A big welcome home convoy and celebratory lunch are planned today as Chinatown power broker Rose Pak lands back home at SFO from an extended stay in China these last several months. Matier and Ross have it that Pak went abroad for a kidney transplant, while longtime pal Willie Brown referred only to "kidney treatments" in his mention of her return in his Sunday column. In any event, the lunch and "lion dance" will be happening this afternoon at the Far East Cafe on Grant Avenue.

As of last August we learned that Pak was suffering from kidney trouble, and she called SF Mag's Joe Eskanazi in for a hospital interview in which she cried (!) while referring to Mayor Ed Lee as "the biggest disappointment in my life," and said that he had "no balls." Pak claims Lee, whom she was instrumental in crowning mayor in the first place, has not paid enough attention to Chinatown, but mostly she was mad at him for tapping Julie Christensen for District 3 Supervisor over Pak's protege Cindy Wu. Pak went on to have her revenge in helping Aaron Peskin retake that seat on the Board in November, assuring that a progressive bloc of supervisors would now be able to counter the mayor in the coming year.

She had her final say on Lee's reelection in November when, just days after Lee's narrow victory, she spoke out again saying that City Hall was primarily controlled by a trio she called "the baldies," consisting of Lee's chief of staff Steve Kawa, angel investor Ron Conway, and senior advisor and former spokesman Tony Winnicker.

According to M&R, though — and we should probably take this with a grain of salt? — "the two have since patched things up, and the mayor even stopped by to visit her in April during a visit to Asia."

With Peskin back in power and Pak back in town, not to mention rumblings of a potential mayoral recall on the November ballot still to come, local politics watchers should all be pleased to see Ms. Pak back in the mix.

I wonder if she's for Bernie or Hillary.

Previously: Ed Lee Controlled By Shadow Mayor Steve Kawa, Claims Rose Pak