With November elections closing in, feuding Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Democratic House campaign chief Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) are moving on —  with Dean assured that the money he will be sending to House races will not be poured into television advertising. What’s not clear yet is if the two will be standing together in a public display of unity before the midterms.

My guess is Dean, Emanuel and all Dem leaders will at least on the surface patch things up, if for no other reason to deny Republicans opportunities to say the Dems are fractured.

I wrote in my July 13 column for The Hill that Dean was committed to be a player in the midterms  (contrary to some miscast reports) — but Dean was at odds with Emanuel because he wanted to bolster Democratic ground operations — and was concerned about writing a check to Emanuel for broadcast buys. Dean in July was committed to spending $11 million in get-out-the vote drives for November—and boosted that to $12 million recently because fundraising went better than expected.

After an intervention two months ago from Dean ally Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the Democratic House Caucus the pragmatic Emanuel, I am told, changed course and pulled back on his demand for broadcast bucks. The key was getting the frustrated Emanuel to agree to some of Deans’ ground game demands.

Dean turned on the spending spigot for 40 House races at $60,000 each once he was convinced the money would be spent on a ground — not air — war and grassroots campaigning.

Still, it has taken months — until this week — to negotiate how money from the DNC would be divided between key House races. Emanuel’s opening bid was $100,000 for each big race.

Emanuel and Dean never had a face-to-face meeting; I’m told their schedules would “not permit’’ a get-together, but the principals probably did better by leaving the deal to be made on the staff-to-staff level.          

Dean still needs to wrap up negotiations with the Senate Dems campaign chief Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

On Saturday, Emanuel debuts as a keynote speaker at a state party event for this campaign cycle. The new author (of The Plan with Bruce Reed) headlines the  Ohio Democratic State Convention in Parma, Ohio, and will be the draw for Ohio Dem donors.  Ohio is a key battleground in November races.

Parsing Boehner: Just what kind of message does it send when Republican House leaders can’t get around to ratifying a symbolic resolution remembering the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks … until Sept. 13?

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) at his Tuesday pen and pad said GOP leaders did not want to vote on the resolution on Tuesday because members were absent for the New York primary. Looks a little lame that the GOP leaders could not get it done before.

Boehner provoked an uproar Tuesday when he wondered out loud at that same session if Democrats “are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.’’

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