Mr Lafontaine will feel sour even as he slaps his rival on the back.
Many saw him as the torch-bearer of the party's old ideology after Mr Lafontaine's exit.
Normally, Mr Lafontaine, when he is not settling old scores, is worth listening to.
But Mr Lafontaine's campaign job may have nothing to do with his role after the election.
With Mr Lafontaine gone, the tug-of-war at the centre of government should also be gone.
Failing that, he relied on Mr Lafontaine to keep the comrades from getting in his way.
The Social Democratic chairman, Oskar Lafontaine, has lost a lot of his old fire.
That is to reckon without Mr Lafontaine's gifts as string-puller and master of ceremonies.
Mr Lafontaine will be missed in the cabinet, too, at least as a scapegoat.
Since that game, LaFontaine has become a ghost in the Coliseum, his likeness appearing in ephemeral glimpses.
WSJ: NHL: New York Islanders Cut Pat LaFontaine Out of the Picture
Hans Eichel, a former premier of the state of Hesse, became Germany's finance minister after Oskar Lafontaine resigned.
He has begun to claw back a bit of power at Mr Lafontaine's expense with some shrewd counter-appointments.
The time is indeed ripe, as Mr Lafontaine and his fellows believe, for more government intervention in Europe.
Answer: probably Mr Lafontaine, if the tax programme the coalition has just agreed on is anything to go by.
But it is Mr Lafontaine himself who comes out worst from the book.
Does this mean Mr Lafontaine wants to scrap the independence of central bankers, perhaps even of the European central bank?
And in Oskar Lafontaine he has as party chairman an ally-cum-rival just as canny as Brandt was and arguably more power-hungry.
"Pat LaFontaine had a great NHL career and does a lot for the Long Island community, " Wang said in a statement.
WSJ: NHL: New York Islanders Cut Pat LaFontaine Out of the Picture
He also broke the Greens' pacifist tradition by taking Germany into the war in Kosovo (of which Mr Lafontaine passionately disapproved).
Mr Lafontaine has been the Social Democrats' chief opponent of business-friendly tax reform and its chief defender of lavish social spending.
Oskar Lafontaine, party chairman and leader of its traditional left, gets the most prominent and eyebrow-raising job, spokesman on budget and European issues.
The darling of the Social Democratic left, Mr Lafontaine claims that wage rises are needed to boost demand and create jobs.
But oddly there are parallels between the actions of Mr Brown and those of Oskar Lafontaine, Germany's more avowedly left-wing finance minister.
That is the real reason Mr Lafontaine flounced so huffily out of office, deserting friends, colleagues and supporters without explanation or apology.
One reason is that they have precious little choice, though this has only really come home to them since Mr Lafontaine's exit.
More than that, the two men with their hands on the economy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, France's finance minister, and Mr Lafontaine, think alike.
Mr Lafontaine has shown as much in the case of tax harmonisation.
But Mr Lafontaine's hopes of becoming chancellor still look dreamy, since he remains far less popular with ordinary voters than with party activists.
True, family allowances are to be raised and modest earners given tax relief in line with Mr Lafontaine's aim to boost domestic demand.
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