Meet and Greet: Rahm Emanuel

Some girls like bad boys, and apparently so does President elect Barack Obama.  He has selected Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) to serve as White House Chief of Staff in his administration.  Contrary to Obama's nice guy reputation for working across party lines, Emanuel is known to throw a partisan punch every now and again.

Here's the scoop on Emanuel:

• At 48, he's a young cat as far as politicians go (DOB:November 29, 1959).

• He represents the 5th district of Illinois (basically part of Chicago) in the U.S. House of Representatives.  He was elected in 2003.

• He was Chairman of the D tripple C during the 2006 elections, when the Dems regained control of Congress.  He is currently Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, which makes him the 4th ranking Democrat in the House.

• Prior to coming to Congress, he was managing director of an investment bank.  Before that, he worked in the Clinton White House.  He started in the White House as Clinton's political director, but his combative ways earned him a demotion to policy adviser(compliments of Hillary Clinton). Loyal and fiesty, he fought his way back to the top.

• The Josh Lyman character on The West Wing was modeled after him.

• He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and got his master's in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985.

• If you hear someone say, "Something's fishy around here," they may have just received a holiday gift from Rahm.  He's said to have once mailed a rotting dead fish to a frenemy.

• He's no Rachael Ray.  While working at Arby's in high school, he cut his right middle finger badly and part of his finger had to be amputated.

• He could be a Bruce Jenner though.  Or a J.Lo.  Like both celebrities, he's a triathlete. (In our book, triathlete = cray-zay.)

• His father was a pediatrician and his mother, a former civil rights activist, used to own a rock club in Chicago.  Talk about cool mom!

• His brother, Ari Emanuel, is a Hollywood talent agent and founder of the Endeavor Talent Agency.  Ari is the inspiration behind the Ari Gold charcter of HBO's Entourage.

• He and his wife, Amy, have one son and two daughters.