In Transition

If Barack Obama was measured and careful in his first press conference, he may have been outdone by Rahm Emanuel in his chief of staff debut on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Emanuel, who often revels in his reputation as a brass-knuckled partisan, morphed into a model of political diplomacy, turning in what they like to call in Washington an "on message" performance on ABC's "This Week" and CBS' "Face the Nation."

Asked about his reputation by George Stephanopoulos, Emanuel said, "President Obama is very clear, as you look at his career, both in the state senate, U.S. Senate, and the campaign that we have to govern in a bipartisan fashion...So that is the tone. That is the policy. And that is exactly how we're going to go forward. And he has said it for us."

Emanuel stuck to his talking points on both shows, particularly on the issue of the federal government coming to the aid of the auto industry by accelerating the $25 billion approved by the President and Congress to help it re-tool and using other existing authorities available to the administration to help.

He ducked questions such as whether Sen. Joseph Lieberman should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee for his support during the campaign of John McCain ("What happens on the House and Senate, on chairmanship is their business"); whether Valerie Jarrett, a confidante of Obama and co-chair of his transition team, might be appointed to Obama's Senate seat ("She is a very dear friend of the president-elect..."); and deflecting a question on whether Obama might make some announcements before December on the make-up of his economic team, ("Well, as the chief of staff, I'm not going to get in front of the president, Bob.")

After Emanuel left, Bob (as in Schieffer) turned to his panelists, David Brooks of the New York Times and John Harris of Politico, and said, "Well, gentlemen, I have to preface this by saying I don't think we found out a lot this morning from Rahm Emanuel."

Said Brooks: "Suddenly the new coy Rahm Emanuel . You know, next thing he'll be Mr. Peaceful."