Smash hit

A veteran of the rough-and-tumble Chicago political scene, Mr Emanuel’s unrelenting toughness sits incongruously against the ambitions of his youth, when, as a talented ballet dancer, he was offered a scholarship with the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet company. He turned it down to study dance at New York’s Sarah Lawrence College and later took a masters degree in speech and communication at Northwestern University in 1985, before turning to politics.

“The guy had been a ballet dancer in Chicago, yet grown men live in mortal fear of what he might do to them,” a close friend, Bruce Reed, told Rolling Stone magazine in a recent interview.

Quite what he learnt during his masters is unclear, but as Mr Emmanuel admits: "I swear a lot." As one profile succinctly put it: his favourite expletive can serve as subject, verb or adjective when he is facing down opponents.

Although Mr Emmanuel made his name during the Clinton campaign – after a stint on an Israeli army base during the Gulf War – he suffered a period of exile when Hillary Clinton tried to get him fired – like his alter ego Lyman. That he survived the First Lady’s wrath is a testament to his sticking power.

Demoted to the press room, he carried out his duties without complaints and clawed his way back up again. He was later credited with pushing through a ban on assault weapons and beating back Republican attempts at impeachment over the Lewinsky scandal.

“Clinton loved Rahm because he knew that if he asked Rahm to do something, he would move Heaven and Earth – not necessarily in that order – to get it done,” a member of the Clinton administration says.

Although Mr Emanuel shares his Jewish heritage with Lyman, his faith runs far deeper than that of his on-screen counterpart. A devout Jew, he reportedly obtained a special waiver from his rabbi in order to work through the holiday of Rosh Hashanah during the $800 billion Wall Street bailout.

The soon-to-be chief of staff is also a regular attendee at Israel-related events and has already been hailed in the Jewish press as Israel's man in the White House. His most hailed moment in Middle East peace process was choreographing the famous White House handshake between Yassir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin during the Clinton years.

His father, Benjamin, holds more radical views. A former member of the Zionist terrorist group Irgun, when asked by the newspaper Ma'ariv if his appointment would be good for Israel, answered: "Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors."

Although Mr Emanuel enjoyed considerable success in investment banking after the 2000 election – reportedly making $18 million in three years as managing director of Dresdner Kleinwort – he was soon tempted back into politics.

He rose up the congressional ranks in his role as Chicago senator to become chairman of the Democratic caucus and of the 2006 congressional campaign. He has agonised over the job offer from Mr Obama, as he was poised to succeed Nancy Pelosi as House Majority leader, a job he had coveted.

But the lure of the White House – and the promise of being the eyes, ears and elbows of the most powerful man in the world – has proved too great. It is a twist that imitates the West Wing as much as Aaron Sorkin's creation apes him.

In the final series, Lyman runs the presidential campaign of dark horse Democratic candidate Matthew Santos in his battle against elderly maverick Republican Arnold Vinick.

In the contest – based, Sorkin has said, on an imagined Obama-McCain match-up, Santos is victorious, and Lyman returns to the White House – as chief of staff to the first Latino president of the United States.

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