Sure, he once sent a dead fish to a pollster who’d crossed him. And sure, he’s seen as the engineer of the Democrats’ 2006 takeover of the House.

But Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) wants people to know he has a policy side.

The competitive side is something most people on Capitol Hill have seen. The policy side is not.

For example, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) says he’s grateful for the advice Emanuel has given him on immigration legislation. But asked about Emanuel’s “policy side,” Gutierrez tilted his head, gave a quizzical look, then offered a diplomatic answer.

“If I had to put Rahm Emanuel to head my tactical and strategic positioning or put him in charge of my policy, I would go for the first,” Gutierrez said.

But others say Emanuel’s longstanding policy bona fides have simply been overlooked because of his role as chief fundraiser and campaigner for House Democrats in 2006.

“Rahm gets painted with this political brush, but first he was a policy guy,” said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.).

With his No. 4 slot in leadership, Emanuel is considered to be within striking distance of Speaker or majority leader should the current holders of those posts depart. Some wonder if he’ll make a run for Democratic whip when his term as caucus chairman is up in 2010. Building a policy image, observers say, is key to winning a promotion.

“If he has ambitions for moving up, he has to diversify his own portfolio,” said Steve Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s not enough to raise money and recruit candidates.”

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) is one of those who sees Emanuel in the “next generation” of the House’s top leaders.

“Rahm is the unique legislator with a deft understanding of politics and a deft understanding of policy,” Davis said. “There’s a narrow band of people who have that, people like [Reps.] John Dingell [D-Mich.] and Charlie Rangel [D-N.Y.].”

That’s a point echoed, in a slightly different tone, by Emanuel’s Republican counterpart, House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.).

“He’s clearly a gifted political operative who understands where the intersection of politics and policy is,” Putnam said.

Other legislators say that trying to discern whether Emanuel is a “policy guy” or a cutthroat political operative misses the point and misunderstands the nature of Congress.

“That sells him short and mistakes what issues are all about,” said Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), a fellow member of the Ways and Means Committee, who worked on welfare reform with Emanuel when he was at the White House. “It’s a mistake to say either-or. He has a strong interest in both. He was deeply involved in the evolution of [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)] bills.”

In his book on Emanuel’s tenure as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Chicago Tribune reporter Naftali Bendavid said Emanuel’s policy proposals addressed his belief that “the unwritten contract between middle-class Americans and their society had been shredded.” But he added that many of them were “small-scale, politically deft initiatives in the Clinton mold.”