Along with Rahm...

...David Axelrod, another Chicago native who served as Obama’s chief strategist during his presidential campaign, will become a senior adviser in the Obama White House.

Another good pick. There's some fretting about Emanuel having the President's ear on his pet policy issues, but they're close friends as well as political allies. He's going to have access in any event, as an in-house advisor or as a leader of the Democratic House caucus. It's not a question of the access he may have to Obama, but of the access he brings to Obama - access to both Emanuel's practical political acumen (he may, on occasion, want to do the wrong thing, but he knows how to get things done just the same. I'll trust Obama to set him to work on doing the right things.) and a network built up as a key player both in the White House and the Capitol Building.

Axelrod, who is also a personal friend of and political advisor to Emanuel, is coming off the most disciplined national campaign I've seen in forty some years of paying attention. I admit, in fact, to being somewhat in awe of both the conduct and the achievement of the campaign, and any senior players that can be brought into substantive positions at an Obama White House are going to get a major measure of indulgence from me.