Rep. McCarthy: The Republican Rahm Emanuel

For most politicians there is close to a mirror image in the opponent party. For rising Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, that mirror image is former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (pictured), minus Emanuel’s swearing, The Hill reports.

McCarthy ascended the ladder quickly in a minority position in Congress, just as Emanuel did.

In McCarthy’s second term, he headed recruitment for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in the 2010 elections, just as Emanuel helped lead Democrats back to power in 2006, when he chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

McCarthy sees both similarities and differences between himself and Emanuel. “Rahm has a lot of different styles that I don’t associate with. But I did study what he did, how he went about recruiting, how he went about helping change the Democrats’ mentality to go on offense,” McCarthy says.