Video: Obama prepares for office

When Sarah Palin vowed that there would soon be a pitbull in the White House, some on the Obama campaign might have allowed themselves a knowing chuckle.

Several weeks of ferocious campaigning later, one is indeed on its way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He certainly doesn’t wear lipstick – but has been known to sport a leotard.

Described by those who know him as variously an attack dog, warrior, political gangster – the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as Barack Obama’s chief of staff has sent a shiver of unease through Republicans hoping for a new spirit of conciliation under the newly-elected president.

Others say the take-no-prisoners partisan nicknamed Rahmbo is a perfect fit for the almost preternaturally serene Mr Obama, who will need political strongmen around him if he is to push through the radical changes he seeks.

The inspiration for The West Wing’s fictional deputy chief-of-staff, Josh Lyman, the most unlikely moments in the character’s story are plucked straight out of Mr Emanuel’s reality.

When Lyman reads a Washington Post profile of him which tells how he sent a congressman a rotting fish in the post, he asks his assistant, Donna, if she was the source. In fact, it was Mr Emanuel – who reportedly once sent a pollster he had fallen out with the same gift – as a warning never to cross him again.

It is not the only episode in Mr Emanuel’s history which reads like a scene from a gangster movie.

At a dinner to celebrate Bill Clinton’s first presidential victory – Mr Emanuel was his chief fundraiser – he began to reel off the names of those who had 'crossed' him. He grabbed a steak knife and began plunging it into the table shouting “Dead! Dead! Dead!” after each name.

“When he was done the table looked like a lunar landscape,” a witness relates. “It was like something out of The Godfather. But that’s Rahm for you.”

Mr Emmanuel became infamous for his cutting manner during the Clinton years, even towards the world’s most powerful leaders.

In 1998, when Tony Blair visited the White House at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Prime Minister and Mr Clinton scheduled a public appearance. As he was preparing to walk out, Mr Emanuel cautioned Mr Blair : “This is important. Don’t f*** it up.”

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