Rahm Emanuel, the Karl Rove of Democrats - though Democrats defend him as being aggressive, tenacious, etc. whereas the Republican Rove was evil incarnate for acting the exact same way - finally revealed the worse kept secret in America; he is leaving the Obama administration, presumably to run for mayor of Chicago, the city that helped steal the election of 1960 from Richard Nixon.

Given the reputation of Chicago, he is a perfect fit, and Council of Economic Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee gave him the perfect going away present - a dead fish.    The story goes that Emanuel sent a dead fish to a pollster he did not much like, an allusion to "The Godfather" movie where a character's vest is delivered to the Corleone's because 'he now sleeps with the fishes.'

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “In Chicago, this is how friends say goodbye.”

Fellow staffers gave him a standing ovation - they're no dummies.   He was a vicious thug before he was good friends with Obama and they sure don't want to mess with him now.  

Like the departure of Donald Rumsfeld for George Bush, Emanuel's departure will be a good thing for an administration that would probably like to be a lot less polarizing than it has been.   Obama said that during the last 20 months, "Rahm has exceeded all of my expectations"  and that the White House could not have accomplished what it did without Rahm - which can't be seen as a compliment given the popularity polls and concerns about the mid-term election, but I guess it was.