A Good Republican Is a Nervous Elephant

Despite the smokescreen Karl Rove has engineered -- that he really PREFERS Howard Dean as George Bush's opponent in '04 -- there's plenty of evidence that thinking Republicans are more than a little spooked by the prospect. For example, this morning in the New York Times comes this conclusion reached by reporter Rick Lyman:

"...George Walker Bush and Howard Brush Dean III are from opposite sides of the nation's political fault line. Yet besides energizing the left wing of his party, Dr. Dean has some Republicans worried that the characteristics he shares with President Bush could appeal to swing voters, especially when Dr. Dean's current image as a Vermont liberal is leavened with details of the fiscally conservative way he governed Vermont for 11 years...."

Those "characteristics he shares with President Bush" ... you can read about on your own. (Click here for the full article)

But the Republicans are so disciplined as a group, that once the "company line" has been set, no one will deviate from it. Just moments ago we heard Republican shill David Brooks on CBS's Face the Nation saying that Dean was by far "the weakest" of the Democrats running for the nomination.

"Weakest"? He of the bull neck? He of the get-in-my-face-and-I'll-take-your-friggin-head-off attitude?

But don't we love this whistling in the graveyard we're beginning to hear from the Rs?