Dean Throat

Fred Barnes, on Special Report with Brit Hume, commented that last week's big news story was Deep Throat, and this week it's Dean Throat, and the apparent fondness of Howard for the taste of his own foot. I've commented many times (here, here and here) on Dean's latest "white Christian" gaffe, and today Hugh Hewitt has a column comparing the two party leaders, Dean and Ken Mehlman of the RNC.

The Dems have a big problem. Dean is sucking all the air out Dem politics and is forcing various elected Dems to go before the cameras and denounce his comments. Instead of the story being about Dem victories (have there been any?) or Dem plans for the country (again, are there any?), the focus of news stories regarding Democrats is about Dean and whatever his latest stupid statements have been.

The GOP doesn't have that problem. Ken Mehlman is a very talented political operative who knows how to stay out of the story and focus the attention where it ought to be. Mehlman is not a politician, so he doesn't have the politician's need to be in the spotlight. When his hame has appeared in the press lately, it's usually in response to the latest Dean gaffe. His line yesterday morning was classic:

"I think that the folks who attended my Bar Mitzvah would be surprised to know that we were a party of white Christians."

I'm sure as long as Dean is chairman the hits will keep on coming, and that's almost as good as guaranteed full employment for guys like me.