Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, boss of the House Democratic political operation, revealed the secret details of the peace pact he made with DNC chief Howard Dean after being pressed to answer a question while on his book tour.

Emanuel told about the quest for drop-off voters, the hot political market segment for the 2006 election, while at the Politics and Prose bookstore in upper northwest Washington on Sept. 20. He was there to promote the new policy tome he authored with Bruce Reed called “The Plan.”

The Illinois Democrat ended up giving away part of the DCCC game plan.

Emanuel and Dean called a public truce after Dean rebuffed Emanuel’s bid to get the DNC to bankroll TV wars in targeted House races. Dean wanted to spend money on the ground campaign, not television ad buys. Dean agreed to spend $12 million in get-out-the-vote campaigns, but until now, it was not known what that would entail.

After talking about their book, Emanuel and Reed took some questions. Emanuel boasted, “now the only question is how many seats the Democrats will pick-up.’’

A question came up from a woman in the audience about the disagreement he had with Dean. Emanuel brought out a line he has been using to try to deflect this line of inquiry. “My staff has recommended that I take my beta-blockers.’’

The persistent woman challenged Emanuel about the “need to get our feet on the ground.’’ He then proceeded to talk about what he called the “joint agreement’’ with Dean and how it relates to drop-off voters.

Drop off voters from 2004 are a sought-after micro-target for Democrats in 2006. They are the voters who turned out in the presidential year but may well stay home this November.

“And the entire focus of our effort — God-willing there are no reporters in here to make sure the NRCC hears about it — is to focus on those people who do vote presidential but don’t vote in non-presidential years,’’ Emanuel said.

“And our entire resources of mail, telephone, door knocking and person-to-person contact is to that universe, district by district, designed only for that district there, that district, that district there. That’s what we are doing.’’
  
HASTERT v. DURBIN

GOP House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert picked a fight with fellow Illinoisan, Sen. Dick Durbin, the number two Senate Democrat. Hastert is trying to muscle provisions on the Defense authorization bill that Armed Services Committee Chief Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) does not want. One item has to do with bolstering judicial security, a big deal in Chicago since the murder of a federal judge’s mother and husband at her home. Hastert’s team tried to embarrass Durbin by accusing him of not being for bolstered judicial safety. Durbin has been a leader on this. At issue is different House and Senate versions. Hastert’s problem is not with Durbin, said spokesman Joe Shoemakers. It’s with the right-wingers in the House GOP.

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