And Sometimes an Honorable Man Appears:
Amid yesterday's Dean-bashing-palooza yesterday, Carlos Watson, a CNN political analyst, answered the Republican-flogged line that Dean was strangling the Democratic Party so he could whoop over its fallen corpse. Said Watson:

"[In]many ways Howard Dean is to Democrats what New York is to fashion. Meaning, he's often kind of six months ahead of where they ultimately end up.

"Now sometimes you go, that's fashion and rather not see walking down the street. But other time, you say, you know what, maybe leg warmers are a fashion statement, maybe that does make sense. So, whether it's on that issue or confederate flags. And later on John Edwards shows up saying, essentially something very similar, which is we need to go after the south. Howard Dean is often kind of the lead dog."

Then Watson made a truly startling "fuck you" of a statement. He was asked by Sunday anchor Carol Lin what a Karl Rove-type figure might say to the party leaders. Watson answered thusly:

"You would channel your political provacateur. You would send him into states where there are open Senate seats this upcoming year like Minnesota, like Maryland, like Tennessee. And where the actual candidate herself or himself may not be able to change the topic to healthcare or to national security. You let Howard Dean throw out the explosive statement either about an issue or about a candidate. And that way, you might actually start to get a foothold. You know, good cop/bad cop. Let Howard Dean be your bad cop more often than not...

"And you know what's so interesting that is that Republicans already do it. In fact, Republicans have a whole chorus, if you will, of political provacateurs. They're in the media, whether it's Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly or others, and the reality is with the exception of Michael Moore, who shows up with a movie every two or three years, Democrats don't really have that political provacateur to move the needle and ultimately reshape debate. So there's a role for Howard Dean if he's managed and used properly."

And there you go - a CNN analyst stating as fact that Limbaugh and Fox, et al, are major cogs in the Republican spin machine. They are, in fact, an extension of the Republicans, doing the dirty work for the conservative movement.

An honorable moment. One that was seen by about 25 people on a Sunday afternoon.

(Note: the Rude Pundit will write his electricity-outage fucked piece on Wednesday. Tomorrow - Hannity loves Dick.)