This is some of the background on Rahm Emmanuel now in the Obama White House gathered from around the Internet. Thanks to Free Republic for the links and information.
Goldman Sachs Will Be Sitting Pretty With Emanuel in the Obama White House
By Timothy P. CarneyExaminer ColumnistNov 21, 2008
Goldman Sachs always has clout in Washington, as evidenced by the firm’s alumni serving as Treasury secretaries under both Presidents Bush and Clinton. Today, in these tumultuous times of bailouts and meltdowns when the investment banking leviathan needs Washington more than ever before, Goldman can leverage its most valuable asset w/ White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Goldman Sachs is the giant of Wall Street, and more than any other investment bank, Goldman is surviving the current financial storm. Traditionally a Democratic booster, and one of Barack Obama’s top sources of funds in this past election, Goldman has always had some particularly strong allies within government.
Emanuel is one such ally.
An interesting early chapter in the Goldman-Emanuel relationship took place in the setting of Bill Clinton’s campaign for the White House in 1992. Clinton hired Emanuel as his chief fundraiser. At the same time, however, Emanuel was on the payroll of Goldman Sachs, receiving $3,000 per month from the firm to “introduce us to people,” in the words of one Goldman partner at the time. This is certainly a noteworthy relationship, but it’s one that has almost entirely escaped scrutiny. (snip)
In his four terms in Congress, Emanuel has raised $74,750 from Goldman, making the firm his number four source of funds.
Goldman has helped Emanuel. How has Emanuel helped Goldman? The most obvious answer, as mentioned in this column two weeks ago, is in Emanuel’s lead role in shepherding the “$700 billion” bailout—first proposed by former a Goldman CEO, Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson—through the skeptical House.
Of course, back in the Clinton days, Goldman benefited from NAFTA and the bailout of the Mexican currency, with Emanuel pushing NAFTA through Congress, and Rubin hammering out the peso bailout.
Did Goldman improperly funnel money to the Clinton campaign by subsidizing Emanuel’s salary in 1992? Did Goldman’s help to Clinton spur the Democratic president to push NAFTA and the Mexican bailout? The answers to these questions are opaque, and with Emanuel burrowed deep within the Obama White House, the continued relationship between Goldman Sachs and Obama’s right hand man won’t be easy to follow.
Watch which regulations of Wall Street Obama fights for. Watch where the bailout money goes.
And don’t be surprised Goldman soon sitting pretty once again.
SOURCE http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/******
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"The Plan, Big Ideas for America" by Rahm Emanuel
Page 58 Citizen service: “Every citizen needs to understand and accept the essence of the American bargain: Each of us has to do his or her part. While the rights of citizenship are explicit in our constitution, the implicit responsibilities are every bit as crucial. All Americans between ages of 18-25 will be asked to serve their country by going through 3 months of basic training, civil defense preparation, and community service. The nation will enlist them for 3 months of civilian service. They’ll be asked to report for basic civil defense training in their state or community.” Obama:” We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded”.
“Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”.
HR 1388 Serve America Act will call on citizens of all ages to serve”For more information on HR1388 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1388
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Dual citizen Rahm Emanuel surely got the top White House job as Obama’s COS based on his training on how to organize a “Civilian Security Force” (Candidate Obama campaigned on installing a “Civilian Security Force” on US soil).
Dual citizen Rham Emanuel has been trained to organize a civilian security force as a volunteer for “Sar’el”——the three-week Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training program to train civilians. Looking at ACORN’s activities, and the BILLIONS Obama has given them, ACORN is primed for (and is already acting as) a “Civilian Security Force.”
BACKSTORY---ONE RAHM VERSION Circa 1991 Rahm Emmanuel volunteered in a program for civilian service in the IDF, and worked on brake components for APC’s and tanks in an IDF motor pool. He is lacking part of a finger and for many years went around claiming that he’d lost it in actions against the enemy in a tank. Now if Rahm fought in the military of foreign government, that would negate his American citizenship (US citizens forfeit their citizenship when they serve in the military of a foreign government).
SECOND RAHM VERSION Rahm volunteered for “Sar’el”——a three-week Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training program (like US boot camp) where civilians are trained to assist the Israeli military. Civilians like Rahm lived on an IDF military base to get the proper training. A civilian volunteer, Rahm assisted the IDF during the 1991 Gulf War, repairing truck brakes in one of Israel’s northern bases. Rahm's father was an Israeli who was part of the underground resistance movement under the British Mandate.
FRIGHTENING STATEMENT Obama has stated that Rahm tells him "everything he needs to know about Israel."
Rahm Emanuel today is a dual Israeli-American citizen. It is not clear whether a dual citizen is permitted to serve in a high level US govt job that makes policy decisions for Americans.
Yesterday I noted that Rahm Emanuel had said that Obama saw the AIG fiasco as a “big distraction” from efforts to fix the economy. Later in the day, Obama walked that back, asserting that the public was right to be “angry” about the whole mess and right to find it “consuming.”
Today, another senior Obama adviser, David Axelrod, is throwing in his lot with Rahm and the AIG-isn’t-a-huge-deal camp:
“People are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about AIG,” Axelrod said. “They are thinking about their own jobs.”
So are people upset about this, or aren’t they? Actually, people are thinking about the AIG disaster. Yesterday’s Gallup poll found that a big majority is very upset about it. Only 11% said they are “not particularly bothered” by it.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/economy/axelrod-people-dont-care-about-aig-mess/...................
NOTE BELOW:
Commonwealth Edison - Thomas Ayers, Investment Banking »Rahm Emanuel, Former Investment Banker,
November 7, 2008, Rahm Emanuel President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be his chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel, is already widely known in the halls of Washington for serving as an adviser to President Clinton, and most recently as a congressman from Illinois. But in between those two roles, Mr. Emanuel made millions of dollars on Wall Street as an investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, as the boutique firm was known at the time.
Despite having little experience or education in finance, Mr. Emanuel became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office in 1999, helping to bring in business and seal deals.
According to a 2003 article in The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Emanuel was brought in by one of the firm’s founders, Bruce Wasserstein, who was one of President Clinton’s most active fund-raisers on Wall Street and is now the head of Lazard.
“Rahm did a great job for our firm,” Mr. Wasserstein told DealBook. “When Rahm worked with us at Wasserstein Perella, he showed a great ability to reconcile divergent interests for a constructive outcome.”
In his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, Mr. Emanuel — who once trained as a ballet dancer and was briefly a civilian volunteer on an Israeli military base — made $16.2 million, according to Congressional disclosures.
Mr. Emanuel worked on eight deals while at Wasserstein Perella, the two biggest of which involved politically connected utilities, The Tribune reported.
In one deal, he advised Commonwealth Edison, the power producer, in its $8.2 billion acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Peco Energy. In the other, he helped GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago-based venture capital and private equity firm, in its purchase of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications, now AT&T.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/rahm-emanuel-former-investment-banker/
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RAHM WAS CLINTON ADVISOR, WALL STREET MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, A CONGRESSMAN, WHITE HOUSE COSAND (GASP) RAHM WAS NOT EVEN VOTED "MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED."
TIMELINE
1992 Emanuel's knowledge of the top donors in the country, and his rapport with potential donors within the Jewish community helped Clinton amass a then-unheard-of sum of $72 million which nailed his victory.
1993 Emanuel became a senior advisor to Clinton from 1993 to 1998. Emanuel was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. He was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts to institute universal healthcare and many other Clinton initiatives.
1993 One of Rahm's proudest moments was an event that touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Emanuel directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat."
1998 While official Washington was in the throes of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Rahm Emanuel, a senior political aide to Pres Bill Clinton, ventured out to an elegant restaurant in Dupont Circle for something of a job interview, The New York Times’s Michael Luo writes.John Simpson, who ran the Chicago office of the investment banking boutique Wasserstein Perella & Company, had flown to Washington to meet with Mr. Emanuel at the behest of Mr. Simpson’s boss, Bruce Wasserstein, a major Democratic donor and renowned Wall Street dealmaker who had gotten to know Mr. Emanuel. “I had this idea that this could work and that it had upside,” Mr. Wasserstein, now chairman and chief executive of Lazard, the investment bank, told The Times. “It worked out better than I could have hoped.” And better than Mr. Emanuel could have imagined as well.
Over the course of a three-hour-plus dinner, Mr. Simpson and Mr. Emanuel discussed how they might work together. Shortly afterward, Mr. Emanuel accepted an offer, nudging him down what has by now become a well-trodden gilded path out of politics and into the lucrative world of business.
1998 Rahm "The Perfect" resigned his position as an advisor to Bill Clinton, to become a Wall Street investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002.
1999 Just like that (snaps fingers)----in 1999, Rahm became managing director at their Chicago office. According to Congressional disclosures, Emanuel made $16.2 million in his 2 1/2 year stint as a Wasserstein Perella banker AND he probably paid all his taxes.
Amazingly, Rahm "The Perfect" became a multi-millioniare overnight----and he wasn't even voted "Most Likely To Succeed."
At Wasserstein Perella, Rahm worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC.
2002 Rahm "The Perfect" then ran for Congress (successfully, OF COURSE). Luckily (/snic) members of the securities and investment industry became Rahm's biggest backers, donating more than $1.5M up to 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
2006 Rahm also leaned heavily upon the financial industry as 2006 Dem Congressional Campaign Committee Chair. Financial industry donors contributed more than $5.8M to the Dem committee (behind only retirees).
Remember, the point of Obama bringing Rahm in was so that "tolerant and compassionate bi-partisan Rahm" could work constructively w/ Congress to pass an ambitious agenda.......Here's tolerant Rahm expressing his feelings for America on inauguration day.
Note below: Rahm Emmanual, Board of Freddie Mac; Todd Williams, Goldman Sachs & Fannie Mae; Steve Koch, Credit Suisse; Henry Paulson, Treasury, Goldman Sachs
WHY THE DEMOCRATS HAVEN’T BEEN MORE HELPFUL IN THE FISCAL CRISIS
The Democrats seem slightly befuddled how to react to the current fiscal crisis. One reason is that they helped to cause it. Starting with the Clinton administration, there was a conscious effort by Democrats to cozy up to Wall Street and to this day Barack Obama is being advised by those with deep involvement in the policies and practices that led to the current disaster. You can’t well complain about Bush’s Treasury Secretary having been with Goldman Sachs, when Clinton’s was as well and now the guy has Obama’s ear. And during the period liberals have largely looked the other way as the economic principles of the New Deal, Fair Deal and Great Society were steadily unraveled.
The Prowler, American Spectator - When President George W. Bush nominated Henry Paulson to serve as Treasury Secretary, Republicans raised a red flag that Paulson, who, along with his wife, has strong ties to the Democrat party, would not be an honest broker with Republicans.That seems to have been borne out, with sources inside of Treasury reporting that Paulson briefed Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign advisers on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout plan before offering such a briefing to the McCain campaign.
In fact, the McCain campaign had sought a similar briefing several days ago as word spread that a bailout plan was to be unveiled and had been turned down by Paulson’s senior staff.
The next question is: Why was the Obama campaign so keen on getting advanced word about the bailout?
“They have a huge problem with the mortgage and housing market story, and everyone is missing it,” says a Republican political media consultant with ties to the Obama campaign due to the bipartisan nature of the firm he does work with.
“You look at Obama’s economic advisers, the guys he has counted on from day one and who have raised him a ton — and I mean a ton — of money: Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of them are waist to neck deep in the mortgage debacle.”
Both Raines and Johnson have served as CEO of Fannie Mae, with Raines taking over from Johnson. Both are key political and economic advisers to Obama.
“How can Obama go out with a straight face and say it was Republicans who made this mess, when it is his key advisers who ran the agencies that made the big mess what it is?” says a Democrat House member who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. “It’s his people who are responsible for what may well be the single largest government bailout in history. And every single one of them made millions off the collapse that are lining Obama’s campaign coffers. . .It isn’t just Fannie Mae where Obama has a problem. Another close political adviser, in fact the one man responsible for rallying support for Obama early on among Congressional Democrats, is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who served on the Board of Directors for Freddie Mac after leaving the Clinton White House. . .
Emanuel claimed to be neutral in the primary race between the wife of his old boss and his longtime Chicago acquaintance, Obama. But the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who would be first in line for the vacated Senate seat of Obama should he win the presidency, quickly dumped Clinton when it was clear Obama had a head of steam for the nomination. . .
Both Raines and Johnson have served as CEO of Fannie Mae, with Raines taking over from Johnson. Both are key political and economic advisers to Obama.
Protein Wisdom - [In a] May 6th speech, [Obama] said that we “need a government that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators.” What Obama failed to mention was that by the end of March 2008, he had taken $1,180,103 from people and groups associated with the top ten issuers of subprime loans. . . Indeed, Swiss banking giant UBS, which has written off more debt from the subprime crisis than any other bank, has contributed $363,257 not included in that total. . .
Obama failed to mention that his fundraising bundlers include: Louis Susman, Michael Froman and J. Michael Schell of Citigroup; Steve Koch of Credit Suisse; Bruce Hayman, David Heller, Eric Schwartz, and Todd Williams of Goldman Sachs; Mark Gilbert, Christine Forester, John Rhea, Nadja Fidelia, and Theodore Janulis of Lehman; and Robert Wolf of UBS Americas. These folks raised an additional $1,800,000
for Obama. . .
http://prorev.com/2008/09/why-democrats-havent-been-more-helpful.html
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Since July 2007, Goldman Sachs has spent around $100 million hedging against the risk of default in its AIG derivatives, said Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag. But in soothing concerns over its exposure to AIG, Goldman officials opened another can of worms namely, why the firm was made whole on its bets...
Something else going on concerning Goldman-Sachs in July 2007 :
JUNE 2007 : (40 LETTERS THREATENING GOLDMAN SACHS ARE MAILED TO MEDIA OUTLETS AROUND THE COUNTRY --See 2008 OCTOBER SUPRISE MORTGAGE / FINANCIAL CRISIS, HANK PAULSON? ) ------“Exclusive: Teens behind terror ‘hoax,’ sez new letter” BY JOHN MARZULLI, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, August 6th 2007, 4:00 AM, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/06/2007-08-06_teens_behind_terror_hoax_sez_new_letter.html
JULY 2007 : (4-PAGE LETTER PURPORTEDLY FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE 40 THREAT LETTERS AGAINST GOLDMAN SACHS IS SENT TO A DAILY NEWS REPORTER; IT CLAIMS EARLIER 40 LETTERS WERE A HOAX BY 3 "MISGUIDED" TEENAGERS,--See 2008 OCTOBER SUPRISE MORTGAGE / FINANCIAL CRISIS, HANK PAULSON? ) The four-page letter, hand-printed in red ink on lined paper just like the original batch of 40 letters mailed to media outlets around the country in June, was sent to a Daily News reporter ...------“Exclusive: Teens behind terror ‘hoax,’ sez new letter” BY JOHN MARZULLI, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, August 6th 2007, 4:00 AM, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/06/2007-08-06_teens_behind_terror_hoax_sez_new_letter.html
AUGUST 5, 2007 : (NEW GOLDMAN SACHS LETTER CLAIMING EARLIER 40 LETTERS WERE A HOAX BY 3 "MISGUIDED" TEENAGERS--See 2008 OCTOBER SUPRISE MORTGAGE / FINANCIAL CRISIS, HANK PAULSON?)
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A new letter purportedly written by the author of terrorist threats against Goldman Sachs claims the whole thing was a hoax “conceived by three misguided teenagers.”The four-page letter, hand-printed in red ink on lined paper just like the original batch of 40 letters mailed to media outlets around the country in June, was sent to a Daily News reporter last month and immediately turned over to federal investigators.An FBI spokesman said yesterday that the new letter is still undergoing analysis at the agency’s lab in Quantico, Va., but it appeared to contain similarities to the original threats.“The investigators believe the latest letter may have been written by the same person, but they’re not convinced the underlying story in the letter is the truth,” said spokesman James Margolin. The story revealed in the latest missive is nearly as bizarre as the warning sent out in the original letters.”-------
“Exclusive: Teens behind terror ‘hoax,’ sez new letter” BY JOHN MARZULLI, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, August 6th 2007, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/06/2007-08-06_teens_behind_terror_hoax_sez_new_letter.html
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