Barack Obama needs to convince voters that he understands them and leave the dirty work to his surrogates, says Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who's also chairman of the DCCC.

Before Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in Denver last night, I asked Emanuel, a famously bulldoggish veteran of the Clinton White House, if the Democrats were being sufficiently aggressive in going after John McCain.

“The best line was Hillary’s line about the Twin Cities, you know, frick and frack [McCain and Bush] over there—you can’t tell them apart,” said Emanuel, who was surrounded by aides on the floor of Invesco Field.  read more »

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel are special guests at a fund-raiser at the Yale Club this afternoon for six Democratic congressional challengers, including two from New York: Dan Maffei and Eric Massa.  read more »

Chuck Todd thinks John McCain will save the GOP.

Kos wants to know what readers think about the leadership job being done by Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Rahm Emanuel.

An anonymous blogger wants to keep track of Eliot Spitzer's Day One plans for changing Albany.

The AP has more on our item about Emily Pataki and the bar exam, rightly noting that both John F. Kennedy Jr. and Dennis Vacco failed on their first attempts too.

And pictured above is Newsday'sDan Janison with a bottle of ale.

"Preparing for a potential Democratic victory on Election Day, House Democratic Caucus Chairman James Clyburn (S.C.) has begun rounding up support for a would-be bid for the Majority Whip's office."

The subtext to Clybrun's move is the question of what Rahm Emanuel, the architect of the House Democrats' campaign strategy, wants out of a Democratic takeover.

But Majority Whip, the number three post on the majority side, could be a winnable race - and would position Emanuel very nicely for the future, since the 66-year-old Pelosi, 67-year-old Hoyer and 74-year-old Murtha are all on the back nine of their careers. Hence the pre-emptive maneuvering of Clyburn, who as Caucus Chairman is now the third-ranking House Democrat.

The four Democratic candidates in the 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn debate tonight on NY1. It airs tonight at 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

And Democratic congressional candidate Stephen Harrison greets folks tonight at Ozzies in Park Slope (5th Ave. and Garfield Place) at 7.

Emanuel just told reporters a few minutes ago on a conference call that U.S. Rep. John Sweeney really, really ought to appear before a New York Assembly committee investigating his role in organizing a $27,000 Lake Placid ski weekend for members of Congress that was attended mostly by lobbyists, local officials, and executives from the New York Power Authority.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has asked Sweeney to testify and address the discrepancy. Emanuel, who desperately hopes to replace Sweeney with Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, said that the congressman owes it to New York voters to answer Brodsky's questions.

"You look at the news today, we got Iraq, raising energy prices, the economy," said Emanuel . "We are all busy people here, what are we doing drafting invite lists for a ski trip?"

And what are such busy people doing, for that matter, concerning themselves with proceedings in the New York State Assembly?