Liberals Target Rahm Emanuel in New TV Ad

ABC News' David Chalian Reports:  In addition to targeting key moderate and liberal Democrats, liberal activists now have White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in their sights.  The new anti-Emanuel campaign comes on the heels of reports yesterday that the White House Chief of Staff was urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-D Conn., in order to move the health care reform legislation forward in the Senate. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer called those reports inaccurate, but other sources tell ABC News that the White House has indeed urged Sen. Reid and other Senate Democrats to give in to Sen. Lieberman on both the Medicare buy-in proposal and the public option. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal grassroots group keeping up the fight for the public option in health care reform, is launching a 60 second TV ad to air in Chicago featuring one of Mr. Emanuel's former constituents from his days when he represented the north side of Chicago in Congress before joining the Obama administration. "A lot of us back home hope Rahm Emanuel is fighting for people like us as White House Chief of Staff.  But if he sides with the insurance companies and undermines the public option, well, he won't have many fans in Chicago,” says the constituent Joseph Breitenbucher in the ad.  He also tells his tale of an insurance company trying to avoid paying for his spinal surgery. The ad campaign is clearly more targeted at receiving media attention than at persuading voters, but an eventual return to public office has never been ruled out by Emanuel. "The Barack Obama of 2008 would be ashamed of the small-thinking, ready-to-cave Rahm Emanuel of 2009,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.  "If Rahm Emanuel ever plans to run for Congress, he deserves fair warning that his actions these next couple weeks will absolutely be at the forefront of any campaign," he added.