Where is Penny Pritzker? Too much of an embarrassment for Obama but not for Rahm.

This morning’s New York Times answers the question, “Where in the world is Penny Pritzker?”

Penny headed up President Obama’s fund-raising operation in the 2008 campaign.

But in appears that this time around she has pulled back or has been pushed aside because she is simply too much of an embarrassment to the Obama campaign.

For nearly three years the family-run Hyatt Hotel chain has been involved in a labor dispute with UNITE HERE, the union that represents housekeepers and other hotel workers. Hundreds have been arrested in protests outside her hotels. Unions and progressive organizations now routinely refuse to hold their meetings at Pritzker properties.

For Ms. Pritzker, her high-profile backing of Mr. Obama came at an unexpectedly bitter cost. Their relationship made her a punching bag for the labor movement, which targeted her for what union officials call exploitative practices toward housekeepers by the Hyatt hotels.

She had drawn business and Jewish leaders to support Mr. Obama, but when many of them turned hostile toward the president because of his policies, some directed their ire toward her, even though she had her own criticisms, too.

The anger amounted to a “triple assault” on Ms. Pritzker, said William M. Daley, who succeeded Mr. Emanuel as chief of staff. “She’s borne the brunt of a lot of the attacks,” he said.

“Often the big picture is not understood on where the president wants to go,” Ms. Pritzker said in a telephone interview. “That’s frustrating.”

For Mr. Obama, Ms. Pritzker’s wealth and business experience are huge assets but also potential liabilities. He considered nominating her for commerce secretary but did not, because her fortune risked making her radioactive. She does plan to join him on the campaign trail this month, but that could prove awkward, given that the president is pounding Mr. Romney for some of the same practices of which Ms. Pritzker or her family business is accused — housing significant wealth in offshore trusts and treating workers poorly.

What is an embarrassment for the President seems to be no problem for Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel.

At first glance, the party that Penny Pritzker hosted last month in Chicago could have passed for an Obama reunion. Her modernist home and sculpture garden had been the site of Obama fund-raising events over the years, and the guests that night included presidential allies like Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff turned Chicago mayor, and Warren E. Buffett. But the party was for a Goldman Sachs-sponsored small-business program, not the Obama campaign, and much of the political chatter focused on Mr. Emanuel.

Following his election, Rahm appointed Pritzker as one of the members to his unelected school board unconcerned with the fact that Pritzker sends her own children to the high-priced Lab School along with Rahm’s own children.

And the Pritzkers have made no secret of their large donations, not only to Rahm’s campaign for mayor, but to corporate school reform groups like Stand for Children.