Rahm Emanuel Offered White House Chief of Staff

I was JUST thinking about Rahm this morning and wondering why he has been so under the radar during this election.

President-elect Obama has offered the White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer. The sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed, keenly intelligent veteran of the Clinton White House is said to have ambitions to some day be Speaker of the House. But he also has a keen sense of "duty."

Today on "Good Morning America" ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported Obama likes the fact that Emanuel "knows policy, knows politics, knows Capitol Hill" and has told associates that Emanuel would "have his back."

There is a tentative plan to announce Obama's chief of staff this week.

And here's more cabinet speculation:

A host of names are being bandied about as possible members of an Obama administration.

Paul Volcker, a key economic advisor, who was federal reserve chairman under Ronald Reagan and broke the back of an inflation crisis in the early 1980s, could return briefly to his old post to try and stabilize the economy.

Investor Warren Buffett and Robert Rubin, a former Clinton treasury secretary, could also assume economic posts in an Obama White House.

Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois representative who served in the Clinton White House, is said to have been approached to be Mr. Obama’s chief of staff. Another possibility is Tom Daschle, the former U.S. senator for South Dakota.

Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Governor, and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts have been tipped for secretary of state, while Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican, is being touted for defence. Mr. Obama is said to want to keep on Robert Gates, the current Defence Secretary, so he can supervise a troop withdrawal from Iraq, but Mr. Gates has apparently said he wants to retire.

Colin Powell, the former Bush secretary of state who endorsed Mr. Obama, could also be given a role as a special envoy in an Obama White house.