From the Wall Street Journal Political Diary

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has led a charmed political life. Prior to his current gig, Mr. Emanuel was a senior political aide to President Clinton, a Congressman from Chicago and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when Democrats took 30 seats from Republicans and regained control of the House.

Mr. Emanuel has also done better than most at leveraging his public service for personal gain. After quitting the White House in 1998, Mr. Emanuel went to work for famed Wall Street dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, a big Clinton backer and major Democratic Party donor. And despite no prior experience in banking, Mr. Emanuel became a very wealthy man in a very short period of time.

“Mr. Emanuel earned $16.2 million in a two-year stint working in Chicago for investment-banking firm Wasserstein Perella & Co.,” reported the Wall Street Journal last year. He then ran for Congress and took seats on committees that oversee Wall Street and quickly became a top recipient of campaign donations from the financial industry. In his last House race in 2008, the Journal reported, “Mr. Emanuel collected more money than any other House member from hedge funds, private equity firms and the broader securities and investment industry, even though he faced no serious opposition.”

Mr. Wasserstein, who died unexpectedly last week, went out with a reputation as more than just a big-dollar banker — he was a serious liberal who cared about politics and policy. He also never stopped being a patron to Mr. Emanuel, whom he praised earlier this year as having a “keen understanding of the interplay of regulatory aspects and corporate activity in financial advisory work.”

If by “keen understanding” he also meant Mr. Emanuel had figured out how to make the “interplay” work for him personally, who could argue with that?

HKO comment- Crony Capitalism at its worse!

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