Pick on Rahm Week

The Tribune gets in on the act (you might need a Tribune password to access the whole thing):

• In most worlds — business, politics, personal — an arrogant person who accomplishes things is not only tolerated but celebrated. Many of us will take an ass-kicker who gets results over a cautious consensus-builder any day of the week.
  
  That's why Chicago voters picked Rahm Emanuel for mayor in 2011. They liked his rascally persona: the dead fish delivered to a pollster who disappointed him, the shower confrontation with an uncooperative member of Congress, the reported, "Take your (expletive) tampon out and tell me what you have to say" to a male White House staffer who wasn't on point.
  
  The strutting. The finger-pointing. The swearing. Come on. We loved it.
  
  But Chicago's affection toward Emanuel has shifted in a way that is different from the natural fizzle elected officials experience in their first terms. Here's why. Emanuel has stretched the continuum in opposite directions. His arrogance is oversized for the record he has amassed. He's beyond bossy. He's a walking personality disorder. But his audacity exceeds his accomplishments. That's a dangerous combination.

The entire editorial by Kristen McQueary is a brutal take down of Rahm. We think she's a bit mistaken about the supposed Chicago voters enamored with Rahm - Rahm scammed a judge into believing he was a Chicago resident (has anyone ever seen his tax returns for his Washington years? His voting record?), bought the black church votes and won an election that was famous mostly for its extraordinarily low turnout.

The editorial even provoked a reply from political brain David Axlerod, most (in)famous for foisting an unqualified community organizer upon the Illinois legislature, the US Senate and the White House.

Not only is the Trib editorial board beating up on Rahm, Kass gets a few jabs in (again, you might need a password):

• Is it possible to make Mayor Rahm Emanuel even the teeniest bit likable?
  
  I desperately want to help him, and I know you do too, because one look at the guy and you know he needs help, but he's too full of pride and arrogance and fear of showing even the tiniest weakness to ask us.
  
  So I ask on his behalf: How can we make Mayor Prickly into Mayor Personable?

We assume sarcasm on Kass's part. No one likes Rahm. He's not a likeable character. He's pure asshole and ambitious as hell with no tempering of compassion, understanding or sympathy. A psychotic bully in other words...or as the Tribune editorial said, "a walking personality disorder."