Relations between Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), boss of the party’s House political operation, continue to be tense. However, Dean has offered up a plan to channel money from the national party to help high-priority Democratic House races. Emanuel, no surprise, is trying to get more.

Talks are under way. They are trying to settle on a figure.

“We are just in a perpetual state of working out the details,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesman Bill Burton told me. I asked about a timeline for decisions, given the “perpetual” comment, and Burton said, “I like the inherent irony of that question.”

This squabble has been playing out in the press since May. Emanuel wants to get his hands on Dean-controlled money for his targeted districts. Dean did not want to sign a blank check on an Emanuel-conceived television-ad air war.

Shifting the approach to an appeal that might sit better with the ground-operation-oriented Dean, Emanuel sent Dean a letter last month asking for $100,000 for field operations in each targeted district.

The camp of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is keeping tabs on the talks and sees the situation through Emanuel’s lens.

As for the Dean-Emanuel negotiations, “We have pretty much come to agreement on districts, and we’re actively moving forward putting our field plan together,” Burton said.

There is a plan to spend $11 million to turn out votes for Dem House and Senate races in November.

Dean is looking at a bigger picture than just the House: governor contests and statehouse elections, which may be a long-run big bang for the buck, given the Supreme Court’s decision on Texas’s middecade redistricting.

Emanuel has a very short-term worry, and that is the almost certain possibility the Republican National Committee will dump tons of money at the last minute into the November congressional contests.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who runs the Senate Democrats’ political shop, has worked out a strategic plan with Dean. Dean is also at peace with the Democratic Governors’ Association and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Reynolds wrap. Emanuel’s House GOP counterpart, Rep. Tom Reynolds (N.Y.), who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, was the newsmaker at Tuesday’s Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

Reynolds said his top five fundraisers are President Bush; Vice President Cheney; House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who will do some 200 districts this cycle; first lady Laura Bush; and Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), vaulting to a higher level of fundraising since he took over the job of majority leader from former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas.).

The Speaker is “my bread-and-butter guy,” Reynolds said. Boehner touched down in Chicago for fundraising over the July 4 break.

Reynolds said, “I look at myself as a dispatcher, mostly getting those guys all out around the country.”

I asked the DCCC’s Burton about their top helpers, and he was prompt, not perpetual, in getting back to me. The DCCC’s best draws are Emanuel, Pelosi, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), former President Clinton, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it