WLS Talker Sez New ChiMayor Threatened Him

In one of Rahm Emanuel's first post-Chicago Mayor election interviews, Rahmbo called in to the Super Celebrity Hotline on 890 AM WLS’ Roe and Roeper. 

According to a story at nbcchicago.com, Chicago finally got to meet the D.C. legend famous for trying to intimidate everyone from his dry cleaner to the British Prime Minister.

Emanuel displayed some patience at the beginning of the interview. He answered a question about whether he’d called Ald. Edward Burke by not mentioning Ed Burke’s name.

“I want to reach out to all members of the City Council,” Emanuel said. “I’m looking forward to partners in reform.”

Then Conn tried to get Emanuel to talk about the differences between himself and Mayor Daley.

“As well-run as this city’s been for the last 21 years, there’s still the need for reform,” Conn said. “Where do you see that breaking between what work Mayor Daley’s done and what needs to be reformed?”

“I’m gonna build on the progress he made,” Emanuel said. “It’s not either/or, and I appreciate the fact, I think you’re not trying to play a game here, but there are things I’m gonna do different.”

“It’s not really a game I’m playing,” Conn defended himself. “That is a question that everybody has.”

“I didn’t say you were playing a game, OK? Hey, let me tell you, if I were to accuse you of playing a game, you wouldn’t have to ask ambiguously, ‘Are you saying that?’ You would know.”

The tactic seemed to work. Conn and Roeper were tentative for the rest of the 10-minute interview. Emanuel has been tortured by Tim Russert on Meet The Press. He’s not going to be pinned down by a pair of local drive-time infotainers.

Afterwards, Conn declared himself “the first journalist in Chicago to have been threatened” by Emanuel.

Read more here.