Rahm Emanuel faces no confirmation hearings as White House Chief of Staff, and that's a good thing for him. Michael Luo of the New York Times does a good job of examining how a political operative in the Clinton White House became a rich man in a brief interlude before he ran for Congress and returned to DC. Mr. Emanuel, who was chosen last month to become President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, went on to make more than $18 million in just two-and-a-half years, turning many of his contacts in his substantial political Rolodex into paying clients and directing his negotiating prowess and trademark intensity to mergers and acquisitions. I am all but certain there is nothing illegal in anything Rahm did. He's far too smart to cut corners when high level investment banking offers so many opportunities to make money within the law. There's nothing legally wrong about capitalizing on connections and making millions of dollars working with regulated industries that always...(Read Full Post)