So, moderate liberals are, reasonably, freaking the heck out over Howard Dean's recent descriptions of Republicans as all being white Christians. But then Tim Russo has a flash of the blindingly obvious.

As expected, Howard Dean continues digging his own political grave ever deeper, taking the DNC with him. Oddly, the lefty blogosphere is revelling in it as if he is some kind of heroic revealer. ... Perhaps Dean should stick around after all. Dean's troubles are allowing our presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, to look utterly reasonable, while sucking up all the attention and attack that Republicans would surely otherwise aim at her. At some point, perhaps Hillary will really cash in by calling on him to resign. Surely the political wind will eventually force her hand on this point. Until then, I'm sure she's happy to watch him twist in the breeze.

There is a tremendous upside to having a built-in, go-to Sister Souluja (sp?) moment right there for you. Joe Biden is merely the first to take advantage, either because Hillary doesn't realize it yet, or—hopefully—because she's just got better timing than that. So he can energize the base and be the party's official pinyata and scapegoat. Why not?

Now, granted, Dean is officially the leader of the Democratic party, and doesn't that put him to a slightly higher standard than someone like Al Franken, who can do the same thing from his comfortable pirch in the broadcast booth? Well, yes, except nobody gives a shit. The people who pay that close attention to the caption below the talking heads on whatever cable show Dean's making an ass of himself on this week recognize that the chairman's a fund-raiser, not a policy-maker. And the average voter can be pursuaded by smart, concise, and intelligent speeches and ads by the candidate herself without ever listening too much to the angry rhetoric that spews from Dean, DeLay, and the rest. At least we have the sense to make our partisans chairmen instead of congressmen.

Howard Dean: It's Okay—He Isn't Actually Running for Anything

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