by exploiting a loophole?
• What do you think of the motives of a man who would exploit a loophole to obtain power?
• Knowing what we know about the authoritarian personality of this man, is Rahm Emmanuel the best person for Chicago?

Mayor of Chicago is a more prestigious and powerful position than White House Chief of Staff. That is for certain, but do we want our public servants and officials chasing glory and power at our expense? Doesn’t this say something about the man? Doesn’t this man’s entire history already give us the answer? Oh Rahm Machieveli…eh..I mean Emmanuel, what do you have in store for us?