Rahm Bormann: "Caveat factotum."

Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a prominent Nazi official. He became head of the Party Chancellery (Parteikanzlei) and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. He gained Hitler's trust and derived immense power within the Third Reich by controlling access to the Führer. -- Wikipedia

During this period Bormann honed his beaueaucratic skills and earned the trust of Adolf Hitler. In addition to administering Hitler's personal finances, buying the Berghof at Berchtesgaden and running it as well as the whole complex of properties on the Obersalzberg, Bormann acquired the power to control the living standards of Gauleiters and Reichsleiters, not to speak of members of the Fuhrer's intimate circle. Bormann's brutality, coarseness, lack of culture and his apparent insignificance led the Nazi Old Guard to underestimate his silent persistence and ability to make himself indispensable.

Rudolf Hess's flight to Britain opened the way for the 'Brown Eminence' to step into his shoes on 12 May 1941 as head of the Parteikanzlei and to gather the reins of the Party into his own hands and steadily undermine all his rivals for power. Until the end of the war, the short, squat Bormann, working in the anonymity of his seemingly unimportant office, proved himself a master of intrigue, manipulation and political in-fighting. -- HolocaustResearchProject.org

Meet Rahm Emanuel.

No, wait, that's Martin Bormann. THIS is Rahm Emanuel.

And here he is again. No, that's Bormann.

And here's Martin Bormann with Adolf Hitler.


No, that's not right. That's Rahm Emanuel with Barack Obama. THIS is Martin Borman with Adolf Hitler. It's all very confusing.

Look, I'm not saying that Obama is Hitler and Emanuel is Bormann, exactly. What I am saying is that the relationships between Hitler-Bormann and Obama-Emanuel are strikingly similiar in terms of human dynamics. It is becoming increasingly clear that they are similar in at least one other way -- the Hitler regime and the Obama regime were/are both strikingly incompetent at managerial tasks. Indeed, at some point midway through the war, the British even quit trying to assassinate Hitler on the theory that his death might accidentally bring somebody competent into the top job.

The incompetence and inefficiency of the Nazis at almost everything except their monomania -- killing Jews and enemies of the state -- is well documented. For the Obamanoids, this incompetence is slowly becoming apparent. For example, check this out at the American Spectator.

Obama's Carrousel of Incompetence

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
on 8.27.09 @ 6:08AM

WASHINGTON -- According to the Gallup Poll, the Prophet Obama's job approval is now at its lowest since his coronation. It began at 70%. Now it is at 51%. Equally glum, his disapproval rating has climbed from 11% to 42%. So what about his golf game up there at Martha's Vineyard? From all I have been able to ascertain it is mediocre. In other words, Mr. Obama, you are no Dan Quayle. Vice President Quayle was a really superb golfer. Moreover, he ran a competent staff. Naturally it was smaller than Mr. Obama's, but it was competently run.

My belief, based on reports in the news and from my private network of seasoned agents and provocateurs, is that this White House is a carrousel of incompetence. How else do we explain the ravening push on all fronts, healthcare, the environment, fiscal reform, intelligence reform, and a foreign policy of humility and apology? Unsurprisingly, on every front the President is in trouble. Remember chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's, callous enjoiner, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste"? This White House is a serious crisis.

According to sources with whom I confer, the Obama White House is the most tightly controlled White House in years, with the President, Emanuel, and David Axelrod micromanaging practically everything. They compose what is called "the Politburo," and the news story waiting to be written is that their control is as stultifying as was Jimmy Carter's control of his White House. Stupendous failure is in the cards.

The Politburo follows no organizational flow charts. A source deeply rooted in official Washington tells me that when the President and his fellows want information from the National Security Council they may go to its head, General James L. Jones, or they may not. They may just call in one or two of his subordinates. If they do this with Jones they probably do it with other government heads. That cannot be good for morale, to say nothing of orderly decision making. Slowly some news stories are appearing that convey the harum-scarum state of things in the Obama government. Burnout afflicts staffers. The President has fewer than half his appointments in place to advance his historically unprecedented agenda. Mr. Emanuel, your crisis is shaping up nicely.

Some months back Sidney Blumenthal, then a loyal Democrat expecting an appointment over at the State Department where he would serve with his idol Hillary Clinton, inadvertently told a reporter that the Chicagoans coming in with Mr. Obama were even greener than the Arkansans who came in with the Clintons. By "greener" he was not referring to their environmental bona fides. He was referring to their governmental experience. They were provincials, though coming from a large and sophisticated city such as Chicago they were much less aware of what they did not know than were the Arkansans. Remember Blumenthal is from Chicago, and he was very close to the Clintons. His revelation is well grounded.

Blumenthal did not get the appointment the Clintons wanted for him. That brings me to still more evidence of the Politburo's incompetence, to wit: bringing a Clinton into the cabinet. Last year Mr. Obama beat Hillary Clinton in an acrimonious competition for the nomination. She was beaten and out of the limelight. Her husband was discredited as a campaigner and revealed as a cad. The Clintons should have been history. But the geniuses in what we now call the Politburo brought Hillary back to center stage and installed her at State. Then they attempted to hem her in by appointing special envoys and ambassadors, nearly 20 composing what the Washington Times reports is "a confusing patchwork of policy fiefdoms inside the administration that lacks clearly defined lines of command and has the potential for miscommunication on a grand scale." So they brought to the State Department the kind of confusion they brought to the White House, and they did it at a time when foreign policy has to contend with international terror, nuclear proliferation, two wars, and a dollar in decline. Moreover they have antagonized the Clintons.

During the 1990s such incompetence was not particularly dangerous. The economy was sound. The Cold War was over. We could sit back and enjoy the show as Bill and Newt entertained us. It was, as a gifted phrasemaker put it, The End of History. Now, history has begun again. Nuclear arms could fall into the hands of the kind of barbarians that attacked New York and Washington on 9/11. Other nations are prospering with modern conceptions of economic growth, while here at home the economy is weak and overseen by reactionaries with a 1930s grasp of governance and economics. Over at the White House we see three amateurs and a carrousel of incompetence.

Now the New York Times, always eager to put the best spin on things, profiles Emanuel
this way.

Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks

The caricature of Mr. Emanuel as a profanity-spewing operative has given way to a more nuanced view: as a profanity-spewing operative with a keen understanding of how to employ power on behalf of a new president with relatively little experience in Washington.

Although relentlessly deferential to the president, Mr. Emanuel is clearly more chief than staff. While some predecessors husbanded their authority, lest it be diluted, friends said he believed the more someone used power, the more power that person had.

He knows how to pull all the levers of influence in Washington — raising money, mobilizing interest groups and harvesting the latest policy ideas from research groups. At the same time, his relentless campaign-style approach sometimes leaves some colleagues worried they spend too much time reacting to events.

At times, it seems as if Mr. Emanuel is White House chief of staff, political director, legislative director and communications director all rolled into one. He has fingers in almost every decision, like who gets invited to social events at the White House and how to shape economic and foreign policy.

He carries a notecard in his pocket with a list of things to accomplish and marks them off obsessively. He requires cabinet secretaries and all West Wing departments to submit written reports each week and returns them with terse notes in the margins.

As negotiations intensified on health care recently, he was a constant presence on Capitol Hill — one day alone, he was there 8.5 hours before returning to the White House to tend to other duties.

“He can juggle 20 or 25 things in one day, in part by delegating and in part by picking only the things that matter,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman recruited by Mr. Emanuel to serve in the cabinet.

A Frantic Pace

Where Mr. Obama is known for cool detachment, Mr. Emanuel presses until the breaking point, then presses some more. “The president has a zenlike quality,” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod. “Rahm is a pile driver.”

Attention has focused on Mr. Emanuel’s larger-than-life personality, but it is his operating style that matters more to Mr. Obama at this crucial juncture. What comes through in interviews with roughly 60 people in the White House, on Capitol Hill and around Washington is an intense engagement built on a series of testosterone-driven aphorisms:

“Put points on the board.”

“In politics, you’re either pitching or catching.”

“A man never stands as tall as when he is on all fours kissing” rear ends.

In other words, take what victories you can, stay on the offensive and do not be afraid to stroke big egos to advance the president’s agenda.

The people he extends that to include two deputy chiefs of staff, Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen, and aides like Sarah Feinberg and Sean Sweeney. He also relies heavily on Pete Rouse, a senior presidential adviser, and Phil Schiliro, the legislative director.

Mr. Emanuel presides over a White House where people are defined by whether they went through the fires of the campaign. He did not. When Mr. Obama invited longtime aides like Mr. Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, to Camp David recently, Mr. Emanuel was not included.

He gets along well with most other members of the Obama team, including Mr. Axelrod, a longtime Chicago friend who served as a witness at his wedding. But as a head-knocking addition to the tightly knit “no drama Obama” world, Mr. Emanuel has almost inevitably been in the midst of some tensions. Mr. Emanuel was wary of Valerie Jarrett, the president’s close friend, joining the White House staff. In the intervening months, the two “have spent a lot of time working at that” relationship and “get along well now,” Mr. Podesta said.

But when a New York Times Magazine profile of Ms. Jarrett last month explored the old scratchiness, White House officials said the normally calm Mr. Obama erupted with anger. An informal edict went out: no more cooperating with staff profiles. As a result, Mr. Emanuel declined a formal interview for this article.

Fear in His Wake

Whatever intrigue exists inside the White House, Mr. Emanuel, who once dreamed of becoming House speaker, spends as much time monitoring the intrigue on Capitol Hill.

When the House was taking up a war spending bill in June, Mr. Emanuel noticed a Republican ally had yet to vote. With one minute left on the vote clock, he called the ally, Representative Peter T. King of New York. “There’s only one minute to go in the vote,” Mr. Emanuel said into voicemail. “I’m waiting for you.”

Mr. King, who did vote for the bill, laughed as he recounted the story. “I had this crazy guy from the White House watching me,” he said.

Bormann proved to be a master of intricate political infighting; his mastery of such infighting along with his access and closeness to Hitler, and because of the trust Hitler held in him, he was able to constantly and effectively check and thus make enemies of Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenberg, Robert Ley, and Albert Speer in the constant infighting between them for power and Hitler's attention that was common amongst the Nazi elite during the Third Reich. Bormann took charge of all Hitler's paperwork, appointments, and personal finances. Hitler came to have complete trust in Bormann and the view of reality he presented. During a meeting, Hitler was said to have screamed, "To win this war, I need Bormann!". Many historians have suggested Bormann held so much power that, in some respects, he became Germany's "secret leader" during the war. -- Wikipedia.

Now some have made much of Emanuel's Israeli heritage and nominal Jewish faith, but the fact of the matter is, as this Politico.com story by Kenneth P. Vogel from earlier this month indicated, "Israelis sour on Rahm Emanuel."

The money quote:

Some also blasted him as a "Kapo Jew"—the name for Jewish police officers in Nazi concentration camps. “People wrote that, ‘If he wasn’t a Jew, he would be called an anti-Semite.’ So it's very personal.”

A factotum is a general servant or a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities. The word derives from the Latin command (imperative construction) fac totum ("do/make everything"). Wikipedia.

It is apparent that Emanuel has hitched his wagon to Obama's star, much as Bormann did to Hitler's. None of these men, Hitler, Obama, Bormann or Emanuel were/are wedded to any principle or any cause but their own power. Each talented political infighters, both Bormann and Emanuel made/make no secret of their derision for anyone who opposes them. Bormann was literally the only person who could make SS chief Heinrich Himmler quiver in obeisance on the telephone, and he openly scorned almost every other high Nazi party official.

Rahm Emanuel?

Well, he wears his attitude openly too.

Rahm Emanuel thumbing his nose at the GOP during the Inauguration ceremonies, Jamuary 2009.

But you know, Martin Bormann was a sarcastic grinner, as well. The thing is, when you play in the big leagues of politics, especially when you scorn people you view as "lesser mortals," the grin comes round again. For example, this was Martin Bormann's final grin.



When he tried to break out of Berlin after Hitler's suicide, he was trapped by the Russians and killed himself by taking cyanide. They found glass fragments in his teeth. So his last grin was certainly an agonized grimace.

Caveat factotum, Rahm. Caveat factotum. Let the factotum beware.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.