WASHINGTON--White House chief of staff Bill Daley let loose in an interview with Politico's Roger Simon, saying when it came to the man who held the job before him, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel--well, he was not as "beloved" as people now say. Emanuel was also an aggressive leaker--and Daley isn't, Daley told Simon.
Daley and his brother, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley made Rahm--he got his first boost in the political business by raising money for Daley's 1989 mayoral campaign.
Simon, a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist, talked to Daley in his White House office.
Read the entire Simon column HERE.
Excerpt from Simon interview with Daley...
People are asking if you are as good as Rahm, I (Simon) say to Daley.
"It's pathetic, isn't it?" Daley responds, laughing.
Rahm wouldn't say it, I say.
"Rahm would say it!" Daley says. "Maybe I missed it -- I wasn't here the first two years -- but I don't think Rahm was as beloved (as people now say.)"
Rahm was famous for calling reporters, do you call reporters? I ask.
"I call; I'm not as aggressive leaking and stroking," Daley says. "I'm not reflecting on Rahm, but I'm not angling for something else, you know? Rahm is a lot younger [Emmanuel is 51], and he knew he was going to be doing something else in two years or four years or eight years, and I'm in a different stage. I'm not going to become the leaker in chief."
You've got others for that, I say.
"Yeah, and hopefully in some organized leaking fashion," Daley says, laughing. "I'm all for leaking when it's organized."
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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