The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution

This book is a real eye opener . If you want to understand Democratic and Chicago's political stragedies today read this book. Rahm's methods- take no prisoners- made alot of things clear to me about smearring candidates reputation and if that doesn't work he likes to bankrupt opposing candidates political and personal finances....he's a real piece of work and this book explains his tactics.

As a former colleague of Naftali Bendavid, I read his work with interest and pleasure. Even though many or most readers know the result of the 2006 congressional elections, Bendavid manages to keep the suspense alive. His unfettered access to Rahm Emanuel gives the book a distinct perspective. It's not just the tale of how the Democrats won, but the tale of how a complex, fascinating, and imperfect man helped to pull it off. Bendavid resists the temptation to give Emanuel all the credit for the Democrats' win. He credits the unpopularity of the Iraq war, a long string of GOP scandals, and the Republicans' coziness in the majority. It's not just the "strong man" version of history. Bendavid writes thoughtfully and compellingly. This is a fine work of political reporting.

Having lived through the 2006 election like a junkie, I knew many of the names that are profiled in this excellent book. But seeing the behind-the-scenes details, hearing about the delightful personality Mr. Rahm Emmanuel, made this all the more delicious. As I write this, we're still living in the last few months of the Bush administration and thus this book makes it seem all the more important that--in 2006--the good guys won. We all do not realize what a huge debt we owe to Mr. Emmanuel. He has really done this country a favor and this book explains why. Highly recommended.

This cool little book chronicles the work of the man who helped lead the Democrats out of the wilderness and into the promised land of the majority -- Rahm Emanuel. Granted unlimited access to the inner workings of the DCCC and Rahm himself during 2005 and 2006, the book paints a delightful picture of how Rahm was able to help catapult the Dems back into power. I have always been a big fan of Rahm, and knew a good deal about him before reading this book -- he's from Chicago, he was a top aide to Bill Clinton, he uses profanity like you or I use the word "hi", etc -- but being a political junkie, this book looked great and I bought it soon after I heard of it. It is a very quick, fun read, and with the tremendous access Bendavid was given, the book is full of awesome anecdotes about Rahm and the long campaign. Around when Rham took the reins of the DCCC in 2005, things looked bleak for Democrats. Since 2000 when George Bush edged out Al Gore, the national Democrats have been stuck on the canvas, basically too stunned and too scared to get up and fight the GOP. This problem was compounded by the equally-brutal loses in 2002 and 2004. Coming into the 2006 cycle, Nancy Pelosi wisely tapped the second-term congressman to run the Dems' House campaign arm (the DCCC) to end the bleeding. She believed that the Dems needed their own Tom DeLay -- and ruthless brute dedicated solely to winning -- to finally beat the GOP. She couldn't have been more right. For years, the GOP had been nasty and ruthless in doing whatever it took to win elections. Forgetting Tom DeLay the man, no one can ignore the electoral success he helped engineer cycle after cycle. Rahm is just as smart and just as ruthless, and from the moment he took the helm of the DCCC he was relentless in setting the groundwork to win as many seats as possible. This singular focus is the book's central theme. All of Rahm's nasty behavior, outbursts, and strategic focus all go back to his goal of trying to win as many seats as he could to get to the magic 15 he needed. Whether it be his many f-bombs at his many enemies, his lack of sentimentality on individuals who weren't top candidates, or his attacks on DNC chair Howard Dean for foolishly squandering resources away from the congressional races, Rahm was consistent in his pursuit of bringing the Dems back into power, and seemed to never stray from his goal. Besides Rahm himself, the most striking thing in the book was the pace of the campaign itself. It is amazing how Rahm and his staff were able to keep up their 150% pace for nearly two years. The book notes at various points how the campaign had taken its toll on Rahm himself -- weight loss, fatigue, extended separation for his wife and three young children. The pace of it all can be best characterized as frantically organized, I guess. The Thumpin' is a very interesting book for political junkies, and it provides a lot of inner details and dialogue for what was going on

This is a thumpin' good read about a turning point in modern American politics. The stakes were big in the 06 elections and the characters, especially the main character Rahm Emanuel, larger than life. All this is vividly portrayed in Bendavid's spare but dramatic narrative. Theodore (Teddy) White invented this modern genre of political writing (report now, write and publish when the votes are counted) with the Making of the President 1960. I don't know what the late Mr. White would have thought of Rahm Emanuel (probably not his cup of tea), but he would have loved and admired the reporting and writing in this book