WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said she thinks President-elect Barack Obama is off to a good start since winning the election Tuesday.

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At a news conference before she and former President Bill Clinton were honored at New York's newly refurbished Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, she said Rep. Rahm Emanuel is "an excellent choice" to be Obama's chief of staff, and praised Emanuel's political prowess.

She said he "understands both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue."

Emanuel is a former top aide to her husband.

Emanuel combines political instincts, White House experience and a Chicago tough-guy attitude -- traits he's likely to need as Obama's new chief of staff.

His combative style as political director in the early days of the Clinton administration earned him the nickname "Rahmbo." He didn't always produce results, though. Emanuel lost that job but stayed on as a senior adviser and oversaw the development of some of Clinton's top initiatives, including NAFTA and an ban on assault-style weapons.

After a lucrative stint in banking, Emanuel was elected to Congress in 2002 and quickly became a major power. He wound up overseeing the party's House election efforts in 2006 and won a majority for Democrats through tireless fundraising and candidate recruitment.

"He's a good tactician. He's a creative thinker. But I think what probably makes him most successful is that he has the will to follow his convictions," Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said after the 2006 victory.

Emanuel grew up in the ritzy Chicago suburb of Wilmette, the son of an Israeli doctor who moved to the United States. His brother Ari is a Hollywood agent and the inspiration for Ari Gold, the Type-A superagent on the HBO series "Entourage." The congressman himself has been cited as an inspiration for presidential aide Josh Lyman on the drama series "The West Wing."

As a teenager, Emanuel was more interested in the arts than politics. He studied dance and won a scholarship to train with the Joffrey Ballet but ended up attending Sarah Lawrence College and then getting a master's degree in communications at Northwestern University.

His start in politics came after college, when he worked for Paul Simon's 1984 Senate campaign and Richard Daley's run for Chicago mayor in 1989.

Then he went to work for a little-known Arkansas governor who wanted to be president.

Emanuel's fundraising skills are credited with helping keep former President Bill Clinton's campaign afloat during some rocky times, particularly the scandal over whether he slept with Gennifer Flowers.

In 1999, Emanuel left the White House for Chicago to work in investment banking. The firm he joined was soon sold and Emanuel made millions, giving him the financial security to get back into politics. His first financial disclosure statement as a House member indicated he had about $9.7 million in earned income the previous year.

Emanuel also spent just over a year on the board of Freddie Mac, the mortgage company whose lending policies contributed to the nation's housing crisis. The presidential appointment, which ended in May 2001, paid him at least $292,774 in director's fees, according to a financial disclosure report Emanuel filed when he ran for Congress.

He was vice chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority and also served on the boards of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, beautyjungle.com and Slim-Fast, whose founder, S. Daniel Abraham, is a major Democratic donor.

When he was tapped to oversee the 2006 House campaign effort, Emanuel led a record fundraising effort, bringing in far more money than four years earlier. The single biggest source of money was other members of Congress, which irritated some members who faced fierce pressure to contribute.

The additional money enabled House Democrats to expand the field, going into districts that hadn't been considered competitive before. That sometimes meant recruiting more conservative candidates, an Emanuel strategy that generated some complaints.

But his success in electing a Democratic majority soothed most hard feelings and confirmed Emanuel as a major force in the House -- perhaps even a future speaker.

Emanuel and his wife have three children. He told Chicago's WLS-TV on Wednesday that he needed to consider the impact of the job on his family before accepting.

"I have a lot to weigh: the basis of public service, which I've given my life to, a career choice. And most importantly, what I want to do as a parent," he said. "And I know something about the White House. That, I assume, is one of the reasons that President-elect Obama would like me to serve. But I also know something about what it means to a family."

'Sprawling' Transition Operation Under Way

Several Democrats said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new six-year term on Tuesday, was angling for secretary of state. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss any private conversations.

Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid O'Rourke, disputed the reports. "It's not true. It's ridiculous," she said.

Announcement of the transition team came in a written statement from the Obama camp.

The group is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under President Bill Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama's chief of staff in the Senate; and Valerie Jarrett, a friend and campaign advisor of the president-elect.

Several Democrats described a sprawling operation well under way. Officials had kept deliberations under wraps to avoid the appearance of overconfidence in the weeks leading to Tuesday's election.

Who Gets Obama's Senate Seat?

While Obama looks ahead to a new administration, Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich has the task of selecting the junior U.S. senator's replacement.

It's a position of power Blagojevich, whose administration has been dogged by federal investigations, seems to relish.

"I've never had more friends than I do today," he said Wednesday. "And when I make the final decision, I won't have nearly as many as I have now."

The governor could tap practically anyone to fill the remainder of Obama's term, which ends in January 2011. And he made it clear he's not rushing the decision: He said he'd like to make an announcement before Christmas but cautioned that wasn't a promise.

While the law sets no timetable, the appointment is likely to come before the Jan. 3 start of the 111th Congress.

Blagojevich said he doesn't have a favorite candidate and that members of his senior staff would help to vet those interested in the job. The only legal restrictions are that the person must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years and an Illinois resident.

The governor said he didn't want to think about Obama's successor before the election because he was afraid of creating bad karma. "I had this nightmare that if I did that I would jinx him," Blagojevich said.

Still, lobbying for the spot began long before Obama became president-elect, and several Democratic politicians already have emerged as possible replacements.

Blagojevich said some candidates reached out to him before the election and that his administration would seek out others. He also wants Obama's input.

"That would have obviously a great deal of weight on the decision that I would make," Blagojevich said.

He said he had not yet spoken to Obama, whose timeline for resigning his Senate seat was unclear Thursday.