Rahm Emanuel Puts Foot Down on Ads

People may guess at whether it's for show or not, but either way Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is putting on his best performance to demonstrate he's looking out for moderate Democratic lawmakers. This week Emanuel warned progressive groups in no uncertain terms to stop running ads targeting wavering Democratic senators on health care, Politico reports. According to the White House, the ads are counterproductive, but the groups in question argue they help the president by keeping lawmakers from straying too far to the right. Adam Green, co-founder of one such group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told The Daily Beast earlier this week that he hopes "the White House recognizes that we're willfully playing the role of bad cop and holding the door wide open for them to be good cop" with their ads attacking Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Max Baucus (D-MT).