Sarah Boesveld
From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 9:57AM EST Last updated on Thursday, Apr. 09, 2009 10:46PM EDT
Just call him Rahmbo-licious.
Despite the puffy bags under his eyes, his short stature, hair that's more salt than pepper and a missing middle finger on his right hand, Rahm Emanuel may be the new (unofficial) sex symbol of the Obama administration.
Yesterday, the new chief of staff was named "Your New Obama Hottie" by Gawker, a popular New York blog, after its poll results awarded him 1,492 votes, eking out "conventionally gorgeous" policy analyst Melody Barnes by 232 nods.
While the Gawker team was surprised at the results, recent Web chatter confirms the bulldog politician's desirability and the relegation of President Barack Obama's rippled abs to so-last-year status.
Mr. Emanuel "smoulders," writes the New York Post, ranking him high on a list of handpicked lookers from Mr. Obama's dream team. Rahmfacts.com, a site modelled after the Chuck Norris joke phenomena ("except 100% true"), puts the congressman's heated behaviour - such as when he declared his enemies "dead" while repeatedly stabbing a steak knife into the table - on a Hollywood-style pedestal.
A tour of the Yahoo chat room circuit finds threads such as "Do you have a picture of Rahm Emanuel in shorts?" Blogs compare his dark and mischievous look to those of Robert Downey Jr.
The attraction is his cocktail of fiery boldness, loyalty and power, Rahm watchers contend. And perhaps the fact that he's a former ballet dancer and trained triathlete.
One Gawker reader didn't mince words when explaining the appeal of the new chief of staff.
"I think he won because you just know instinctively he's hot in the sack."
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