Tensions aren’t just running high between House Democrats and the Republicans who are staging acts of procedural rebellion. There’s also friction between two of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trusted lieutenants.

Maxine Waters sent an unusual “Dear colleague” letter saying she’s had her fill of Democrats voting with Republicans on motions to recommit.

Her letter singled out caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel — a rare break in collegiality among the inner circle. Waters, D-Calif., is a point person for the leadership with the party’s liberal wing.

She accused Emanuel, D-Ill., of encouraging some Democrats in April to vote for a Republican motion to recommit a foreign debt relief measure (HR 2634), which Waters sponsored.

“I watched Democratic leaders organize ‘yea’ votes on this motion,” she wrote. “The Chair of the Democratic Caucus was one of the members of the Caucus who organized the ‘yea’ votes.”

Emanuel said he has not told Democrats to support GOP motions. “I don’t tell them anything,” he said.

As for his own vote to recommit A-Waters’ bill, Emanuel said, “I’ve said I voted wrong. I’ve acknowledged I made a mistake on my vote.”

But the letter put in writing what some Democrats say privately — that there are times they get wink-and-nod permission to side with the opposition for the benefit of their own re-election prospects. On the debt-relief measure, the motion to recommit instructed the committee to rewrite the bill to bar debt relief for countries whose governments have business interests with Iran.

GOP victories on roughly one-fourth of all motions to recommit have raised some eyebrows about the vote-counting operation of Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., a staunch Waters ally.

Waters wrote that she foresees the party being “torn apart by frequent support for Republican motions to recommit.”

“Where will this end?” she asked.