THE WORST NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS

In a week filled with bad news for Democrats, perhaps the worst was the announcement Tuesday by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley that he will not seek another term.

Being mayor of Chicago has been a lifelong dream for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He could be the boss, instead of just being the flak catcher for the boss.

 It’s now possible to make that dream a reality.  But Rahmbo will have to move fast before the window of opportunity closes.  The non-partisan primary in Chicago is Feb. 22 of next year.  But to run in that primary, Mr. Emanuel must file 12,500 valid signatures by Nov. 22.

I suspect that if Mr. Emanuel resigns, it will be sooner rather than later, because it would not be helpful to his future political career to be anywhere near the bridge when the Titanic goes down Nov. 2.

Rahm Emanuel is a foul-mouthed jerk.  But he is the closest thing to an adult in President Barack Obama’s inner circle.  And, as a senior White House aide during the Clinton administration and a four term Congressman, he’s the only member of the inner circle to have extensive Washington experience.  The other two consiglieres — Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod — made their bones in Chicago politics.  Their jobs in the Obama administration are their first in Washington.

If Mr. Emanuel resigns to run for mayor of Chicago, and especially if he does so early, he is likely to be replaced — in fact if not necessarily in name — by Ms. Jarrett.

Even if Ms. Jarrett is not offered the chief of staff job, or chooses not to take it, her influence will increase, because the other names being bruited about — the Webzine Politico mentioned Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Ron Klain, Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff — lack the close personal relationship with the president that Mr. Emanuel, Mrr. Axelrod, and, especially, Ms. Jarrett have enjoyed.

That’s bad news for Democrats, because Ms. Jarrett’s political judgment is terrible.  It was her idea last year to have the president go to Copenhagen to lobby the Olympic Committee to choose Chicago as the site for the 2016 Summer Games (which would have enriched Ms. Jarrett, who owned property on which some of the Olympic sites would have been constructed).  The president was embarrassed when, after his pitch, Chicago didn’t even make the final cut.

It was Ms. Jarrett who hired the 9/11 Truther, Van Jones, to be the “green jobs” czar in the White House.  The president suffered embarrassment when Mr. Jones’ radical past and the nutty things he’s said were exposed by Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck.

Ms. Jarrett and Mr. Axelrod encouraged the president to weigh in on the Ground Zero mosque controversy, which friends of Mr. Obama as well as his critics regard as a political blunder of the first magnitude.

Rahm Emanuel has been a lonely voice for reason in the Obama inner circle.  He cautioned against getting involved in the mosque controversy.  Earlier, he had urged shifting the administration’s emphasis from passing Obamacare to creating jobs.  Had his advice been followed, Democrats would not now be approaching Nov. 2 with such dread.

Obviously, his advice wasn’t followed.  But if Mr. Emanuel leaves, will such advice even be offered again?

Ms. Jarrett is precisely the worst kind of adviser for Mr. Obama to have, because she is as left wing as he is, even more inexperienced politically, and as admiring as he is of his supposed brilliance.  She will reinforce all of his worst tendencies.

If Ms. Jarrett is the principal voice whispering in his ear, Mr. Obama is most unlikely to “pull a Clinton,” to moderate his policies after a disastrous midterm election.  That could make 2012 an even worse year for Democrats than 2010 figures to be.

If the midterms are as bad for Democrats as this week’s polls suggest, party elders may have to hold an intervention.  They need to tell the president his next chief of staff must be someone such as CIA Director Leon Panetta, who replaced Bill Clinton’s Arkansas buddy, Mack McLarty, as chief of staff after the 1994 midterms, or Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who will need another job soon.

This would reduce Mr. Obama to something like a figurehead for the remainder of his term.  But he’s more qualified to be a figurehead than to be president.