In retrospect—if we can be retrospective about something that’s supposedly going to happen on Friday—the professional left would have been dishonest if it didn’t blame Emanuel for the administration’s shortcomings. His reputation, before this job, was built on his record at the DCCC, when he presided over the 2006 conquest of the House and the capture of 30 Republican seats. His reputation, among progressives, was as the guy who took the credit that they and their paladin, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, truly deserved…

Emanuel’s arrival at the White House was, for progressives, an original sin. It was compounded by the way he made sure that Dean would stay outside of the White House. “There was never any intention to hire Dean,” says one Democrat who talked to Berman, “and in fact there was a great deal of satisfaction in dissing him.” That, according to the professional left, just proved what they thought about Emanuel. He thought the left was so overzealous and useless that he relished in ignoring it. Proving the left wrong was synonymous with having the right policy.