SNA (Tokyo) — The list of moral and political reasons why Rahm Emanuel should not be appointed ambassador to Japan is not short, but at the very top of the list is that serving in Tokyo could offer him an excellent opportunity to rehabilitate his reputation, ensuring that this bad actor will return to more influential offices in the future.

US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put the moral case as well as anyone in a tweet last November, when it was first being floated that Emanuel was being considered for a post in the Biden administration. She wrote, “Rahm Emanuel helped cover up the murder of Laquan McDonald. Covering up a murder is disqualifying for public leadership.”

There is considerable evidence that as mayor of Chicago, Emanuel covered up evidence of the police murder of a black teenager. It is widely believed that he was desperate to make sure that the full facts would not come out until after he had secured victory in his 2015 reelection effort.

On policy issues, Emanuel has spent decades trying to push the US Democratic Party as far to the political right as he could. This has included consistent support for the corporate sector, international trade deals, and the rightwing government of Israel.

As White House Chief of Staff at the beginning of the Obama administration, Emanuel tried to head off any major reform of the healthcare system, but was overruled by the president. Even still, he succeeded in convincing the president to scale back the scope of ObamaCare, for example by eliminating any “public option” that might compete with private sector insurance plans.

In one notorious incident in 2009, Emanuel became angry while meeting with progressives who wanted to run television ads against some conservative Democratic lawmakers who were opposing healthcare reform. He screamed at them that they were “fucking retarded.” When this was later revealed by the Wall Street Journal, Emanuel apologized–but only to the head of the Special Olympics, not to the progressives he yelled at.

Emanuel took all of these attitudes into his job as mayor of Chicago, where he consistently lined up on the side of the establishment, the wealthy, and the police. Not for nothing the 2014 book which describes his rise to power in Chicago is titled Mayor 1%.

Today, Emanuel is one of the most hated figures in US politics. His bare-knuckled Democratic Party partisanship makes him hated on the right. His constant stumping for corporate power and his utter lack of sympathy for the poor or weak makes him hated by the left. His attachment to f-bombs and crude language makes even the “civility”-obsessed center somewhat wary about him. Having decided not to try to run for a third term as Chicago mayor (he might have gone on to a humiliating defeat), his once high-flying career is now at its lowest ebb.

But he does have one last hand left to play–he can cash in all those political chits that he has collected over the years to get an appointment from President Joe Biden, his old White House colleague from the early Obama years. Emanuel has committed many crimes over the course of his career, but for the most part these were crimes done on behalf of the rich and powerful. Some of them may wish to demonstrate to up-and-coming politicians that the establishment will always protect its own.

Since his ambition to become US Secretary of Transportation was regarded as being too hot to handle by the Biden team, the consolation prize is that he is reportedly in line to receive is ambassador to Japan.

The only group that sees this appointment as a positive is the so-called US-Japan Alliance Manager community. For them, political cronyism has long been seen as a major asset; the way of doing business in Tokyo. It’s long been conventional wisdom among this group to regard any ambassador who has personal links with the US president as being exactly what “Japan” wants and needs. The fact that Emanuel believes in their same corporate elite 1%-ism is an added bonus.

For Emanuel himself, the attraction to the post in Tokyo is obvious–it would rescue him from the political wilderness that he is currently facing (and richly deserves) in an era in which progressive politics has become considerably stronger. If he could spend a few years in Tokyo without causing a major controversy, then he may gain a new reputation as a “statesman” and a figure who possesses credibility upon the international stage. It could easily become a springboard for his future return to the heart of US politics, once again aggressively spreading his gospel of pro-corporation thought.

Progressives in Japan need to make it clear that a posting in Tokyo should not become the opportunity for reputation laundering by a failed politician who has abetted murder and led our world deeper into the crisis that we are all now facing.

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