Emanuel, Dean End Hostilities

White House lunch signals détente for former party rivals

By Gabriel Winant, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 17, 2009 8:16 AM CDT

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Emanuel, Dean End Hostilities — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean gestures at the conclusion of a forum about Tuesday's presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The feud between Howard Dean and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel seems to be at an end. The Hill reports that the two Democratic pols even had lunch recently. “I think that (tension) was always somewhat exaggerated,” says Dean, whose failure to land an administration job has been chalked up to Emanuel’s influence.

The feud began as a fight over how Democrats should spend campaign money in 2006. Dean, then head of the DNC, wanted to seed weak local Democratic parties for the future. Emanuel, in charge of the effort to take Congress, wanted to hoard it for a big push for vulnerable seats. The argument escalated to the point of Emanuel storming out of Dean’s office swearing.
(More Howard Dean stories.)

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