politics

Police shooting looms over confirmation battle for Emanuel as ambassador to Japan

38 Comments
By AAMER MADHANI

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A ‘fit’ for Japanese business already, allegedly, ‘in bed with Rahm’. 2019- Then mayor, Emanuel was instrumental in having Beam Suntory and Modelez Int’l, N. Amer makers/distributors of Pocky, relocate HQ’s to Chicago to “create jobs”. 2021- They are now under investigation for failure to pay sick leave, overtime issues, etc.

A great tidbit of info @snowymountainhell.

Yes seems right in line with the exploitative business practices of many Japanese companies. I see great business synergy here.

13 ( +16 / -3 )

Most ambassadors get their jobs based on political payback and favors. Seems to be the case in all administrations.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Japanese officials are pleased that Biden wants to send someone with Emanuel's profile to lead the Japan mission.

"Profile" and "appearance" count for much in Japanese culture. Notwithstanding Emanuel's disgraceful handling of the Laquan McDonald killing, officialdom will always welcome a fully paid-up high profile member of the political establishment from the "let 'em eat cake" class.

10 ( +17 / -7 )

Among the Democrats most critical of Emanuel's nomination are Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who called the pick “deeply shameful,"

AOC is the new American soul of the Democratic party , not Biden.

Rev. Ira Acree, a civil rights activist in Chicago, said Biden's decision to reward Emanuel with an ambassadorship was disappointing.

“What he did was commit an unpardonable political sin,” Acree said of Emanuel. “But the president and Democratic Party appears to want to reward him because of his clout, what they perceive to be his high political acumen and his extraordinary ability to raise money.”

Very astute analysis by Rev. Acree.

Emanuel is very much in line with the Clinton/Biden neoliberal wing of the Democratic party, and will sail through the nomination. I'm sure japan will welcome him.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

A ‘fit’ for Japanese business already, allegedly, ‘in bed with Rahm’. 2019- Then mayor, Emanuel was instrumental in having Beam Suntory and Modelez Int’l, N. Amer makers/distributors of Pocky, relocate HQ’s to Chicago to “create jobs”. 2021- They are now under investigation for failure to pay sick leave, overtime issues, etc.

10 ( +15 / -5 )

Does anyone know what an ambassador actually does all day long? Does he/she paste photos into passports?

I have a feeling a lot of meetings go on with people saying things like, "Fe fe fe fe fe, as it were, be that as it may, per se, if you will..."

And lunches? Lot's of lunches, I think.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

People are gonna get shot accidentally all the time with that many guns on Chicago streets

Shot 16 times in the back by a police officer is an accident? Of course, even you know it isn’t. Yes, he shouldn’t have run. No, running from a police officer is not justification for being murdered. Of course you know this already.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Based on the above I REJECT his nomination.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

@lamily how so? Have u seen the ambassadors residence? It’s like a castle.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

This guy is truly the worst if the worst in the political world. The left or the right won’t touch him in the states, so send him off to Japan, keep his loudmouth silent until the election in 2024. Once Obama’s best friend and now even Obama has distanced himself from this toxic mess.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Obama acknowledged during Emanuel's mayoral reelection campaign that he could sometimes come off as “a little hard headed."

exactly what we need in Japan. A hardheaded ambassador.

Thanks Biden for showing the lack of importance of Japan to everyone. Poor results and poor character yet gets an ambassadorship anyway.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

More concerning is the 1000's that were murdered on his watch as Mayor of Chicago.

An odd pick, nonetheless.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

I recall the admiration and respect the Japanese had for Caroline Kennedy while she was ambassador. Not for a second do I think Rahm will garner that same admiration. However, having been Mayor of Chicago and Obama's Chief of Staff, he is more than qualified and will probably do a much better job than Mayor Pete Buttigieg is doing as Transportation Secretary.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

“Those qualifications outweigh him not being an expert on Japan, or even a foreign policy expert for that matter.” - the words of an American with a Japanese name working at "the "Top Defense and National Security Think Tank" in America. Whose 'best interests' would we expect him to espouse?

And does Japan want someone who emulates in a very convincing way the personality of a psychopath? And a thug? And won't the Japanese diplomats be surprised should they disagree with him and he grabs them and shouts threats and insults in their faces as he is well known to do? If one has not paid attention to this creep, he is an arrogant bully and completely unsuited to the graciousness which Japan seems to hold in esteem. And the only positive voice is supplied by an American with a Japanese name who assures us that "Japanese officials are pleased that Biden wants to send someone with Emanuel's profile" but nothing from actual "Japanese officials".

"He also made $13 million, the bulk from his work as a senior adviser to the investment banking firm Centerview Partners Advisory Holdings, according to financial disclosure documents."

'Senior adviser' to a financial corporation...this is how corrupt politicians are rewarded in America, with titles and big payoffs for the 'favors' and corrupt practices they have already performed for their employers.

And, he will be constantly pressuring Japan, intimidating the timid Japanese politicians we see daily, strong arming them to 'take a strong stand against China' and the national suicide that America using Japan as their goad and most proximal threat against America's chief competitor almost ensures. We already see that when America intrudes on China, China intrudes on Japan, and that will only become worse.

Japan should just say to Biden, "Perhaps KONDO...at a later time...but not now. Send an actual diplomat if you have any respect for us at all. Not a proven political thug pushed upon you, and us, by your offshore political 'sponsors'".

Even trump made a better choice than this louse.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Rahm Emmanuel represents everything banal, boorish and corrupt in the Democratic Party.

The measure of his success is not only lacking, it is abysmal. He is a political hack.

One thing Emanuel can’t be accused of is inconsistency. During his political career, he has steadily served elite corporate interests, and rarely the interests of the broad public or the causes of racial justice or peace.

Emanuel rose to prominence as the finance director for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. He excelled at pulling in large checks from super-wealthy individuals. As a high-level Clinton administration aide, he played a major role — and bragged about it — in the passage of the disastrous NAFTA trade bill, which was strongly opposed by unions, environmentalists and most Democrats in Congress. He also was a sparkplug for passage of the mass incarceration-oriented 1994 Crime Bill, with prison term-lengthening provisions like “three strikes.”

In 1996, Emanuel boasted to a Washington Post reporter of the administration’s “tough” policies on “wedge issues — crime, welfare, and recently immigration.” In a memo that year, he urged Clinton to move rightward on immigration policy by working to “claim and achieve record deportations of criminal aliens.” The next year, Emanuel’s approach was explained by a senior staffer at the Immigration and Naturalization Service who worked closely with him: “As long as we dealt with illegal immigration, we could be to the right of Atilla the Hun.

After leaving the Clinton administration in 1998, Emanuel made a quick $18 million in two and a half years as managing director of the Wall Street investment bank Wasserstein Perella, working out of its Chicago office.

Elected to Congress in November 2002, Emanuel supported George W. Bush’s disastrous Iraq invasion, and defended the war after most Democrats in Congress and most of the public had turned against it. As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, Emanuel seemed oblivious to the change in public opinion. While he took credit for Democrats regaining the House majority, his selection of right-leaning candidates, including Iraq war supporters like himself and former Republicans, ultimately led to GOP gains.

 In a 2010 meeting with liberal leaders who planned to publicly pressure the Democratic Party’s conservative wing into supporting healthcare reform, Emanuel famously called them “f*cking retarded.”

Emanuel’s 30-year campaign against pro-working-class policy reforms is unending. Asked last August how he would advise the Biden administration, he told CNBC: “Two things I would say if I was advising an administration. One is there’s no new Green Deal, there’s no Medicare for All.”

If Rahm Emanuel becomes the ambassador to China or Japan — countries with the world’s second- and third-largest economies — he will gain new leverage in a region bristling with ethnic and military tensions. Everything about his record indicates that such power would be vested in the wrong hands.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So, by your last response, you condone Japan’s “*exploitative business practices” **@Kentarogaijin ***??**

*responding to: [A ‘fit’ for Japanese business already, allegedly, ‘in bed with Rahm’. 2019- Then mayor, Emanuel was instrumental in having Beam Suntory and Mondelez Int’l, N. Amer makers/distributors of Pocky, relocate HQ’s to Chicago to “create jobs”. 2021- *

*They are now under investigation for failure to pay sick leave, overtime issues, etc.*]

@Kentarogaijin 7:53am: *“And what did you expect??, this is how the world is run..” *

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Presidents, Prime Ministers or whatever they are called, don’t need an ambassador. It’s a waste of money. Their yearly income could choke a goat!

They all have Twitter don’t they? They could at least just call each other once in a while…

This guy is going to accomplish absolutely nothing and get paid well.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

well at least an American citizen I will get to meet him and tell him directly how I feel about his undeserved appointment.

Not that he will care, but still it will be enjoyable to be able to speak to him.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

My advice would be to reject any Rahm or any POLITICIAN coming from out of Chicago!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Americans like Biden are pleased that they can shuffle Rahm off to Tokyo and keep him out of the public eye for the next 7 years.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As he left office, the city was mired in more than $30 billion in unmet pension debt owed to city workers, the bulk of it inherited from previous Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration.

> > He knows how to take from and make the poor …poorer!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

saying Biden's “commitment to police reform speaks for itself."

I didn’t hear his “commitment” say anything,

0 ( +8 / -8 )

The first paragraph here says it all:

https://www.perc.org/2013/02/13/rahms-rule-never-let-a-serious-crisis-go-to-waste/

0 ( +1 / -1 )

More concerning is the 1000's that were murdered on his watch as Mayor of Chicago.

Pretty low number considering the amount of murders under the current mayor's watch.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Why not re-appointing Kennedy if she likes. She and then FM Fumio Kishida seem to have got in well.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Rarely is ambassador a truly important job particularly between close allies but I do dislike the fact that the position is used as a political payoff for party insiders and supporters (by that I mean rich people). It’s one of the worst public displays of cronyism practiced by most nations to placate the egos of people who help put leaders into power. Emanuel is a classic case of the loyal foot soldier who served his political masters well over the years and is now getting his reward. Hello Mr Ambassador. A grand yet empty title if ever there was one.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The police officer who shot the young man 16 times served hard time in prison, and police reforms took place after the shooting.

Seems to me that it is the officer who shot the young man, and maybe some others involved, who should be deemed unfit to be the US Ambassador to Japan. Is it really logical to assign so much responsibility to the person who was mayor at the time?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japanese officials are pleased that Biden wants to send someone with Emanuel's profile to lead the Japan mission.

Of course. Since when have Japanese officials ever cared about human rights.

Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a pollster whose work he was unhappy with and was legendary for his blunt — and often coarse — communication style.

“His experience in the White House and Congress with the decision-making process is a very appealing aspect to the Japanese," Nakano said. “Those qualifications outweigh him not being an expert on Japan, or even a foreign policy expert for that matter.”

Until they realize that it isn't Sushi he sends when he sends them a dead fish when they displease him

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

Are the anti-Rahm protests really a thing?

I would prefer someone a little more connected to Japan, but other than that I don't see the police shooting as a disqualifier for what is largely a ceremonial job..

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Peter Neil- excellent point!

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

The head of the NAACP and a number of police reform activists have also spoken out against the nomination of Emanuel, who also had been in the running to be Biden's transportation secretary.

Emanuel’s racist attitude towards the life of a young black man is representative of his political background. He supported Bill Clinton’s crackdown on crime that devastated a generation of young black men. The Lefts entire view of crime in America’s largest cities has led to an historic rise in homicides. There are thousands more dead today due to their defunding and stigmatization of police.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Any Life Matters.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

As if anyone else could otherwise have handled or can handle the situation in Chicago. That city or whole area is one of the lost and no-go areas, so they should be extraordinarily happy to even find any politicians who still try their best and risk life , career or existence there. lol

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

In Chicago, a group of activists on Tuesday called on the Senate to reject Emanuel's nomination, …

A total of 23 activists (from the photo).

-9 ( +7 / -16 )

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