Ladies and gentlemen, Howard "boom-boom" Dean

During the '04 campaign, the candidate I probably agreed with most was Howard Dean, but I never quite warmed to him personally. I had trouble getting on board with him on that basis. He may or may not make an attractive candidate again (though I'd be inclined to take another look in '08), but as Democratic Party Chairman he has been absolutely kicking ass.

All the things the damn innocuous "sensible" Democrats hate about him are exactly the things that I love about him. Go read this excerpted transcript from his appearance with Wolf Blitzer. I'll quote some brief passages just to whet your appetite but seriously, go, read.

These people are not qualified. They haven't served themselves; they don't know what it takes. They ought to protect our troops. Our troops are doing a hell of a job and they deserve better leadership in Washington than what they're getting.

This president has lacked credibility almost from the day he took office because of the way he took office.

He's not reached out to other people. He's shown he's willing to abuse his power. He's not consulted others. And he's not interested in consulting any others.

And I think, frankly, that Joe [Lieberman] is absolutely wrong, that it is incumbent on every American who is patriotic and cares about their country to stand up for what's right and not go along with the president, who is leading us in a wrong direction.

Now that, my friends, is a fighting Democrat. Sometimes it seems most of them have forgotten what one looks like.