Howard Dean: Modern Machiavelli
After a week of guest-blogging, I know understand why Wonkette spends so much time clawing at Katherine Harris: We have to do 12 posts a day, and she's good for three to four. Before noon. Ignoring her would be like turning down manna on the road to the promised land.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' campaign has called for an apology from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
...
"Thank God for Bill Nelson, because we'd have another crook in the United States Senate if weren't for him," Dean said. "He's going to beat the pants off Katherine Harris, who didn't understand that it is ethically improper to be the chairman of the campaign and count the votes at the same time. This is not Russia. And she is not Stalin."
It's pretty clear that Dean is evoking that (possibly fictitious ) Stalin knee-slapper, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." Who cares! Someone's stepped into a controversyand it's not Katherine Harris!
That said... could Dean be outsmarting the GOP? (For once?)
On Wednesday a new poll showed Harris' lead in the Republican primary - once so solid that it scared Republican powerhouse Mark Foley out of theclosetrace - was dwindling. A moneyed, 33-year old Christian attorney named Will McBride had chased Harris down from a 48-6 lead to a 45-22 lead. There were murmurings of McBride pulling off what the almost-identically-named lawyer Bill McBride did in 2002, beating the much-more-famous Janet Reno in the Democrat's gubernatorial primary once Democrats realized Reno would get creamed by Gov. Jeb Bush. McBride surged and won the primary (and got creamed by Bush anyway).
By comparing Harris to Stalin, Dean just irritated every Fox News-watching or Drudge-reading Republican in Florida. If Harris rides this story and gets a little of the base's sympathy, she's temporarily stopped McBride's momentum. With only six weeks to go before the primary, that might be all she needs to get the nod and then get destroyed by Senator Bill Nelson.
In other news, Harris has hired a campaign manager who, she claims, has "ten years" of experience in politics. He got out of college in 2000 . Long live Senator McBride!
Harris asks DNC's Dean to apologize [Palm Beach Post]
Poll shows drop in Harris lead [Bradenton Herald]
-- David Weigel