It's Dean

CNN is reporting that Howard Dean is now the only candidate left in the race for DNC chair.

This Democrat couldn't be happier.

Go ahead, all you GOP types, who think this is the best thing that could happen to your party and that it's the final nail in the Democrats' coffin. You will live to eat crow, I have no doubt. And I can't wait.

You don't know him. The media got lots of attention doing stories on Howard Dean, the madman loose-cannon of the far-out lefties, YEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGH! But those of us who really followed his campaign and stumped for him at the grassroots level know that he's not a radical at all; his values are far more in line with mainstream America than Tom DeLay's or Rick "Man-on-Dog" Santorum's. He was politically assassinated by a caricature created by the media, happily fed by GOP operatives and abandoned by the gutless leaders at the DNC who feared him.

His campaign did not self-destruct. The cowardly Iowa voters bought into the hype about Dean and were scared by the conventional wisdom that he was "unelectable." Had the first primaries been held in places like New York, California, Washington, Texas, Oregon or even Massachusetts, he'd have sunk Kerry. And I firmly believe he'd have sunk Bush, because he'd have had the courage from day one to confront Bush on his lies.

He will not run the DNC into the ground; on the contrary, he will revitalize the party. Largely bereft of real leadership in Congress, we now have a prominent figure with national recognition to call Bush's bluffs. And call them he will. Dean will be a success because he doesn't need spin, he has facts. Oh Bush, your next four years are not going to be a lot of fun for you.

Dean is every bit as charming and likeable as you and then some. The media will make him their new pet, and you and your folks are going to have to start facing, if not answering, some uncomfortable questions. We'll all get to watch you hem and haw and spontaneously prevaricate. It will be quite a show.

You may have won the election, but your agenda is toast.