Doubt it:
But that is not the only reason that Chicago is about to become a place with formidable political swack. There is a kind of perfect storm brewing that will greatly enhance Chicago as a power center. The Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate, Dick Durbin, the likely Majority Leader if Harry Reid ever steps down, is from Illinois, and on the House side, Rahm Emanuel, a representative from Chicago, is Chair of the Democratic Caucus, the number four position in the Democratic leadership. Jan Schakowsky, a congresswoman whose district includes parts of the North Side of Chicago, is also a member of the House leadership, as a Chief Deputy Whip. All three—Durbin, Emanuel and Schakowsky—have unusually close relations with Obama. Emanuel, a fabled political operative, who was Director of Finance in Bill Clinton’s original presidential campaign and then a senior adviser to the president, has emerged as an important figure in the Obama campaign this fall. Durbin and Schakowsky may be even closer to the man who would be prez. As the private lore goes, it was those two who were the first major elected officials in 2005 to try to convince Obama to take on Hillary Clinton in the primaries. They argued, reportedly, that Sen. Clinton would make a wonderful president, but that she would prove unelectable in November and that Obama was the only figure in the Democratic party who could seize part of Clinton’s base and wrest the nomination from her, thus saving the party—and the nation—for another four years of ruinous Republican rule. Durbin may be the closest of all to Obama, a sage figure with a sharp political wit, who mentored our junior Senator even before his election and who, should he care to leave the Senate, could end up as Attorney General.