Gerald Herbert / AP Photo
With the left riled up about what they see as the Obama administration’s broken promises—Guantanamo Bay, reining in Wall Street—its sights are set not on the president but the man who works down the hall, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Never a shrinking violet, Emanuel told liberal leaders in August that their plan to air ads attacking conservative Democrats was “fucking retarded,” The Wall Street Journal reports. As one liberal talk-show host has taken to calling Emanuel “Barack Obama’s Dick Cheney,” the Journal points out that attacks on Emanuel can help the White House as they work to deflect criticism of the president himself. "It's better if everyone on the outside is mad at the chief of staff than mad at the president," John Podesta, Clinton’s chief of staff, said.