Confidential to IL Gov. Pat Quinn and Dem Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias: Do you know what Master Rahm is doing right now?

"A loss by either [Quinn or Giannoulias] -- and that scenario isn't terribly hard to fathom -- would give Emanuel an opening to run against a Republican."

-- Chris Cillizza, in a Washingtonpost.com "The Fix" 

blogpost yesterday, "Rahm Emanuel's next (political) step"

by Ken

In the present economic and political climate, both Illinois statewide candidates already had their hands full. Now it turns out that both the governor, running for election in his own right after succeeding Rod "Show Me the Money" Blagojevich, and state Treasurer Giannoulias, running for the Senate seat formerly occupied by President Obama, have something potentially far more dangerous to worry about than either the state of the economy or the strength of Republican candidates.

Yesterday Washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza reported in The Fix on the next step for superthug Master Rahm Emanuel, who in an hourlong interview Monday told superdolt Charlie Rose: "I hope [Chicago] Mayor [Richard M.] Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection. But if Mayor Daley doesn't, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago."

Cillizza quotes from a recent New Yorker profile of the mayor by Evan Osnos (thereby reminding me that I never did get through that piece) on personal considerations, notably his wife's ongoing battle against cancer, that might deter Mayor Daley, who's about to surpass his father's tenure as the city's longest-serving mayor, from running again, but also the difficulty anyone else would have in keeping him out if he does choose to run for a seventh term. He also points out that new campaign finance laws would be unfriendly to a traditional Daley fat-cat-financed race.

What's interesting, though, is the prospect facing Master Rahm if Mayor Daley does run again, or if he can't crowd out the large field of prospective post-Daley mayoral candidates. Here's how Cillizza puts it:

To give Emanuel an opening at either the governor's mansion in 2014 or the Senate in 2016 (and it's hard to imagine he would wait that long to get back into the political game), either Gov. Pat Quinn (D) or state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) would need to lose their bids in November.

A loss by either -- and that scenario isn't terribly hard to fathom -- would give Emanuel an opening to run against a Republican. Otherwise, it's impossible to imagine that he would primary a fellow Democrat.

Much as the prospect of a de-Rahm-ed White House gladdens the hearts of all freedom-loving Americans, if you're Pat Quinn or Alexi Giannoulias, and your defeat could be the only thing standing between the Master and, well, something he wants badly enough, shouldn't you already be losing sleep worrying about how best to watch your back?

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