The Daily Howler on Dean's Gaffe

The The Daily Howler gives us this new take on Dean's gaffe. I have counted myself among those who support Dean's use of sharp elbows. But this makes me wonder about his judgement in this case:

"MILLER V. DEAN: Superlative spunk from Stephanie Miller, right at the start of this Howard Kurtz profile:

KURTZ (6/13/05): Stephanie Miller is watching Fox News, as she does every night, looking for laughs.

'It's like Comedy Central for liberals,' says the Los Angeles radio host. 'They don't know they're funny—they just are. It's a right-wing freak show.'

Huzzah! It’s something liberals have to tell conservative voters—you’re being played for absolute fools, by a gang of liars, con-men and “freaks.” Yes, we’re in favor of tough, tough talk (see below)—as long as that talk isn’t stupid.

Which brings us around to Howard Dean, who has recently been an undisciplined nightmare. Note that Miller unloaded her insults on a small group of Fox hosts—not on Republican voters in general. We’ve been amazed at Dean’s clumsy statements—and at the vast array of Dems and libs who think that he’s been just superb.

When did Dems become so easy, that they can’t demand leaders who are tough and not-stupid? And are we wrong, or are bloggers starting to pander to the fire-breathing Dem herd? We cringed at this fawning from Kevin Drum, who surely understood his slick edit:

DRUM (6/11/05): What was it that Howard Dean said about Republican leaders? Oh yes: 'A lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.'

But Dean didn’t say that “about Republican leaders.” He simply said it about “Republicans”—in fact, by clear inference, about Republican voters. Here’s what the firebrand actually said—and yes, it was totally stupid:

DEAN: The idea that you have to wait on line eight hours to cast your ballot in Florida, there's something the matter with that. Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, 'cause there's a lot of them that have never made an honest living in their lives.

That’s an amazingly dumb thing to say, especially given the strength of the underlying issue. But for some reason, many Dems seem to think they can’t insist on tough and not-stup"