In Transition

Rahm Emanuel, the soon-to-be White House chief of staff, knows all about Capitol Hill’s Democrats. Heck, he’s one of them.

On Thursday, though, Emanuel swapped hats and showed up not as another congressman from Illinois headed for a day at the office but as the personal representative of the president-elect.

He spent about a half-hour in the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of that chamber, kicking off a new relationship with the Kentucky senator and his leadership team, including Jon Kyl of Arizona, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, John Thune of South Dakota, John Ensign of Nevada and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

“I told them that we would like to welcome their ideas on a host of fronts, be that in the area of education, healthcare, taxes, energy policy, national security,” Emanuel said afterward.

“I think he set the right tone for a first meeting,” said Ensign, the GOP Policy Chairman. “I was very pleased.”

— Kathleen Hunter