A stroll down memory lane in honor of Barack Obama's new chief of staff.

Start with Nina Easton's big profile of Rahm following the 2006 election.

A few month before the 2006 election, I wrote about the tantrum the netroots threw over Emanuel calling him "an extremist ideologue, a Bourbon Democrat" who would be "a huge problem for progressives moving forward."

Lastly, I'll leave you with an item I wrote about Rahm in 2003:

CRONY CAPITALISM: Thirty months. Sixteen point two million dollars. That's more than half a million dollars per month. Details of a Halliburton contract in Iraq, you say? Nope. It's the amount of money Rahm Emanuel made working as an investment banker in the scant two and a half years between leaving the Clinton White House and going to Congress last year as the representative from Illinois' 5th district.

According to a recruiting executive quoted in the article, that salary figure puts Emanuel in the top 3-5% of all investment bankers in the country during that period of time. Not bad for a guy with zero investment banking experience:

"According to congressional disclosure statements, Emanuel received $16.2 million from Wasserstein, based on fees that the bank earned from eight clients. In each case, he worked to land the business either through a key executive he had come to know during his political career or was provided an introduction by a contact he developed through his political work.

Three of those clients were corporations controlled by major Democratic donors who developed relationships with Emanuel through their involvement in national party politics: Loral Space and Communications Ltd., headed by Schwartz, who celebrated his 71st birthday at the White House; Slim-Fast, headed by Abraham; and GenTek Inc., a telecommunications manufacturer headed by Paul Montrone."

For the record, I don't have a problem with Emanuel's salary. From top to bottom, business in America is conducted primarily on relationships and contacts, and Rahm Emanuel is a guy with a golden Rolodex. That's just the way it works.

Still, this is an eye-popping amount of money. And there is no doubt that if Emanuel were an alumnus of the Bush administration the story would have Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, and the 9 Democrats running for President awash in full-throated, vein-bulging righteousness, decrying the deleterious effects of "Bush crony capitalism."