Progressives Call On Obama To Fire Rahm Emanuel

January 25, 2010 by Personal Liberty News Desk

President Obama’s long-time friend and political ally Rahm Emanuel has come under fire from a liberal group that claims the White House Chief of Staff has mishandled major issues on the president’s agenda.

Citing Obama’s falling popularity ratings and the Democrats’ growing political woes—most recently represented by their loss of the supermajority in the Senate after the Massachusetts special elections—the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has urged its members not to support the former Illinois congressman if he ever runs for public office again.

In particular, the group has attacked Emanuel for teaming up with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to give up on the public option, and for helping to put together deals with the drug companies in exchange for their support.

“There’s nobody in Washington who caves at the slightest hint of a fight with corporate interests more than Rahm Emanuel,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green, quoted by CNN.

“We’re making clear to Rahm that when he undermines progressives and the overwhelming will of the American people on issues like the public option, he will pay a political price back home,” he added.

Writing for Progressive.org, editor Matthew Rothschild also alluded to the 10 percent unemployment rate and blamed Emanuel for it, saying he pushed Obama to reject the calls of Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, two Nobel Prize-winning economists, for a bigger stimulus package.