A conservative’s defense of Rahm Emanuel

Sorry to go after Michelle again so soon, but I really think her post complaining about Rahm Emanuel “hiding behind his kids” is off base. Her complaint is that when a reporter tracked Emanuel down in the lobby of City Hall, where he was preparing to watch his children participate in a Christmas concert, and asked Emanuel if he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint against Blago, Emanuel declined to answer:

“I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Dont do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.

Excuse me, but aren’t we supposed to support family time? Would you want a reporter sticking his recorder in your face if you were in the lobby waiting to see your kid’s Christmas concert? I probably would not have been as restrained as Emanuel was.

Michelle isn’t the only one I think is off base in criticizing Emanuel. Beltway Snark was . . . .well, snarky, ridiculing Emanuel’s “daddy time.” P.U.M.A. says Emanuel “hid behind his kids,” and the The K. Ryan James blog siezed on Emanuel’s “not as capable as you” comment — a rather obviously sarcastic remark — to accuse Emanuel of “selective multi-tasking” because Emanuel criticized John McCain during the campaign for completely suspending his campaign to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis.

JoHNBRoDiGaNDotCoM legitimately uses the episode to point out that media coverage of Emanuel’s conduct would have been very different if he were Karl Rove. That’s probably true, but no reason for the other bloggers to overlook Emanuel’s legitimate beef here.

Even if Emanuel were being evasive rather than just asking to be left alone to enjoy a family event, big deal. He will have to answer this question soon enough in some forum. Does the delay give him a little time to create a cover story? Well, maybe, but how much of a cover story does a simple “no” require? That’s as much as he likely would have said to the reporter in any event. A cover story (if he needs one) about any contacts with Blago would have come later anyway.