Rahm wants to be mayor after all.

So says a piece on Obama's chief of staff in the New York Times Magazine pubbed last Thursday citing information which apparently comes from William Daley, Mayor Richard Daley's brother and Emanuel's close friend.

Does he want to run for mayor of Chicago someday? Of course. With House speaker now off the table, Emanuel would like to lead his hometown and openly communicates that to people, including his friend Richard Daley, the incumbent mayor.

Openly communicates? Really? Emanuel spent January of this year denying it, perhaps most notably as the first guest of the new MSNBC morning program The Rundown.

Back to the Times:

But Emanuel would not run against the mayor, and William Daley told me that he thinks his brother will probably run again next year when his latest term expires.

So if Mayor Daley runs again, Rahm's looking at a 2015 race for mayor -- unless, morbid as it sounds, Daley follows his father's path and passes while in office.

As for what William Daley has to say about all this: After the magazine piece came out online last Thursday, Daley told NBC5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern that if Rahm wants to be mayor, he needs to "get in line" -- which perhaps implies that Times reporter Peter Baker was supplying his own conjecture about Rahm, or that Rahm said so himself. Whichever it is, Baker doesn't make clear.

For the meantime, Rahm's got his own inside-the-beltway issues to deal with -- including the near-constant prattling about his relationship with David Axelrod.

But really. How can you fight with such an adorable lip hamster? You just can't.