Emanuel ready to do it his way

[Geee]

Chicago Tribune:

Before mayor-in-waiting Rahm Emanuel unveiled his education leadership team, his advance scouts laid out markers in blue tape on the floor of a high school library to choreograph precisely where everybody should stand.

Emanuel spoke for 12 minutes, six times longer than new public schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard, who was careful not to deviate from a prepared statement. When reporters tried to question Brizard, he kept quiet.

"I'll do the answering," Emanuel declared. "At the right time, we'll have him be available for questions."

The Emanuel era at City Hall begins for real on Monday, but the months-long run-up to the swearing-in ceremony has left it abundantly clear that the city's new boss wants the spotlight to remain squarely on him. And so far that spotlight has revealed a leader who plays up his homegrown pedigree but often borrows from the controlled stagecraft and management playbook of Washington, where he has spent the bulk of his public career.

Beirut by the Lake no more, city government under Emanuel could become Chicago by the Potomac.

After more than two decades of the often unpredictable Richard M. Daley, Emanuel is a study in the kind of caution and focus common to the White House, where he has twice worked. He's mindful not to say or do anything at well-scripted public appearances that might step on his message.

For his transition, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama hired the same headhunter firm the administration used to field new leadership for General Motors as well as mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae after government bailouts. The fundraising mechanism Emanuel created to back aldermanic candidates is modeled after the ones used by House, Senate and presidential candidates.