It’s a red-tape-cutting position that seems better suited to R.T. than other possible Obama jobs floated recently for the mayor, who has striven to streamline city government through a 311 service, among other things, and whose support for Obama’s presidential run slightly predated the Big Bang.

Transcript excerpts and more after the jump.

Rybak appeared on MPR’s “Midmorning” program, along with Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and was soon gushing over the idea of a White House office of urban policy, which he said was partly his:

I worked with them on helping to develop this. … Here’s what they’re doing, and I think it’s incredibly smart — is to recognize that when you try to move something out of Washington and get a result, for those of us who are paying taxes, you need to figure out a way to take all the arms of the government and bring them together. … I have to do multiple stops within the federal bureaucracy. I’ve been at this for a number of years and I’m only now just beginning to get it. Wouldn’t it be great, and won’t it be great, to be able to pick up the phone and have that one person in the White House who can say to people who are trying to solve these issues at the local level. I’m going to pull all these elements together. … Different departments, this person’s the point person.

At the end of the mayors’ segment, host Kerri Miller tried to connect the dots between her guests and the urban policy czar job. Franklin was fairly convincing in denying interest in it, at least until after her current term expires in 13 months. Then Franklin hung up the phone, and attention turned back to Rybak.

MPR: So you were one of the earliest backers of Barack Obama among the cities’ mayors. Are you interested in the job?

RT: Right now I have a great new job. It’s called being a mayor in Barack Obama’s America. And I can’t even believe how excited I am to be able to talk about this work right now. I’m going to be focused on that for a while.

MPR: I don’t think that’s answering the question. Are you interested? I mean, if they called –

RT: I’ve gotta tell you that anybody who asks anything yes-or-no about the Obama administration right now, they’ve put a massive gag order on anybody, whether you’re up or not, is to just stay out of that kind of conversation. I don’t want to get involved in that because I’ve got my hands full.

MPR: So if they called, you’d take the call …

RT: These are things that we’ll deal with way down the line if they ever happen, but I’m working in Minneapolis …

MPR: Maybe you’d rather be governor instead?

RT: I’ve told people that I have to make a decision in this next year about whether to run for mayor or governor and I’ll sometime have to make that. But right now I’ve got the job I wanted all my life, with the president I worked incredibly hard for for three years, and you know, I’m throwing confetti all around — in between pension meetings.