Fighting for The Spoils

But if they don't . . .

"If they don't win, it will be seen as a colossal failure," says Mann. "Rahm will be devastated."

Expectations Are High

In fact, Emanuel may have already fumbled the game of expectations -- they are wickedly high. With President Bush's approval ratings lodged at car-salesman levels, scandals going off like cluster bombs within the Republican caucus, and a general throw-the-bums-out restiveness in the land, even a near-miss by House Democrats will be seen as the greatest electoral choke since Dewey Didn't Defeat Truman after all. Commentators from George F. Will to James Carville have already laid down rhetorical markers: An opposition party unable to capture the House in this environment should find a purpose other than electoral politics. Selling Herbalife, maybe.

And Emanuel knows that some Democrats would find time during their grief for a small smile at his expense. Such is the "Rahmbo" style that his sizzling passage through the campaign has left scorch marks on some colleagues. Among the singed: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, with whom Emanuel has tangled over spending priorities; several liberal would-be candidates who say they were steamrollered by Emanuel in favor of more centrist challengers; and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus who went to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this year with complaints about Emanuel's abrasive style and his increasing demands for them to raise money for the DCCC.

"Well, I never said Rahm was a diplomat who spends a lot of time schmoozing," says Pelosi, who picked Emanuel last year to run the campaign. She tapped him over more senior lawmakers, she says, because she knew he'd be "coldblooded enough" to push the party relentlessly. And to those who came to have their feathers unruffled, she says she made it clear that Emanuel has her full support. "I said to them: 'We're here to win this election. What is this conversation about?' I don't think we can be better served than by having Rahm at the DCCC."

"He's abrupt with me all the time," she adds with a laugh. "I call him the Field Marshal."

A Man for Changing Times

But to some observers of Chicago politics, Emanuel is less field marshal than Marshall Field (recalling the upscale department store that catered to the city's affluent classes). Emanuel was born in Chicago in 1959, the son of a doctor, and grew up in the decidedly non-working-class northern suburb of Wilmette. He's a graduate of the tony New Trier High School and a onetime ballet prodigy who was offered a scholarship with the Joffrey. A triathlete with a degree from Sarah Lawrence College, a master's in communications from Northwestern and a love of taking his children to modern dance concerts, Emanuel doesn't easily fit the stogie-gnawing stereotype of the old Chicago pol.

Nor did he serve the usual ward apprenticeships in the vaunted Democratic machine. Rather, after working as a fundraiser in various campaigns, Emanuel came fully of age politically with Clinton in Washington. He had never sought elected office before running for the House of Representatives in 2002. In particular, Emanuel knew he would be an odd successor for the working-class Polish and Catholic precincts of District 5, which stretches from the lakefront to the Cook County line. "The previous congressmen from my district were named Rostenkowski, Annunzio and Blagojevich," he says. "Then along comes Rahm Israel Emanuel? C'mon, how does that fit?"

But this is a changing Chicago. In front of Manny's, a police Segway is chained to a street sign as the officer eats his pastrami inside. The warehouse across the street is being converted into a Best Buy. And politics, too, has gotten a makeover.

"Rahm is part of the young breed that people call the new Chicago machine," says Don Rose, a longtime liberal activist who worked for Mayors Jane Byrne and Harold Washington. "They're not 'dem' and 'dose' politicians. They know the difference between red wine and white wine. They're not driven by ideology, and they play to win."

They all play to win, those Emanuel boys. Rahm is the middle son of three. His big brother, Ezekiel, is a Harvard oncologist and bioethicist. Younger brother Ari is a high-flying agent in Los Angeles. He made news recently as the only major agent to publicly call for an industrywide shunning of Mel Gibson following the actor's drunken, anti-Semitic tirade. Their baby sister, Shoshana, is a student.

Yes, the folks are mighty proud, Rahm says. How many mothers have two children who have partly inspired TV characters (Josh Lyman on "The West Wing" for Rahm, Ari Gold on "Entourage" for Ari)?