The politician who led Democrats in their successful fight for control of the House of Representatives, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, is a former ballet dancer who lost half a finger in a meat slicer as a teenager and volunteered for Israel during the first Iraq war.

Now, the hard-charging Chicago lawmaker is winning accolades and talk of a promotion, though his prospects for immediate advancement are murky.

Mr. Emanuel, 46, who took over as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last year, raised $108 million and helped recruit candidates who picked up about 29 Republican house seats Tuesday. Not a single seat that was held by a Democrat this session fell into Republican hands.

“There’s no doubt that Rahm Emanuel is one of the hottest commodities in the Democratic Party at the moment,” a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Steven Grossman, said yesterday. “The fundraising was obviously extraordinary. … The strategy was a magnificently crafted one.”

The job may have been a perfect fit for Mr. Emanuel, who is known to be uncompromising in his dealings with aides, donors, and candidates.

“It was a stroke of Rovian genius to put Rahm as head of the DCCC,” a colleague who served with Mr. Emanuel in the Clinton White House, Gene Sperling, said.

Mr. Emanuel has a reputation for intellectual mastery of detail in both the policy and political arenas, but he does not shy away from using foul language to convey a point.

“He is very smart. He is very ambitious and he is very tough,” a professor of policy studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Paul Green, said. “He is all the things that in the old days Chicago was noted for. He is sort of one of the last of the old breed. He is very close to Mayor Daley.”

The background of the modern-day Chicago pol yields many contrasts. As a young man, Mr. Emanuel was an accomplished ballet dancer, but the half finger missing from his right hand leaves some with the impression that he was a street brawler or special forces soldier. In fact, the finger was lost in a life-threatening meat-slicing accident at an Arby’s when Mr. Emanuel was 17 years old.

Mr. Emanuel graduated from the Sarah Lawrence College, which has a largely female student body. His father immigrated to America from Israel. During the 1991 Gulf War, the future congressman reportedly served as a civilian volunteer on an Israeli military base, applying rust-proofing to brake equipment.

Mr. Emanuel came to the political fore in 1992 as the finance director for the Clinton presidential campaign, and served as a top White House aide to President Clinton until 1998. He made millions as an investment banker before running for Congress, successfully, in 2002.

The Illinois native refers often to his White House days. Sometimes so often that it seems he may be intent on returning there in 2008, 2012, or beyond.

“I would take every one of these people into any presidential campaign,” Mr. Emanuel told reporters yesterday as he sang the praises of his DCCC staff. “They are all of presidential timber.”

Mr. Emanuel declined to take questions yesterday about whether he will seek the position of majority whip in the new Congress. “I know it’s in the air about the whip race,” he said, before explaining that his only election night sleep was from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. “Just give me a little more time.”

A political science professor at the University of Maryland, Thomas Schaller, said he doubts Mr. Emanuel will try for the job, which has also drawn interest on the part of an African-American lawmaker from South Carolina, Rep. James Clyburn. House Democrats will be reluctant to start off the new Congress by snubbing a well-known black congressman, Mr. Schaller said.

“Emanuel’s going to have to cool his jets,” the professor said.

In the long term, Mr. Schaller said, a Cabinet post in a Democratic administration or a Senate seat are live possibilities for Mr. Emanuel. The professor said that if either of the Democratic senators from Illinois chose to step down, Mr. Emanuel “will be in the race before they finish their retirement speech.”

Mr. Sperling, who served as an economic adviser in the White House, also said he would not be surprised to see Mr. Emanuel vault into higher office. “Never underestimate Rahm,” the economist said. “When you consider that he may have three decades of additional public service in him, it would seem like a good bet for his title to start with Mr. Secretary or Senator at some point in the future.”

In the first months after Mr. Clinton took office, Mr. Emanuel served as political director. The brusque manner that extracted volumes of money out of wealthy donors proved less effective at dealing with lawmakers, party leaders, and interest groups. After less than six months, Mr. Emanuel was ousted from the political job and shifted into an ill-defined communications post. According to the Washington Post, the first lady, Hillary Clinton, pushed Mr. Emanuel out.

Sources close to the pair said any bad feelings between them were long ago patched up.

Mr. Sperling said the demotion triggered a transformation in Mr. Emanuel. “Other people would have broken, become bitter, or become a whiner,” Mr. Sperling said. “He just dug in and re-established himself as one of Clinton’s key strategists…..People should not underestimate his versatility.”

In the past year, Mr. Emanuel locked horns repeatedly with the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean. The congressional campaign chair wanted more money spent in districts where Democrats stood a good chance of picking up seats, while Dr. Dean wanted to fund a “50-state strategy” to reinvigorate the Democratic Party in so-called red states.

Mr. Emanuel also drew fire from some liberal Democratic bloggers, who accused him of passing over liberal candidates while giving financial backing to centrists allied with corporate interests. “Emanuel gave no help — or too little too late help — to many victors and, worse still, near victors, while squandering a fortune on his shill candidates, many of whom lost,” one blogger, Howie Klein, wrote.

Mr. Schaller said Mr. Emanuel proved to be a superb tactician and most bloggers bear him no ill will. “I think Emanuel’s vindicated by this election,” the professor said. “Most bloggers don’t like the DLC-Clinton centrist in him, but they give him grudging respect.”

Wherever Mr. Emanuel winds up, he has already been immortalized on the small screen. One of the characters on “The West Wing” was reportedly based on Mr. Emanuel. A Hollywood agent who is one of the congressman’s brothers, Ariel Emanuel, has also inspired a television character on HBO’s “Entourage.” The third brother in the family, Ezekiel, is an oncologist and specialist in bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. He has not yet spawned a television storyline.