Rahm Emanuel Charging People for the Pleasure of Seeing Him Sworn In as Mayor

And this guy was a top official in the White House.

Rahm Emanuel is guilty of two new counts of outrage -- first, for charging donors for a "premium seat" to see his inauguration (something that's never been done before,

according to this NBC report), and he's shutting out press who he's ticked off at for unflattering coverage.

"This week NBCChicago and Ward Room published details of the Emanuel Inauguration, which includes a plan to charge donors up to $50,000 for a premium seat at the swearing-in on May 16th. While noting that there will be "free, open and accessible" events around the ceremony, our writers took him to task for being the first Chicago mayor to charge a fee of any sort for his inaugural.

The Emanuel team says that money will pay for the event and save the taxpayers.

So the day after the "Mini White House Inaugural" was reported, the Emanuel team refused to notify NBC of rare one-on-one interviews allotted to our competitors. The TV business is competitive, but typically politicians and public figures who are involved with big events grant the same access to all-comers.

When we asked why we were left out of the mix, the Emanuel communications team implied they weren't happy with the coverage of the VIP inauguration. They didn't challenge facts, but were upset with tone. So they left us out.

It's an old game ... kill the messenger not the message; cut off the access."