Brookings fellow fires back at Rahm

A Brookings Institution fellow fired back at Rahm Emanuel today after Emanuel took a shot at the left-of-center think tank.

Yesterday, Emanuel was quoted in the NY Times pushing back against liberal critics who think Democrats have watered down healthcare reform too much.

"The goal isn’t to see whether I can pass this through the executive board of the Brookings Institution," Emanuel quippd. "I’m passing it through the United States Congress with people who represent constituents.”

Today, William Galston, a senior fellow at Brookings (the Ezra K. Zihka Chair in Governance Studies, to be exact) penned a testy response to the White House Chief of Staff.

In a post on TNR's The Plank, entitled "A Word on Behalf of the 'Executive Board of the Brookings Institution,'" Galston suggested the White House has failed to lead on healthcare.

"Dear Rahm," Galston began. "It may surprise you to learn that many of us here at Brookings like politics as much as you do, and some of us even know something about it."

He continued:

Yes, politics is the art of the possible. But leadership is the art of expanding the possible. Leadership without politics is futile. But politics without leadership is blind.

[...]

It’s time for the White House to step in and speak out. That means publicly specifying the essential elements of meaningful health care cost containment. And it means insisting that they are included both in the Senate bill and in the conference report. I think you know what they are. If not, call Peter Orszag.