Between Emanuel and first lady

Then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offered his resignation to President Barack Obama in the winter of 2010 after a series of columns appeared depicting him as the lone element keeping the Obama presidency intact. According to then senior adviser David Axelrod, Emanuel understood that the stories "were an embarrassment" to the president. The president, already suffering from a setback to his health care reform effort, declined Emanuel's offer to resign, despite being convinced that his chief of staff was the main source for the columns.


"I'm not accepting it," Obama replied. "Your punishment is that you have to stay here and get this bill done. I'm not letting you off the hook."


That revelation is one of the more explosive included in "The Obamas," a new book by Jodi Kantor of The New York Times about the first few years of the Obama administration and the strains that it produced on the president's marriage -- strains that were ultimately overcome.


The dramatics that surrounded the passage of health care reform -- culminating in Emanuel's near-resignation -- reflect the type of struggles that routinely pitted Emanuel against the first lady during the first two years of the Obama administration. The two jockeyed for influence over the president even before he formally took office.


Kantor, who interviewed for the book 33 White House staffers (many on several occasions) but not the president or the first lady, reports that Michelle Obama had "doubts" about the choice of Emanuel as chief of staff. Emanuel, in turn, had been opposed to bringing Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas' longtime mentor, into the White House as a senior adviser.


One of Obama's first major decisions was tapping Emanuel as chief of staff. Unlike his boss, Emanuel was combative, unafraid to push or even insult, Kantor writes.


"Emanuel was restless, sly, casually abusive, and almost always willing to cut a deal," according to the book. "He could yell at you and eat a brownie off your plate at the same time."


Emanuel, however, had learned lessons during his time in President Bill Clinton's White House: "Avoid symbolic issues and ideological battles." Hillary Clinton also taught him another one: "Stay out of the first lady's way."


Emanuel did not always appear to heed that when it came to Michelle Obama. There were occasions when he'd make a commitment on the first lady's behalf without consulting her first.


The first lady also had her doubts about Emanuel. The two were philosophical and temperamental contrasts who had almost no bond, Kantor writes, and their relationship was "distant and awkward from the beginning."


Asked Monday about the book's accounts, Emanuel said: "I have a very good relationship with the president and the first lady."


Emanuel recounted that he and his wife, Amy Rule, attended a private party at the White House residence a few weeks ago. And in October during a visit to Chicago, Michelle Obama helped promote Emanuel's effort to reduce "food deserts," areas lacking access to fresh produce and grocery stores.


"I talked to the president on Saturday," Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference. "I've been very honored to work with the president and the first lady as chief of staff."


It was the president's decision to pursue a health care overhaul despite Emanuel's objections that seemed to mark the beginning of the end of Emanuel's tenure in the White House, according to Kantor.


Several news stories appeared with the angle that Emanuel disagreed with his boss on the issue. After one piece in March 2010, Emanuel went to the Oval Office to apologize to the president. As the two men talked alone, Emanuel offered his resignation, Kantor writes.


Asked Monday to confirm that he tendered his resignation, Emanuel neither confirmed nor denied. "That's been old news," he said.


By that September, Emanuel was plotting his departure from the White House to return home to run for mayor. Obama offered a gracious public goodbye for his chief of staff that ended up appearing in Emanuel's campaign ads.