Rahm Emanuel to Quit White House?

The Telegraph is reporting White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel plans to leave his job after the midterms.

The article allege Emanuel is weary of the idealism of Barack Obama’s inner circle. I would assume that means Emanuel is frustrated by such things as turning the BP oil spill into a push for a fanciful clean energy push rather than offering up pragmatic ideas for cleaning up the spill in the first place.

The article implies a mutual animosity because Emanuel has not been able to smoothly push Obama’s agenda through Congress. Republicans were never going to budge and even some Democrats are now balking at the excessive spending levels Obama’s agenda calls for.

With this animosity in mind, I imagine the inner circle has been expecting Emanuel to pass get the agenda through without the slightest notion how unrealistic it is to pass such a wildly progressive agenda. If it is true that Emanuel is leaving, the motivation says more about the rest of Obama’s advisors than it does about emauel.

I think it is plausible Emanuel will leave. For one thing, the article has introduced the idea he fears losing touch with his children, which is setting up the plausible, “”I want to spend more tie with my family” excuse for quitting. For another, I suspect the inner circle wants his head to roll should Republicans win big in the midterms. They may even envision bringing in a new chief of staff with the Congressional power shift in mind.

Whatever the case, it looks like Obama has surrounded himself with ideologues he have no idea how to set a real, workable policy agenda. They are so far out there in left field, even Democrats are jumping ship.