The amazing battles between Rahm, Howard Dean. So glad Dean endorsed Rahm's opponent.

He may not admit it is payback, but I betcha deep down it is.

Not that fond of Chris Cillizza, but I did like his February article on this topic.

The long (and amazing) feud between Rahm Emanuel and Howard Dean

As it became clear on Tuesday night that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wasn't going to get the 50 percent he needed to avoid a runoff, a fiery statement landed in the Fix inbox.

It was from Democracy for America -- the liberal advocacy organization that grew out of Howard Dean's unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign. "Tonight, Chicago's progressives not only forced Rahm Emanuel to become the first mayor in Chicago history to face a primary run-off election, they also beat back his SuperPAC and its corporate funders' efforts to kneecap the Chicago City Council's progressive champions," said Jim Dean, brother of Howard and the head of DFA. "Rahm Emanuel and his corporate cronies have awoken a massive grassroots army across the city committed to ending his agenda of privatization, public school closings, and pension cuts."

..... Ridiculing the effort, Emanuel told Dean that he had seen no sign of it. "I know your field plan. It doesn't exist," he recalled saying. "I've gone around the country with these races. I've seen your people. There's no plan, Howard."

Democrats won everything that election and both Emanuel and Dean proclaimed victory. Many people assumed the feud was over. The two principals did everything they could to give that impression, meeting for lunch in April 2009 -- soon after Emanuel became chief of staff to newly-elected President Obama -- and insisting that any conflict had been squashed.

And from Lloyd Grove at The Daily Beast in 2011:

Once banned by top Obama staffers, the former DNC chairman has patched it up with the president

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean—who as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and then as an outside advocate for health-care reform, regularly annoyed President Obama’s lieutenants Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod—is apparently back in the good graces of the Obama White House.

....As White House chief of staff, Emanuel made sure to publicly humiliate Dean by banning him from the DNC announcement ceremony when Obama appointed Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as Dean’s replacement. Media guru Axelrod was equally scornful—and an April 2009 White House lunch did little to bury the hatchet.

Okay so posting about this is a little "divisive" as I am quite sure I will hear. But Rahm started it, and though I now often disagree with some of Dean's stances.....I am so glad to see that he endorsed Rahm's run-off opponent.

Rahm had no business cursing at Dean as he did.

Rahm in The Thumpin'...we have no base.

The relationship that epitomizes the rift between Emanuel and the party base is the congressman's tenuous partnership with Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean. As the book relates, Emanuel spent most of the campaign furious with Dean, whose Fifty State Strategy to build up party infrastructure nationwide he saw as little more than a way to throw money to the wind. In May 2006, Emanuel and Senator Charles Schumer, his counterpart in the Senate, met with Dean to ask for more money for their respective campaigns. Banging his hand on the table, Emanuel chided Dean's grassroots plan, "No disrespect, but some of us are arrogant enough, we come from Chicago, we think we know what it means to knock on a door. You're nowhere Howard. Your field plan is not a field plan. That's fucking bullshit." The two wouldn't speak again until election time.

Go Jesus “Chuy” Garcia...win that runoff.